The New York Knicks are 2025-26 NBA champions, and former Bulls director of player development Peter Patton and former Billy Donovan - Bulls assistant coach Maurice Cheeks are basking in the glow of winning after trudging through the mediocrity they experienced working in former Bulls lead front office executive Arturas Karnisovas’ basketball operations organization.
For Patton in particular, his exit from the Bulls was surrounded by reports of contention between himself and his former Bulls boss Karnisovas. Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, reporting on Patton’s dismissal, was illuminating towards the end of the Bulls' 2024-25 NBA season.
In retrospect, the circumstances behind Patton’s exit may have represented the beginning of Karnisovas’ Bulls downfall that concluded with his own firing at the end of the Bulls' 2025-26 NBA season.
Can confirm Chris Fleming will not return to Billy Donovan’s staff, as @ShamsCharania 1st reported
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) April 23, 2024
I asked Artūras Karnišovas directly about this Saturday because I was under impression changes were coming
Also, Maurice Cheeks will remain with Bulls but not full-time bench role
Maurice Cheeks' departure from Billy Donovan’s Bulls coaching staff was a bit more surprising, if not mysterious. At the conclusion of the 2023-24 NBA season, K.C. Johnson initially reported that Cheeks would transition from Donovan’s Bulls bench to a Bulls front office role.
The New York Knicks are planning to hire Maurice Cheeks as an assistant on Tom Thibodeau’s coaching staff, sources tell ESPN. Cheeks — a Hall of Fame guard — has been a three-time head coach in the NBA and most recently on Billy Donovan’s staffs in Chicago and Oklahoma City. pic.twitter.com/G2SopDTJLZ
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 13, 2024
Within the span of two months, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski would report that Cheeks exited the Bulls organization altogether to join former Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau’s New York Knicks coaching staff.
Greener grass in the concrete jungle
For Cheeks, his Naismith Basketball Hall-of-Fame career is worthy of returning to the top of the NBA mountain with the newly-crowned world champion New York Knicks.
Cheeks won his first NBA championship as a player on the 1982-83 Philadelphia 76ers and held a strong player reputation as a tenacious defender. It’s easy to imagine Cheeks being a strong influence on the defensive identity of the regular-season 7th-ranked 2025-26 New York Knicks defense, per Basketball Reference.
Peter Patton should feel vindicated for his body of work with the Chicago Bulls in the improved three-point shooting of Bulls guard Josh Giddey, helping Giddey transform from a sub-standard three-point shooter with the Oklahoma City Thunder to a slightly above average three-point shooter, shooting 37.8% from three-point range in his first Bulls season, the 2024-25 NBA season.
Adding an NBA title to his resume should only bolster Patton’s standing as one of the elite shooting coaches in the entire NBA.
As the Bulls reach the twilight of their head coaching search, the Knicks' success with former Bulls coaches should serve as a reminder of how important front office and coach relationships are to winning at the highest level in the NBA.
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