Grading the Bulls’ Tiago Splitter Hire: Did Chicago Make the Right Call With New Head Coach?

Tiago Splitter was the interim head coach for the Trail Blazers last season. | Scott Wachter-Imagn Images

On Monday, the Bulls found their replacement for Billy Donovan at the end of the bench.

ESPN’s Shams Charania was first to report Chicago was hiring Tiago Splitter to be the next head coach of the historic franchise. Splitter, 41, spent last season as the interim head coach of the Trail Blazers after being unexpectedly thrust into the role following the arrest of Chauncey Billups. Prior to that opportunity, Splitter spent time as a scout and coach with the Nets and as an assistant on Ime Udoka’s staff with the Rockets. He spent the 2024 season as head coach of Paris Basketball in the Euroleague.

Of course, he’s best known for his playing career. Splitter spent seven years in the NBA as a center with the Spurs, Hawks and Sixers, winning a championship with San Antonio in 2014. The retired big man played an additional 11 seasons internationally and won two FIBA AmeriCup gold medals for his home country of Brazil.

Splitter takes over in Chicago amid a period of significant transition. The Bulls are fully pivoting to a rebuild after a decade of failing to compete for titles but regularly finishing near the bottom of the East playoff picture. It made for a treadmill of mediocrity that prevented Chicago from earning any draft assets to find its next star with various rosters that couldn’t win a playoff series; the last time the Bulls made it to the second round was 2015. After hiring a new head of basketball operations and moving up the NBA draft lottery to land the No. 4 pick in this year’s loaded class, the franchise is embracing a youth movement—one that apparently extends to its young, rookie head coach.

To help understand why the Bulls hired Splitter and whether it was the right move for one of the league’s most famous franchises, we tried our hand at grading the Splitter hire for Chicago.

Grading the Tiago Splitter hire by the Bulls

Grading coaching hires is a tricky exercise for those who reside outside team buildings. This is particularly true in the NBA, where most of a good coach’s work is done behind the scenes and philosophically as well. We cannot see the process, only the results.

But thanks to his one season at the helm in Portland and the various public-facing qualities Splitter possesses, we can at least grasp an idea of what the Bulls are getting with this hire. And grading it is a useful lens through which to view the hire in this very moment. Let’s break down the positives and negatives of Chicago’s decision and hand out a final grade at the end.

Positives

The Bulls know Splitter can handle adversity. Everybody knows that after he took the reins of the Blazers due to the shocking arrest of Billups on federal charges. It was an unprecedented situation that unfolded literally one day after the team’s 2025–26 season opener. Splitter had never been the head coach of an NBA team and had to navigate choppy waters, to say the least. It would have been entirely understandable if the result was a shaky, uneven season for his team as they coped with the emotional toll of seeing Billups get arrested as part of a massive federal gambling case with severe, far-reaching real world consequences.

Instead, Splitter’s calm hand guided Portland to its most successful season in years. The Blazers finished above .500 for the first time since 2021 and qualified for the postseason, showing up big in two straight must-win games to end the regular season and claim the No. 8 seed before pulling off an epic come-from-behind win over the Suns in the play-in tournament to take the No. 7 seed in the West bracket. They wound up losing in five games to the Spurs in the first round but to get there at all is a big-time accomplishment under those circumstances, and losing to the eventual West champion isn’t a black mark either.

Several Blazers also took a leap under Splitter this past season, most predominately Deni Avdija. The forward made his first All-Star team while averaging 24.2 points per game on a roster without many high-quality shooters to give him space to operate. Scoot Henderson battled injuries for much of the year but played the best ball of his career when healthy. Veterans like Jrue Holiday and Robert Williams III also put forth solid years.

Behind the scenes, his players really seemed to enjoy playing for Splitter, which speaks to his interpersonal skills and his ability to connect as a former player himself. He got resounding endorsements during Portland’s exit interviews from several members of the roster.

Negatives

Really, the only negative we can point to is Splitter’s lack of experience. He spent one full year as a head coach abroad and 99% of a season as an interim head coach in the NBA. But this will be his first time really running an NBA team. He’ll be hiring all the staff and dictate what happens in the building every single day, from the overarching philosophical aims of their everyday process to the little things we can’t even begin to imagine a head coach has to decide on.

That’s a massive responsibility, which is why NBA teams often feel more comfortable hiring veteran coaches over rookies. The last Chicago coach, Donovan, had a lengthy track record of success in both college and the NBA; the franchise knew he was capable of managing everything that comes along with being an NBA head coach even if on-court success wasn’t guaranteed. They don’t necessarily know that with Splitter. It’s a risk no matter how much confidence one might have in Splitter’s ability to juggle everything.

Grade: B+

Splitter’s first season at the end of the bench was a trial by fire. | Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images

Ultimately, it’s a risk worth taking though. The job Splitter did last year was extraordinarily impressive, on par with Joe Mazzulla leading the Celtics to the Eastern Conference finals six months after suddenly being named coach due to the Ime Udoka scandal. He may be a “rookie” head coach in the traditional sense but the trials he’s gone through are no joke—and his team reached great heights despite those trials. If there were going to be any first-year coach Chicago hired to lead the organization, he’s a great choice.

Splitter can grow with a young team, too. The Bulls give their coaches a pretty long runway to stumble on their way to success. Chicago is looking at a few losing years with the primary overarching goal of developing their young players rather than winning games. It will be critical to usher along Josh Giddey, Matas Buzelis, Noa Essengue and the fourth pick in this year’s draft to whatever heights they can reach without allowing losing to impact the process. Based on last year, Splitter is entirely capable of keeping his team focused no matter what and helping younger players capitalize on their potential. As a coach he has plenty of that he can realize himself, too.

It’s not an automatic home run hire because of Splitter’s limited résumé. But it’s definitely not a wild home run swing on an inexperienced coach, either. This is a very solid bet by the Bulls and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Splitter hold down the fort in the Windy City for years going forward.

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