Chicago Bulls: Wes Unseld Jr. making ‘stronger’ case for HC
The lead assistant coach for the Denver Nuggets, Wes Unseld Jr., appears to be making a better and better case to land the Chicago Bulls job.
The Chicago Bulls are still firmly in the midst of their head coaching search as the NBA officially moves fully into the conference finals portion of the playoff bracket. The Bulls parted ways with now former head coach Jim Boylen back on Aug. 14, after he guided the team to a record of 22-43 to round out the 2019-20 regular season prior to the pause (good for 11th in the final Eastern Conference standings).
Boylen registered a total record as the Bulls head coach over the course of two years of 39-84. He didn’t get them close to making the playoffs in either of his two seasons at the helm as the head coach.
With the Bulls firmly in the midst of a coaching search now, under the wing of the new look front office regime, candidates have started to emerge left and right. One of the candidates that is still competing/coaching in the playoffs at the moment is the Denver Nuggets lead assistant coach Wes Unseld Jr.
Denver assistant Wes Unseld Jr., — architect of Nuggets defense in incredible comeback vs. LAC — made an even stronger case for Bulls’ job. Chicago’s EVP Arturas Karnisovas already thought highly of him, working with Unseld in Denver. Malone: “Wes Unseld should be a head coach.”
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 16, 2020
And Unseld Jr. is really seeing his stock boom along with the Nuggets in the last 12 hours. The Nuggets were able to upset the two-seed Los Angeles Clippers in the second round of the playoffs, in a thrilling seven-game series. The two-seed Nuggets had to form yet another big comeback to knock off one of the title favorites in the Clippers.
At one point in the series against the Clippers, the Nuggets were down 3-1. They pulled off three straight wins, including the series deciding triumph on the night of Sep. 15. Last night’s Game 7 ended in the Nuggets favor by the commanding final score of 104-89.
A lot of the credit for the coaching job in that series for the Nuggets is going to the lead assistant Unseld Jr. As he was already a target for the Bulls head coaching job at this point of the offseason, there could be even more traction with his candidacy after guiding the Nuggets to the Western Conference Finals.
According to a Tweet from ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski on Sep. 16, Nuggets head coach Michael Malone thinks that Unseld Jr. deserves to be an NBA head coach. And Woj mentioned in that post that Unseld Jr. “made an even stronger case for Bulls’ job” in the series win over the Clippers. He also noted that “Arturas Karnisovas already thought highly of him”, as they worked together in the Mile High City prior to him taking the Bulls front office lead job.
Unseld Jr. and the Nuggets are set to take on the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, with Game 1 tipping off on Sep. 18 at 8 p.m. CT.
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The Lakers just got past the four-seed Houston Rockets in a quick five-game series in their second round matchup in the playoffs. They also handled the eight-seed Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the playoffs in another five-game series win. Meanwhile, the Nuggets have now knocked off the six-seed Utah Jazz and two-seed Clippers in two seven-game series in their playoff run up to the point of the West Finals.