News broke Tuesday evening that the Chicago Bulls had agreed to terms with Billy Donovan to become the next head coach. What can we expect from him?
Finally, the Chicago Bulls have their man. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news on Tuesday that the Bulls came to an agreement for former Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Billy Donovan to take the same role with Chicago. Per Woj, a major selling-point for basketball czar Arturas Karnisovas to Donovan was leading one of the NBA’s anchor franchises.
Historically, the Bulls certainly are one of the premier organizations. But they haven’t exactly lived up to that standard of late.
They’re four years removed from a playoff appearance, six years from making it out of the first round, and five years since they last posted a winning record. They’ve had one coach, Tom Thibodeau, last for five years, or as long as Donovan was coaching the Thunder.
Of the top candidates linked to the Bulls (Kenny Atkinson, Ime Udoka, and Wes Unseld Jr were the others) Donovan certainly has the most proven track record. That includes a .604 winning percentage, five straight playoff appearances, and an appearance in the Western Conference Finals back in 2016. The winning percentage alone would rank him behind only Thibs in the Bulls coaching history since the glory days with Phil Jackson.
Now, no one is expecting him to be Jackson. But meeting and exceeding the standard set by Thibs is a good benchmark. This team doesn’t have a Derrick Rose, but can they be a greater sum than those teams with proper coaching? That is the real question, though this group might be more well-rounded.
There’s also the elephant in the room. Upon the announcement Donovan would not look to re-sign with the Thunder, there might have been (definitely was) an article with a strongly worded title speaking against this very move.
Listen, a lot can change in a week.
Namely, Donovan is their guy and that’s all that matters. With that, attention turns, not only to how will he round out his staff, but also what can fans expect to see from the Bulls in 2021?
After five years, we have a well-documented history of patterns and trends to go off of. Since we already laid out several of the negatives of a potential Donovan hiring, let’s look at three key things that would be positive developments for the Bulls.