Bulls head coach Billy Donovan and the team’s front office will get more time to lead the franchise through roster changes aimed at getting it back to the postseason, according to a report.
Citing a source, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Wednesday that the Bulls have given contract extensions to executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnišovas and general manager Marc Eversley and are close to finalizing an extension with Donovan.
The Donovan news comes as no surprise after NBA correspondent Marc Stein reported Sunday the Bulls are in the process of extending Donovan’s contract. According to the Sun-Times report Wednesday, the Bulls and Donovan have been in discussions since the regular season ended.
Donovan took over the Bulls in 2020 after a five-year stint as head coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder and previously signed a contract extension prior to the 2022-23 season, which is said to have one year left, according to Stein.
Stein also reported that Donovan, a Long Island native, was one of five coaches currently under contract that the New York Knicks sought permission to speak with for their vacant head coaching position.
The Sun-Times report, however, states that Donovan had no interest in leaving the Bulls and said so when the Knicks inquired about his status, according to several sources.
But whether Donovan and the Bulls could agree on an extension may also have depended on the status of Karnišovas and Eversley, and now they’re not going anywhere, either.
According to the Sun-Times, it’s believed that Karnišovas, the Bulls’ executive VP of basketball operations since 2020, has had a deal done for an extension with the Bulls for some time.
Rebuilding the roster
Now that Donovan, Karnišovas and Eversley all appear to be set for the near future, the Bulls can proceed with a critical offseason as they try to rebuild their roster and get back to the playoffs.
Since Donovan and Karnišovas came to the Bulls for the 2020-21 season, the franchise has been mired in mediocrity, seemingly unsure of whether to embrace a complete rebuild or just remain on the edge of the Eastern Conference postseason picture.
Chicago has made the playoffs just once under Donovan, losing in the first round at the end of the 2021-22 season. The Bulls have seen their season end at the hands of the Miami Heat in the play-in round each of the last three seasons.
But the team has finally taken steps toward rebuilding, executing a sign-and-trade with veteran DeMar DeRozan last summer and trading fellow veteran Zach LaVine this past season. The Bulls now seem to be building around a young core, including Coby White, still just 25, and 20-year-old Matas Buzelis, the Chicagoland native who the Bulls selected with the No. 11 overall pick in last year’s NBA Draft.
The Bulls have the No. 12 overall pick in this year’s draft, which is next week Wednesday, June 25, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Playing in one of the NBA’s biggest markets, the Bulls have not come anywhere close to recapturing the glory years of the Michael Jordan era, when they won six NBA titles in eight seasons in the 1990s.
Since that last title in 1998, Chicago has won just five postseason series and made one Eastern Conference finals appearance in 27 seasons.