The New York Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs 4-1 in the NBA Finals to win their first championship since 1973, and now the league and its teams will return back to the drawing board to chart out their courses for the next season and beyond. The Chicago Bulls are one of the three teams alongside the Dallas Mavericks and the Portland Trail Blazers without a head coach since Billy Donovan stepped down from the post after six seasons.
However, all signs point to them being the first of the group to actually name a replacement, with The Stein Line reporting that the Bulls are looking to fill the position before the draft comes around.
“The draft is almost here and teams, no matter what they say, would always rather have a new coach in place before the draft if they can.”
Chicago, therefore, have been said to be looking to name their replacement as soon as Monday, with as many as four finalists vying for the position. They include Atlanta’s Ryan Schmidt, Minnesota’s Micah Nori, Portland’s Tiago Splitter and holdover Bulls assistant coach Wes Unseld Jr.
NBA franchises have shown a growing inclination to hand over head-coaching duties to rising assistants across the league, and the Bulls appear to be intent on going down the same path. Unseld Jr., who previously served as the HC of the Washington Wizards from 2021-24, is currently interviewing and appears to be leading the race.
While all three teams, including Dallas and Portland were intent on making their appointments before the NBA Draft, the latter is reported to be the farthest as far as making an actual decision is concerned. Of course, the Bulls have rarely been a competing team during Donovan’s tenure, who stepped down after registering a 226–252 record over his six seasons.
During his tenure, the team made one playoff appearance in 2022 and qualified for the play-in tournament in three consecutive seasons.
The post Bulls rumors: Marc Stein teases imminent head coach hire appeared first on ClutchPoints.
