And just like that, the Chicago Bulls are down a head coach, too.
After six long, largely disappointing seasons (more a result of management than coaching, in fairness), Hall of Fame head coach Billy Donovan has opted to step down from his post.
It’s not a total shock. As Julia Poe of the Chicago Tribune observed last month, Donovan had dealt with a wave of family tragedies this season, beyond just another year of on-court turmoil. Donovan, 60, lost his father and his mother-in-law within days of each other in February, and his Billy’s mother had to get her leg amputated soon thereafter.
With Chicago staring down another interminable rebuild, it makes all the sense in the world that Donovan would want to depart — either to spend more time with his family or to pursue a team that had a better sense of what it was doing.
We obviously don’t want another Jim Boylan/Jim Boylen disaster on our hands, and happily we have the time to really conduct the correct head coach search — albeit after a new team president and a new general manager are selected.
So who could be available? The Bulls should consider some massive names in the college and pro ranks, but it’s also possible that the team considers people who are more up-and-coming to deal with a long-term project.
Some Top Bulls Head Coaching Candidates
Steve Kerr, Head Coach, Golden State Warriors
We have to at least talk about this. He will be the elephant in the room.
A former five-time champ as a player (three with our Bulls, two with the Tim Duncan/David Robinson era of the San Antonio Spurs) hit the ground running the first year he was hired by Golden State, guiding the club to a 67-15 regular season and its first title in 40 years. Then, Kerr led the Warriors to an additional five NBA Finals, including three more championships.
The Warriors have missed the playoffs entirely in two of the last three seasons, as stars Stephen Curry and Draymond Green have aged out of their primes (though Curry still remains potent) and GM Mike Dunleavy Jr. has struggled to build a reliable supporting cast. A Jimmy Butler ACL tear squandered the club’s postseason aspirations midway through 2025-26, and the Warriors’ luck ran out in their second play-in tournament clash last week.
Kerr failed to negotiate a contract extension with Golden State before the season, and will be a free agent this summer. He boasts a 604-353 overall regular season record and a 104-48 playoff record. Named the 2016 Coach of the Year and one of the 15 Greatest Coaches in NBA History by the league itself, the 60-year-old is going to be among the most coveted names on the market, should he become available. He’d probably want more of a win-now opportunity than this Bulls team can field anytime soon, but Chicago should at least try to have a conversation.
Would Kerr, who led the Phoenix Suns’ front office from 2007-10, be interested more in Chicago’s team president opening than its head coaching gig? That feels far likelier than him taking over a Bulls squad in flux.
Evanston’s own Erik Spoelstra, obviously (he grew up in Oregon but was born in the North Shore ‘burb, so we’re counting him), is the head coach I would most love to poach, with Mark Daigneault being a close second. But there is absolutely no way on earth that either move happens, so I’m not even covering them here. Kerr is at least a possibility, albeit a remote one.
© Ken Ruinard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn ImagesDawn Staley, Head Coach, South Carolina Gamecocks
The former Hall of Fame point guard has established herself as one of the elite names in women’s college basketball. She has led South Carolina to five NCAA championship games — including three titles — eight Final Fours, and 12 Sweet Sixteens across her 18 seasons in charge. Staley owns a sparkling 683-194 overall record between her tenures at South Carolina and Temple. She’s also exhibited an aptitude at coaching pros, having led Team USA to another gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (actually held in 2021, but called 2020 for continuity).
A four-time Naismith Coach of the Year, she’s been up for NBA head coaching gigs before, most recently for the New York Knicks opening just last season.
Would she want to ditch the Gamecocks, who have become an NCAA institution under her stewardship, for a likely tanking situation in Chicago? Probably not. If anything, Staley seems likelier to make the NBA leap with more of a proven winner looking to take that championship next step. But, again, it’s worth the call.
Johnnie Bryant, Associate Head Coach, Cleveland Cavaliers
After an extended, six-year stint under Quin Snyder with the Utah Jazz as an assistant coach from 2014-20, Bryant served as an associate head coach under beloved Bulls alum Tom Thibodeau with the New York Knicks from 2020-24. Thibodeau earned his second Coach of the Year honor in 2020-21. The 40-year-old has been working under reigning Coach of the Year Kenny Atkinson on the Cleveland Cavaliers since then.
Bryant is ranked among the most well-regarded assistant coaches in the league. He narrowly lost out to Jordan Ott for the Phoenix Suns head coaching gig last summer, and had even interviewed for the Cavs head coaching job before Atkinson booked it.
