The Chicago Bulls must do this on their own.
For six years, coach Billy Donovan was the team’s central source of clarity. While the front office run by Artūras Karnišovas struggled with communication and decisiveness, Donovan shouldered the main responsibility of setting the culture.
It made sense — in a sort of lopsided logic — that ownership hoped this same conviction would carry the Bulls forward into their next era of executive leadership. And it made even more sense that this same discernment led Donovan to walk away, a decision the team announced Tuesday.
This partnership wasn’t working. Donovan was consistent in Chicago, but that didn’t translate into success. The Bulls lost 30 more games than they won during Donovan’s tenure. Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu and Matas Buzelis provided success stories in player development, but the last six years didn’t produce the type of talented young core that could actually lift the team to competitiveness in the Eastern Conference.
Donovan seemed to understand the realities of the upcoming transition. When CEO and President Michael Reinsdorf proclaimed after firing Karnišovas that any executive who didn’t want to inherit the incumbent coaching staff would be a bad fit for the Bulls, Donovan brushed it off as flattery. Ultimately, he made a decision that ownership couldn’t make itself, clearing the way for a clean break that will allow the Bulls to reassemble their leadership from the top down.
So what comes next? Reinsdorf will have to solve that problem — and fill two vacancies — on his own.
It’s rare for the Bulls to enter a summer with a slate this clean. The Reinsdorfs have cleaned house only three times in the family’s long history with the team. Donovan’s decision now forces the Bulls to put the first thing first by focusing on the executive position, then allowing that hire to select a head coach of their choosing.
The Bulls are engaged in the initial steps of the hiring process, which includes retaining the executive search firm TurnkeyZRG, according to a source. ESPN reported the Bulls have interviews planned in the coming weeks with Detroit Pistons senior vice president of basketball operations Dennis Lindsey; Minnesota Timberwolves general manager Matt Lloyd; Atlanta Hawks senior VP of basketball operations Bryson Graham; Cleveland Cavaliers GM Mike Gansey; San Antonio Spurs assistant GM Dave Telep; and Creative Artists Agency co-head of basketball Austin Brown.
The obvious front-runner is Lloyd, who worked for the Bulls from 1999-2012 and has risen in estimation around the league in the nearly 14 years since he first left Chicago for the Orlando Magic front office. Lloyd has been a top target for the Bulls since the search started, multiple sources confirmed, and ownership requested permission from the Timberwolves to interview him earlier this week.
Lloyd is an analytics-driven executive who cares deeply about the process of evaluating, acquiring and developing talent. For a team like the Bulls at the start of a rebuild, that type of profile should be a perfect match. But familiarity is perhaps the greatest asset for Lloyd, a Chicago native who worked his way up from the video room to scouting director over more than a decade with the Bulls.
For evidence of the Reinsdorfs’ proclivity toward the familiar, look no further than John Paxson. The former GM and VP of basketball operations never strayed far from Madison Street, serving as a senior adviser after his front-office regime was upended in 2019. Now he’s one of the leading voices in the team’s executive search.
The Reinsdorfs never have been keen to stray from what they know. After taking a swing on Karnišovas — who seemed like a sure-fire bet as an up-and-coming executive back in 2020 — they could be more wary than ever about searching outside of their familiar circles.
Still, Michael Reinsdorf has committed himself to a more extensive search process than the last iteration of front-office management. Ownership made clear that the Bulls need a front office better equipped to navigate the different outlets for roster construction. Mechanisms such as tanking might change drastically in upcoming seasons, which makes adaptability the main characteristic of an ideal candidate.
The loss of a beloved coach creates more work for ownership. Players such as Buzelis and Josh Giddey voiced their sadness about Donovan’s departure on social media, reflecting their public statements in the dying days of the season that they hoped the coach would stay on. But in many ways, Donovan’s departure simplified the process for Reinsdorf, Paxson and the rest of the Bulls leadership.
That doesn’t make this any easier — or the stakes any lower. But with this decision, the Bulls finally can begin to move forward.
