The Chicago Bulls' search to replace former head Coach Billy Donovan reads like a basketball coach group chat.
Credit goes to the newly minted Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations, Bryson Graham, for assembling a head coach candidate slate that is filled with top-tier NBA assistant coaches, such as Chris Quinn of the Miami Heat and Jonnie Bryant of the Cleveland Cavaliers, to name a few candidates.
The depth of fresh names in line to compete for the Bulls' head coach job makes Wes Unseld Jr.’s inclusion as a candidate and, according to The Stein Line's Jake Fischer (subscription required), an expected finalist for the Bulls' vacant head coach seat, a concerning risk to a clean rebuild.
Officially official
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) May 19, 2026
Coach search will be heating up next. On our By The Horns podcast, we’ve been consistent to watch for some of these names: Wes Unseld Jr., James Borrego, Sean Sweeney and Micah Nori. pic.twitter.com/vknDBeq79n
Unseld Jr.’s arrival in the Bulls organization was paved by a longstanding relationship with former Bulls executive vice president Arturas Karnisovas. Unseld Jr.’s addition to Billy Donovan’s Bulls coaching staff was announced during the 2024 NBA offseason.
Karnsovas and Unseld Jr.’s working relationship dates back to 2015, when they both worked in the Denver Nuggets organization. The degrees of separation between Wes Unseld Jr. and both the immediately former Bulls front office and head coach are simply too close, especially when the former regime’s most salient basketball accomplishment was one playoff game victory in six NBA seasons.
The basketball reasons to avoid hiring Unseld Jr. as Bulls head coach
It is possible that Wes Unseld Jr. is living on a professional reputation that is wholly in the past. Unseld Jr. was recognized as the Nuggets' principal defensive mind on former head coach Mike Malone’s coaching staff during their transformation into a top-tier NBA Western Conference power in the late 2010s and early 2020s.
Unseld Jr. was hired as the head coach of the Washington Wizards in 2021 and served in that role for three seasons, with an abysmal 77-130 win-loss record. At no point in Unseld Jr.’s tenure as Wizards head coach did the team’s defense earn a regular-season defensive efficiency ranking higher than 21 of 30 NBA teams, per Basketball Reference.
Since joining the Bulls coaching staff during the 2204 NBA offseason, the Bulls’ regular-season defensive efficiency ranking has regressed from 18th during the 2024-25 NBA season to 22nd during the 2025-26 NBA season.
Wes Unseld Jr.’s head coaching record, coupled with an inability to carry his Nuggets’ defensive results to the Wizards or Bulls, combined with being a de facto continuity candidate for the Bulls' head coach role make him an undesirable hire for the Bulls' top coach seat and would instantly put the Bulls’ rebuild at risk of not starting on the right foot.
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