When Atkinson found his job potentially in trouble earlier this season amid a disappointing start to the 2025-26 season, Marc Stein of The Stein Line reported that Bryant would have been Donovan Mitchell’s preference if Cleveland installed an interim head coach. The Cavaliers are currently 2-0 against the Toronto Raptors in their first-round playoff clash, and will strive to return to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2018 this spring. It might be tough to beat some combination of the Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics and New York Knicks in the next two rounds, though.
© Bob Donnan-USA TODAY SportsDan Hurley, Head Coach, University of Connecticut Huskies
The 2024 Naismith Coach of the Year with UConn, Hurley has posted a 199-75 NCAA record for UConn and a 350-180 overall head coaching record between his stops at Connecticut, Wagner and Rhode Island. He has cumulatively led his college clubs to eight NCAA Tournament berths since 2016.
Hurley interviewed for the Los Angeles Lakers’ head coaching vacancy in 2024, but ultimately opted to stay in college — paving a path for JJ Redick to take over and post consecutive 50-win seasons.
So why would the man whose Huskies have appeared in three of the last four NCAA championship games (winning twice) want to steer a rebuild, after rejecting an opportunity with a starry-if-aging Lakers squad (at the time, remember this was pre-Luka Doncic trade and Austin Reaves ascendance)? Like Staley, Hurley knows how to get the best out of his young players, often catering his approach to his pieces. But it’s a bit tougher to turn around a pro team than a college one.
Sean Sweeney, Associate Head Coach, San Antonio Spurs
Sweeney, who’s only a year or two older than Bryant, has enjoyed a rapid rise in the NBA. He kicked off his career with the then-New Jersey Nets as the club’s video coordinator, eventually becoming an assistant coach when they relocated to Brooklyn in 2013.
Most notably, he was an assistant coach for Jason Kidd’s Dallas Mavericks from 2021-25, thus working on two very different Western Conference Finals-bound rosters and the 2024 Finals team.
After Dallas inexplicably traded Luka Doncic midway through the 2024-25 season, Sweeney wisely moved on, linking up with Mitch Johnson to serve as his associate head coach on the San Antonio Spurs this year. The club only finished with a 62-20 record and the Western Conference’s No. 2 seed, making the playoffs for the first time in seven years.
Becky Hammon, Head Coach, Las Vegas Aces
Another Hall of Fame player-turned-likely Hall of Fame head coach a la Staley, Hammon like Johnson (and Kerr, although he was a player) learned at the feet of San Antonio legend Gregg Popovich as a Spurs assistant for seven years.
When she failed to land a head coaching gig in the NBA (she lost out on the Portland Trail Blazers job in 2021 to, uh, Chauncey Billups), she returned to the W. Hammon has since coached the Las Vegas Aces to three of the last four championships, despite some not-insignificant All-Star turnover. Vegas has gone 117-43 in the regular season and 28-9 in the playoffs during Hammon’s four years at the helm. It sure feels like she deserves more Coach of the Year awards on her mantle than her sole 2022 honor.
Hammon has managed to get the absolute most out of generational talents like A’ja Wilson, Jackie Young, Chelsea Gray, and Jewel Lloyd, plus ex-Aces stars Kelsey Plum and Dearica Hamby. Again, she may want to stay put rather than take over a rebuilding situation with notoriously cheap ownership, especially with money finally flowing in the WNBA.
Other Bulls Coaching Contenders
Last week, with rumors about Donovan’s future swirling, my colleague Joshua Miranda pitched several other great candidates to replace him, including his top Bulls assistant Wes Unseld Jr.
Here are a few of his pitches, but the whole piece is well worth reading in full!
Tiago Splitter, Portland Trail Blazers
Under his leadership, you can clearly see his developmental background shining through. Deni Avdija became an All-Star, Donovan Clingan took a huge sophomore leap, and undrafted Caleb Love outplayed plenty of players taken ahead of him. Even Scoot Henderson is quietly putting together a bounce-back season.
Taylor Jenkins, Free Agent
The most sought-after head coach on the market is Taylor Jenkins, who led the Ja Morant–Jaren Jackson Jr. era in Memphis. In his six seasons as a head coach, he posted a winning record across nearly 500 games. The Grizzlies were a perennial playoff team under his watch, and even in their down years, they weren’t afraid to experiment and give opportunities to different players.
Sam Cassell, Boston Celtics
A former All-Star, All-NBA selection, and three-time NBA champion as a player, Cassell has spent the last 15 years as an assistant coach. It feels like every time there’s a head coaching opening, his name comes up, and for good reason. Currently on the Boston Celtics staff, Cassell has consistently ranked highly in the annual GM survey for best assistant coach, landing in the top four in each of the past three seasons.
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