A really good hire for the Chicago Bulls arrived on Sep. 22, with former OKC Thunder and Florida Gators head coach Billy Donovan.
The Chicago Bulls made the biggest move of the month thus far on the coaching carousel, maybe outside of the Brooklyn Nets, with the hiring of former Oklahoma City Thunder and Florida Gators head basketball coach Billy Donovan to replace Jim Boylen. This has to be great news for Bulls fans, players, etc. as the rebuild might now be headed in a more promising direction heading into year four.
The Bulls rounded out the 2019-20 shortened season in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic with a record of 22-43, good for 11th place in the final Eastern Conference standings. That poor record from the season that was for the Bulls was a big driving factor to the impatience that led to the Boylen firing, back on Aug. 14.
But the Donovan hiring was anything but what we anticipated at the outset of the offseason. At one point it looked as if the Reinsdorfs were still going to keep John Paxson and Gar Forman as the lead voices in the front office. They did wind up replacing GarPax with former Denver Nuggets general manager Arturas Karnisovas and ex-Philadelphia 76ers senior vice president of player personnel Marc Eversley.
Karnisovas will be the executive VP of basketball operations and Eversley the next general manager.
After they were hired, Karnisovas and Eversley turned their attention to what to do to head up the coaching staff heading into the 2020-21 season. They started by parting ways with Boylen, and then conducting one of the more high-profile coaching searches around the NBA.
That coaching search landed the Bulls the proven winner that is Donovan. What Donovan brings to the table for the Bulls is a multi-time National Champion and made the playoffs each year at the helm in OKC.
But maybe the biggest star that the Bulls have on the current roster, shooting guard Zach LaVine, seemed to be ecstatic about the hiring of Donovan to be his next head coach. LaVine was reportedly playing/streaming Call of Duty when he found out about the hiring of Donovan.
Could the 2020-21 campaign be the first year where LaVine gets that elusive All-Star nod?
He came so very close to getting that nod last season, when All-Star Weekend was hosted at the United Center in Chicago. But he wound up getting snubbed, despite finishing up the season by averaging 25.5 points per game, 4.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.5 blocks. He also shot 45.0 percent from the field, 38.0 percent from beyond the arc, and 80.2 percent from the free-throw line.
Donovan brings a career NBA head coaching record in the regular season of 243-157 (.609 winning percentage) and playoff record of 18-23 (.439 winning percentage) from his five years with the Thunder. He also registered a 502-206 (.709 winning percentage) career record as a college head coach with the Florida and Marshall Thundering Herd basketball programs.