Billy Donovan takes over in Chicago
It was a disappointing end to the campaign for Billy Donovan’s Oklahoma City Thunder who were eliminated in game seven of the opening round of the National Basketball Association playoffs by the Houston Rockets. It was the fourth consecutive season that the Thunder failed to get past the first round and everyone knew it was time for change to come.
Head coach Billy Donovan and the Thunder decided mutually it was best to move on and go their separate ways. But Donovan was not available for very long as the Chicago Bulls announced on Tuesday that they have made the 55-year-old the club’s new head coach. The Bulls become just the second NBA team that he will coach.
Donovan spent 19 seasons coaching in the NCAA with the Florida Gators, leading them to back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007. He eventually decided to give the NBA a try in 2015 when he took over Oklahoma City. He stayed with the Thunder for five years, leading them to the Western Conference final in his first season with the franchise.
In an official statement, Donovan thanked the Bulls for the opportunity and expressed his excitement to work with the club’s executive vice president of basketball operations, Arturas Karnisovas.
“I’m excited to partner with Arturas as we work together on behalf of this historic franchise,” he said.
In turn, the Bulls are excited to have hired Donovan who was at one point a highly sought-after coach. While his stock may have dropped a bit in recent seasons, he is still a veteran coach with plenty of experience.
“We are very pleased to welcome Billy and his family to the Chicago Bulls. The success that he has sustained over the course of his coaching career puts him on a different level,” Bulls executive vice-president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas said in a release. “We feel his ability to help his players reach their potential, both individually and collectively, will mesh well with our roster. Whether as a player or as a coach, he has won everywhere his career has taken him, and we hope that will continue here in Chicago.”
The Bulls are in full rebuild mode as they look ahead to the future after missing out on the playoffs for the last three straight seasons. They finished 13th in the Eastern Conference over the past three years and didn’t even get to enter the NBA bubble when the league resumed play this summer. The Bulls have not made it past the first round of the playoffs since 2014-15.
The good news for Donovan and the Bulls is that they will be picking fourth overall in the 2020 NBA Draft which should help them pick up a valuable building block. They drafted point guard Coby White last year with the seventh overall pick and center Wendell Carter Jr also with the seventh overall pick the year prior to that.
Donovan has a rich history developing young talent in the NCAA and the Bulls are just hoping he can work his magic to get the best out of their talented young core.
