I Don’t Understand The Bulls Obsession With Billy Donovan

I Don’t Understand The Bulls Obsession With Billy Donovan

i’ve made multiple videos on Billy Donovan over the course of my time since starting this channel so I won’t revisit the background story and what led up to Billy Donovan being hired by the Chicago Bulls and then of course his tenure obviously in coaching this team over the last 5 years and while I don’t think Billy Donovan is the right coach for the Bulls something I talked about years ago I also don’t think he’s a terrible coach as a Bulls fans make him out to be that said it is a little odd how much this organization still clings on to Billy Donovan and is adamant about keeping him around for a coach who has only made the playoffs once in his 5 years with the Bulls especially given the talent level he had on this roster and the expectation that they were going to be winning now Billy Donovan has now had a longer tenure than Tom Thibido did in his time with the Bulls despite Donovan not even having half the success that Tibs did in Chicago like the fact that Billy Donovan is the third longest tenure coach in the entire NBA right now only behind Steve Cerr and Eric Bolstra is absolutely mind-boggling to me considering there have been coaches who have produced better results than Donovan has and have been hired and fired during that time period that Billy Donovan has been with the Bulls and even though I’ve always said well Billy isn’t going anywhere he’s staying in Chicago not because of his performance though but rather it’s because the Bulls are cheap and they’re not going to fire him while he’s under contract and pay him to not coach to me I thought that was the biggest reason why Billy Donovan’s job was safe when if he was coaching for any other team he would have been fired by now and I thought his job was safe because the Bulls gave him that stupid secret extension and they didn’t want to have to pay the salary of two coaches in a season like they did with Tom Thibido when they fired him while he was still under contract and also like they did with Fred Hoyberg and yes even Jim Bolan the Bulls simply put weren’t going to go through that route again and when we learned that the Knicks had fired Tom Thibido were reaching out to teams to get permission to interview their respective head coaches I thought this is the Bulls out if the Knicks contact the Bulls about Billy Donovan this is how they get out of the Billy Donovan contract without having to fire him and can move forward with a new coach as they embark on this rebuild but lo and behold the Knicks did in fact reach out to the Bulls to get permission to interview Billy Donovan which I’ll be honest I wasn’t sure if that would actually happen to begin with but they did they did contact the Bulls about talking to Billy and to my surprise and shock although I guess I really shouldn’t have been that surprised the Bulls denied their request to speak to Billy Donovan now Casey Johnson reported yesterday that this wasn’t fully closed and was still a fluid situation where the Knicks could circle back on Billy Donovan in other words maybe try to give them something in return to pry Billy Donovan away from the Bulls but then he followed that up in reporting this morning that the Knicks are in fact now focusing on those coaching candidates that are available and aren’t currently employed by another team and stated that Billy Donovan is here to stay in Chicago now look the way I look at it is this we don’t know all the happenings behind the scenes what those discussions looked like when the Knicks contacted the Bulls but if what we know is true this could have been an opportunity for the Bulls to realize they actually had some leverage in a given transaction and try and extract some value for one of their assets which yes a coach can be one of your assets it’s rare but there have been instances throughout history where a team has traded a coach to another team in exchange for draft capital or players the Bulls in my view should have realized hey the Knicks have reached out to all these teams they contacted the Wolves about Chris Finch the Mavs for Jason Kid Rockets to inquire on Eime Goka Quinn Snider from the Hawks i mean they reached out to all these teams and received a firm rejection that they couldn’t contact their coach if I’m the Bulls I see this i see a team that’s desperate i see the Knicks didn’t really think this through when they fired Tomato realized they weren’t going to get an upgrade of a coach and are now scrambling i see this and I say “Hey if you want Billy Donovan you need to make it worth our while give us a pick hell even a couple second round picks since the Knicks don’t really have any picks to trade considering they blew all those on the Kell Bridges.” But instead of recognizing this the Bulls said “No we want Billy Donovan.” Again we don’t know if the Bulls in fact demanded anything in return and the Knicks said you know no thanks we don’t want Billy that bad but I would venture to say that if that were the case it would have come out in the media’s reporting and if the Bulls weren’t interested in doing that that they felt the need to keep Billy Donovan so bad that even getting something in return for him wasn’t enough the question is why why is it that this front office values Billy Donovan so much because look I get it i get that they’re probably not going to get much of an upgrade over Billy Donovan when you look at the landscape of available coaches in the NBA and yes while we have been criticizing Billy Donovan for his role in coaching this team over the last 5 years you have to acknowledge and recognize that he is wellliked by the players he is great at building relationships and relating to his players which is very important these days in the NBA when you see a lot of great coaches who are basketball masterminds when it comes to the X’s and O’s but are not good when it comes to the relationship with their players a guy like Mike Malone comes to mind and a big reason why he was fired so late in the season and to Billy’s credit he has adapted and adjusted well with what he’s been given especially this past season with a new look team and changing the overall offensive scheme to fit his player skills like yes I’ll concede he’s not a bad coach there are things he does well and should be valued for but he’s not some elite coach that you protect at all costs especially given the current direction of the Bulls in heading down this path of rebuilding whether they admit that’s what they’re doing or not to me it would behoo the Bulls to look for a change in the coaching staff to lead this team on their upcoming rebuild a coach that is going to focus on player development and help them through this youth movement yes we can say well hey the grass isn’t always green on the other side but at the same time it’s good to have a fresh pair of eyes a new perspective when you’re heading down a new path for this franchise which is what the Bulls are on right now whether they want again to admit it or not but yeah I mean I think at the end of the day we all know Billy isn’t going anywhere and reports/ discussions coming out of the combine were that there was maybe even talk of an extension in the works which would be absolutely insane to me if you opt to extend Billy beyond his current contract where he hasn’t proven he can take this team to the next level so yes I won’t be shocked if at some point next season we learn that Billy Donovan was in fact given another secret extension over the summer that was kept quiet for some unknown reason and the Bulls stick with Billy for another 5 years after this yeah I don’t get it i really don’t get this franchise’s obsession with Billy Donovan you would think he was like Greg Papovic at this point with the way they praised this guy and refused to let him go anyway let me know what you guys think of the recent news surrounding Billy Donovan let me know in the comments as always be sure to subscribe and I will see you in the next one

Discussing the latest reports on the Bulls deny the New York Knicks permission to speak with Billy Donovan on their head coaching vacancy

NBA Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCikoP0pxZTRqNp9XgMJlIqQ

Sign up for Underdog Fantasy with Promo Code [Bulls Central] to get a Special Pick in the lobby AND up to $250 in Bonus Cash on your first deposit: https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-bu…

Discord: https://discord.gg/NCnTQFZkkj
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bulls.central.official/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BullsCentralYT

#ChicagoBulls #BullsNation #billydonovan #cobywhite #nikolavucevic #matasbuzelis #NikolaVucevic #LonzoBall #CobyWhite #MatasBuzelis #PatrickWilliams #NikolaVucevic #AyoDosunmu #JoshGiddey #BullsNews #NBANews #NBARumors #BullsUpdates #BullsRumors #NBAFreeAgency #BullsTrades #NBATrades #NBATradeRumors