Will Billy Donovan Survive the Bulls Rebuild?

We had some breaking news.

A couple of things, several things actually break right before we came, uh, to start, sit down and record this.

I want to start with the Chicago Bulls cleaning house in their front office, firing VP of basketball operations, Arturi Karnosovis and general manager Mark Eversley.

These guys have both been around since the 2021 season, six years running the Bulls, a record of 22.

and 254.

Chicago only had one winning season under Karnisovich, and that was the only year that they made the playoffs.

So you never like to see anybody lose their job, but in a situation like this, it is kind of understandable.

The Bulls have been underwhelming.

They are just seemingly kicking off a full-scale rebuild after moving a lot of the big contracts that were on their roster.

The Bulls front office or ownership level, uh, which does not like to fire people.

Like Chicago historically has been pretty good at riding things out.

Yeah, with, uh, with some of their coaches and their top executives, they decided they wanted somebody else to, Take this thing moving forward.

What did you think of this decision by Chicago and what it means for the Bulls?

Well, I actually should clarify that.

I admire not being quick trigger on firings.

I think the way that we fire coaches really over sports and certainly in the NBA is just insanity.

We give a guy one year and we're like, yeah, OK, fire him.

So I admire not being quick trigger on the firing, but also in this particular case and in so many cases with the Bulls, you do wonder what are they thinking?

I saw someone tweet, and I'm sorry, I can't credit them because I don't remember who it was, be like, the Bulls are now going to hire someone to get them right back to the middle like.

This is a franchise that has been directionless in so many ways for so long.

Um, I'm very curious who they are firing him for, and that is always my question.

We've been doing this long enough that you know this.

You fire the coach, is that a good move or a bad move?

Well, who are you firing him for?

Are you firing the front office?

Is that a good move or a bad move?

Well, who are you firing him for?

And what is the strategy?

What is the AB here?

And I know what the A has been is this administration and they got rid of it, but what is the B that we're comparing it to?

I don't know.

I thought what was interesting though in that whole landscape too in the larger sports picture is there were a lot of people who expected Billy Donovan, the coach of that franchise, to go to North Carolina.

Um, this was interesting.

This was fascinating to me, was not nothing, not nothing, because on Friday we had the Arizona versus North Carolina with the coach sort of, you know, take hold, and he re-signed at Arizona.

So then it became Billy.

Donovan.

Billy Donovan is the hot name at North Carolina all weekend.

It was Billy Donovan.

Hey, yes, he's coming from the NBA, didn't work out so well on the football side to bring a pro coach in, but of course, Billy Donovan, very different, won two national titles at Florida.

And by the way, now that recruiting has changed so much at the college level, and you are not asking a guy to go back to 1000 hours of recruiting a year sitting and begging 15-year-olds to come play for you.

It's just basically like, hey, here.

Here's the amount of money we can give you.

Are you interested or not?

That is what recruiting at the NIL era in big programs has become.

It's actually a lot easier for an NBA coach or a pro coach to come in, but certainly one with experience coaching in college is ideally what you want, and Billy Donovan did seem like a really great candidate for North Carolina.

All of a sudden, former NBA coach Michael Malone, who has no college experience, is announced.

As the coach at North Carolina, within an hour, I think of the Bulls saying that they had cleaned house in their front office, it is hard not to feel they are semi-related that Billy Donovan got at least interest, if not an offer from North Carolina, went to management, and again, this is pure speculation.

I don't know if this happened, but it is hard not to if you see the connection, if you think that these two moves weren't somehow correlated.

You still believe in the Easter Bunny.

Like, I mean, come on, and it's been a great weekend for you because those chocolate eggs are fantastic.

It, it had been reported, uh, I think the Chicago Sun-Times was the first on this that.

It was basically coming down in Chicago to Billy Donovan or Arturo Karnosovas.

Uh, clearly the Bulls want to retain Billy Donovan.

Um, hasn't been successful there in terms of wins and losses, but they believe he's a very good coach.

A lot of people believe he's a good coach.

Uh, so there was some reporting that it came down to Billy or Arturis.

All of a sudden , North Carolina, which was hot on the heels of Billy Donovan.

Uh, says, all right, we're gonna hire Michael Malone.

And then all of a sudden Arturi is let go in Chicago.

Of course, there's a connection there.

Of course there are.

Now, I don't know exactly how it happened.

My guess, my guess would be like at some point in the last 24 hours as this stuff was shaking out, it was communicated to North Carolina that Billy Donovan is no longer an option, so they turn and they go to Michael Malone as their head coach.

I want to put that on the shelf though for a second.

I do want to unpack Michael Malone there because that's an interesting hire.

Um, I think the Bulls are a very good general managing job for right now, uh, because whoever is coming in has a clean slate.

The cupboard is bare.

All the mistakes that were made over the last 6 years, and there were some big ones that were made.

Like it began from the beginning.

Like this push to the middle in Chicago began right from the beginning of Arturi's tenure where he went out there and acquired Nikola Vusovich from Orlando to not quite get you into contention.

No, didn't do it.

Like got them into the postseason one time.

Um, and that was it.

And everybody knew at the time that that deal was a deal that had a ceiling to it.

And you were giving up, I think what, 2 first-round picks in exchange for Vusovich.

