Chicago Bulls: Should Mike D’Antoni be a coaching candidate?

The Chicago Bulls may have yet another head coaching candidate they could zero in on with former Rockets HC Mike D’Antoni.

The biggest coaching news of the weekend, and possibly of the tumultuous NBA offseason thus far on the coaching carousel, involved the Houston Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni potentially not returning to Space City next season. D’Antoni was anticipated to be one of the bigger names on the coaching market this offseason in the likelihood that he wasn’t in the same position with the Rockets heading into the 2020-21 season. Could he be a name that a team like the Chicago Bulls, Philadelphia 76ers, Indiana Pacers, etc. considers to be their next head coach?

The Rockets were just ousted, as the four-seed, in the second round of the playoffs in a five-game series by the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers. That came after the Rockets worked past the ultra-stingy five-seed Oklahoma City Thunder in a thrilling seven-game series in the first round of the playoffs in the Western Conference.

This was the second year in a row in which the Rockets were ousted in the second round of the playoffs. Three years ago, they did make it all the way to the Western Conference Finals, but were ousted by the Golden State Warriors.

And the news that the Rockets won’t have D’Antoni as their head coach in all likelihood next season came by way of the Twitter timeline of ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski on the afternoon of Sep. 13. It was met by a raucous reaction on social media, but it’s hard to say that this move wasn’t expected at this point of the playoffs with the Rockets losing to the Lakers in a five-game series.

Now the chatter will begin as to where D’Antoni could fall next if he continues to want to be an NBA head coach. The current openings around the NBA for head coach includes that of the Sixers, Bulls, Pacers, New Orleans Pelicans, Thunder, and now the Rockets.

D’Antoni has already coached with the Rockets, New York Knicks, Lakers, Phoenix Suns, and Denver Nuggets. He started out his run as a head coach in the NBA with the Nuggets, back during the 1998-99 season. He’s coached the most games with the Rockets and Suns. D’Antoni also got four seasons in with the Knicks and two with the Lakers.

The career record of D’Antoni in the regular season as an NBA head coach sits at 672-527 (.560 winning percentage). His career head coaching record in the playoffs sits at 54-56 (.491 winning percentage).

Moreover, D’Antoni holds 10 Western Conference Coach of the Month honors in his coaching career, and two NBA Coach of the Year awards (2004-05, and 2016-17). Yet, winning Coach of the Year doesn’t tend to carry much longevity around the NBA anymore.

The question at this point pertaining to the Bulls and their head coaching search in relation to D’Antoni parting ways with the Rockets is how good and realistic of a candidate he would be for them?

Recently hired executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas (former Nuggets general manager) and general manager Marc Eversley (formerly Sixers senior VP of player personnel) would be after a true home run hire if they landed him. Karnisovas and Eversley are looking to replace now former head coach Jim Boylen, who was let go back on Aug. 14.

Now nearly a full month into the coaching search since the Bulls officially parted ways with Boylen, now concrete favorite has emerged in this process. The Bulls could be considering other candidates like former Thunder head coach Billy Donovan, Sixers lead assistant Ime Udoka, and former Brooklyn Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson, among others.

But hiring a head coach like that of D’Antoni or Donovan would be a safe and proven move for the Bulls. And it would be one that doesn’t feel like a move that the Reinsdorfs would usually have within their own organization.

D’Antoni led the Rockets to post a record of 44-28 during the 2019-20 regular season. Meanwhile, Boylen led the Bulls to a record of 22-43 in their shortened version of the 2019-20 season. Boylen held a career coaching record over the course of two years with the Bulls of 39-84.