As Chicago Bulls fans well know, there isn’t just one championship NBA franchise with a frustrating ownership group on the prowl for a new head coach this spring. There are three (so far): Chicago, the Portland Trail Blazers, and the Dallas Mavericks — plus the Orlando Magic, who may have never won a title, but did at least make two NBA Finals.
Portland and Chicago currently appear to have the most overlap.
The Trail Blazers, fresh off a 42-40 season and a run to the first round of the Western Conference playoffs under interim head coach Tiago Splitter, are apparently pretty far along in their own search. Three candidates linked to the Portland job late this week are also among the contenders for the Bulls’ head coach job.
Marc Stein of The Stein Line reveals that Splitter is… a finalist for his own job — as is Minnesota Timberwolves Micah Nori. Dwight Jaynes also reported Jerry Stackhouse will interview for the Portland job; he, too, has previously been linked to the Bulls’ opening.
Los Angeles Clippers assistant coach Jeff Van Gundy, a former head coach with the New York Knicks and Houston Rockets, is also in the mix for the Blazers’ job, per Stein.
During his stints with New York from 1995-2001, and Houston from 2003-07, Van Gundy went 430-318. He brought New York to its most recent NBA Finals to date, in 1999 — although the Knicks are now just two wins away from a return trip this season. There have been no reports linking Van Gundy to the Bulls, which is a more likely a rebuild scenario.
Tiago Splitter © Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn ImagesBulls, Trail Blazers Competing for Tiago Splitter, Micah Nori, and Jerry Stackhouse?
Splitter was initially not expected to be retained by new Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon, although it appears Dundon has had a change of heart, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line. Whether or not he sticks around, the former champion San Antonio Spurs reserve center has proven enough during his first season in the lead job to draw plenty of interest around the league.
His work leading a frisky, lengthy, defense-first Portland roster to postseason glory for the first time in five years — especially while nominal head coach Chauncey Billups grappled with a federal indictment on gambling charges — proved quite impressive.
Nori has served as head coach Chris Finch’s lead assistant for years, and enjoyed extensive gigs working under Michael Malone on the Sacramento Kings and Denver Nuggets and Dwane Casey on the Toronto Raptors and Detroit Pistons. Nori also took over for an injured Finch when a surgery sidelined him in the first round of the 2024 playoffs, helping the Timberwolves advance to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since Kevin Garnett’s MVP season two decades prior.
Stackhouse, meanwhile, is a former NBA All-Star and star at North Carolina. He was the head coach of the Vanderbilt Commodores from 2019–2024, where he put together a combined 70-92 record and was named both the 2022-23 SEC Coach of the Year and Ben Jobe National Coach of the Year. Stackhouse has spent the last two seasons with the Golden State Warriors serving as the team’s defensive coordinator under Steve Kerr.
Where new Bulls EVP Bryson Graham’s roster is relatively threadbare, the team has a lottery pick and another first-rounder in this year’s draft, major cap room, and of course an unnecessary treasure trove of second-round draft selections at its disposal. The Trail Blazers, however, are far more ready-made to compete right now, though questions remain about their ceiling in a talented, top-heavy West.
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