The Chicago Bulls are facing the likelihood of a fourth sub-.500 finish in five seasons of Billy Donovan, but it doesn’t sound like Donovan himself is in any danger of getting the boot.
Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times reported on Thursday that it is a “solid bet” that the Bulls head coach Donovan is “safe.” Cowley adds that Donovan is “well-liked” by both the front office and ownership.
Additionally, Cowley says that Chicago executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley are expected to retain their respective positions as well.
At 22-33 this season (10th in the Eastern Conference), the Bulls are caught in a half-rebuild. That has been the case for them in almost every single season ever since Donovan was hired in 2020 as they have failed to achieve either a winning record or a playoff appearance in every year except for 2021-22 (where Chicago won 46 games and then lost in the first round of the playoffs).
Over the last year or so, the Bulls have gotten closer to a full sell-off, trading away the likes of DeMar DeRozan, Alex Caruso, and Zach LaVine. But the rest of their roster remains somewhat confused, including the continued presence of Nikola Vucevic and the multi-year extension that Chicago just gave to Lonzo Ball.
That has left Donovan, the former University of Florida national champion, in a difficult position. With the Bulls now having lost five of six games to begin the month of February, it seems that Donovan has been caught in between trying to develop younger players (like Matas Buzelis, Ayo Dosunmu, Coby White, and Josh Giddey) and chasing the play-in tournament in the Eastern Conference.
While it seems like more of the blame should fall with Karnisovas and Everley, who were both hired in 2020 as well, the Bulls apparently do not plan to make any sort of changes whatsoever to their management hierarchy. That might not be good news for Chicago fans, who continue to witness a pretty underwhelming product on the floor.