That was a head-scratching deal at that time and they've kept kind of doubling down on this strategy to get you into the play-in tournament.

Like there was nothing that was being done that suggested the Chicago team was building, building something young and sustainable.

Now you have A new GM coming in, no idea what it's gonna be into a big market, a great basketball market.

They sell out that building all the time, even though the team sucks.

They sell out that building.

Um, you're coming into this situation where the books are relatively clean.

Uh, the draft capital is still mostly there.

You've got a chance now to rebuild this thing in the right way.

And that may mean some painful years are still ahead for the Bulls.

They probably are, but you've got an opportunity to do something that our tourists didn't do, which is build this thing organically, build it from the ground up, establish a foundation of young players, build around them, and maybe get this team to a 0.2 or 3 years.

Down the road where they're competing for something other than a playing spot.

Yeah, no, I agree.

Although it is harder team building right now because we don't know what the draft system is going to be.

You said , oh, there could be a couple painful years ahead.

There's no roadmap at the moment because Adam Silver has gotten up and, you know, pounded his fist and said the shoe is on the table and said, we are changing the way the rules are for drafting, and if you're in this, then this and this tanking isn't going to work for here.

So you don't know the.

Value of any pick you have going forward or any pick for a trade you've made in the last year or two because it is unclear what the value of that pick is gonna be because you don't know how the lottery is gonna be.

Is there a bigger lottery, smaller lottery?

Do you have a chance at a number one pick if you're drafting this number, you know, here with the record?

So I am curious if you're taking that job in Chicago, if you are a GM in any of these markets who are just starting and therefore having to plot a course, you're not already on one.

What you even do, I think it is an interesting question in the big picture and the smaller picture of Chicago, you're absolutely right, is a fantastic market.

I was actually shocked they didn't go after Anthony Davis when the price was revealed to be so cheap for Anthony Davis.

I mean, the ownership was gonna let them do that in what way, let our tourists who had to be the one that.

I mean that's a big decision to make where you're gonna tie yourself to an injury-riddled player.

I don't think it was, given what Dallas gave him up for and given when his contract is up, it turned out to be not that big a decision.

He is a local hometown guy.

He is super popular there still.

You are a team that, yes.

Sells tickets, but there hasn't been a lot to root for.

And it turns out it was extremely cheap to get him, and nobody had to offer him a contract extension.

So I was surprised they didn't make that move.

I mean, if I'm our tourist, I would have done that certainly if I, my job was somebody on the line for a team like that though.

Like, where does Anthony Davis get you ?

He's so, again, I don't wanna say cheap.

I don't want to like it was so inexpensive.

Does it matter?

This is what the advantage I think the Wizards having made that deal was.

If Anthony Davis is playing in Dallas, he has to be so good he has to somehow justify a Lucaon trade that is unjustifiable and then also help that team supposedly win a title because that was the the table that was set for that trade.

In Washington, they gave up so little for him, and they're on so little of the hook money-wise for him going forward over the next however many years.

They get to decide if they extend him or not.

That wasn't a contingent of the deal.

That Anthony Davis plays 50 games in Washington because of his injury issues.

Bonus , great.

You got Anthony Davis for 50 games.

Like better than not having Anthony Davis for 50 games, and you didn't have to give up almost anything to get him.

Like, I think for the price Anthony Davis went.

I was surprised Chicago was not in the conversation because you get the extra bonus of it's Anthony Davis in a market that loves him.

I wasn't surprised because the Wizards did the deal kind of not simultaneously, but with the Trae Young deal, so they were getting two kind of.

Damaged products there.

22 guys with some red flags around them.

You're right, and paid accordingly, but they were doing it when they already had the infrastructure in place with young talent.

Like they had the young talent already.

Like they had a couple of years of really bad, including this one, really lean years.

Uh, but they've got some guys there.

They've got Alex Sar, a former top pick, Bubs Carrington, the top guy.

They've got a bunch of young guys on that team.

The Bulls don't have that.

Like they've got some decent young players, but like, you, you, now you're talking about like Josh Giddy and you're talking Anthony Davis and A handful of other guys there.

I'm only bringing it up as one more thing that I thought would have been an easy win for that front office, and they didn't take it.

So I'm not surprised that they made the switch that they did.

Certainly I think the Billy Donovan Carolina situation forced Chicago, you know, the ownership's hands, and I'm curious to see what happens there because.

It is a great market.

I used to live there.

I think it's fantastic.

I, I, my first covering basketball happened there, and I just, I, uh, I hope that the Bulls can regain something because the league's better off when they're in it.

Like this Bulls depth chart.

Like you add Anthony Davis to it and you've got Giddy, Trey Jones, Isaac Okoro, uh, Buzalli, who's really good, uh, Nick Richards.

Presumably Davis swaps out for that.

Like that to me, that's a playing team.

Like it's, it's an OK playing team.

Collin Sexton off the bench.

Patrick Williams is still there, uh.

I'm not saying again, you have to understand you bring Anthony Davis in again.

There's no point Lydia spending a lot of time litigating this because it didn't happen and the front office is gone.

My only point is that there were wins out there to be had for this front office in this trade season that were low cost moves relative to what you could have gotten, and they didn't even take those.

So I'm not surprised that they are, uh, cleaning house there.

I think the Donovan situation certainly pushed that along, and I'm curious to see what.