Bulls’ 3 best candidates to replace Billy Donovan if he exits after front-office overhaul

The Chicago Bulls have been a disaster for more than a decade. While some may scoff at that description and say that the team has been flailing since Michael Jordan led the franchise to its sixth title in the 1998 NBA playoffs, they had several respectable seasons after the game’s greatest player left the team.

But the Bulls have been awful for more than a decade with just two legitimate playoff appearances in 2017 and 2022. The Bulls lost in the first round on both of those occasions. Billy Donovan has been the head coach since he was hired in 2021-22. He has only been able to work with the players that management gave him, and Bulls owner Michael Reinsdorf fired executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley for the team’s lack of progress since 2020-21.

While the Bulls will have to find a new executive team to procure talent, Reinsdorf has said that Donovan would remain as head coach if he wants to stay in the position. He gave an impassioned defense of Donovan and said he had done an excellent job.

However, Donovan will meet with management shortly after the season ends Sunday to talk about the future. Donovan could decide that six years with the Bulls is enough and that it’s time to move on. He could also let Reinsdorf know that he is interested in moving up the ladder and wants to oversee personnel.

This is what happened when Brad Stevens moved up from head coach of the Boston Celtics to his position as president of basketball operations. He left the sidelines to move up to his current spot in 2021. He had been the sideline boss of the Celtics for eight seasons from 2013-14 through 2020-21.

Bulls could return to the past

If Donovan wants to make either of those moves, the Bulls will need a new head coach. There are a number of candidates who could fill the role, and here’s our look at the three best for the position.

The top coaching candidate for the Bulls if Donovan decides to move up or move on is Tom Thibodeau. While some Bulls fans will say that the team is stuck in its own version of Groundhog Day if it goes back to the past and brings in Thibodeau, he would bring the Bulls as much know-how about the subject of defense as any coach on the planet.

That is no small thing. Thibodeau coached the Bulls from 2010-11 through the 2014-15 season. While there is no doubt that he often comes across as a quirky and basketball-obsessed individual, he does relate well to his players because it is clear that his knowledge of the game’s execution — particularly on the defensive end of the court — is better than nearly anyone who has ever worked an NBA sideline.

He led the Bulls to the playoffs in all five of his seasons with the team and they made the Eastern Conference Finals in his first year. The Bulls had a brilliant 62-20 record and defeated the Indiana Pacers and Atlanta Hawks in the playoffs before losing to the Miami Heat in a five-game series. The Bulls had Derrick Rose at the peak of his career and he won the MVP that season.

Thibodeau had success with Knicks

After leaving the Bulls, Thibodeau served as head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves for three seasons and the New York Knicks for five seasons. He was fired by the Knicks at the conclusion of last season. He led the Knicks to the Eastern Conference Finals a year ago as they defeated the Detroit Pistons and the Celtics in the playoffs before they suffered a six-game loss to the Pacers.

An argument can be made that Thibodeau has never reached the NBA Finals as a head coach. However, he has won the NBA Coach of the Year Award twice and a partnership between Donovan in the front office and Thibodeau on the sidelines would have an excellent chance to be successful.

Sam Cassell is ready for a head coaching position 

Cassell has followed his 15-year NBA playing career with 15 years as an NBA assistant coach. He has spent his time on the sidelines with the Wizards, Clippers, 76ers and Celtics.

Cassell is clearly one of the best assistant coaches in the league, and players relate to him extremely well. He is the go-to assistant on Joe Mazzulla’s staff with the Celtics, and he knows how to get the message across to the players in a clear and understandable way once Mazzulla makes his decisions.

Cassell is ready for a head coaching position and would work smoothly with Donovan if the current Bulls coach moves into the front office or leaves the organization.

Taylor Jenkins has a proven track record

Jenkins had success in six seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies as he led that team to three consecutive playoff appearances and a 250-214 overall record along with a 9-14 mark in the postseason.

His success with the Grizzlies came when they were a team that was in development and out of the playoffs. Jenkins transformed the Grizzlies into a top-three seed in the Western Conference. That indicates he can get the job done with a team that has to get better and do it quickly.

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