Billy Donovan III slated to coach Windy City |
Since the start of the offseason, one of the Bulls' main focuses was to completely gut the coaching staff to create a new staff focused on player development. You saw that when Wes Unseld Jr was immediately brought in as this team's top assistant, but the hires didn't stop there.
Although the Bulls' most recent hire doesn't affect their NBA roster per se, it does affect the player development side. The Windy City Bulls will have a new man in charge for the 2024-25 season. That man comes with a familiar name and plenty of connections to Billy Donovan, as his son Billy Donovan III will take over the Windy City Bulls net season. Talk about keeping it in the family, right? Donovan served as an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs G-League affiliate in 2017, so he has prior experience working with the G-League and knows what it involves. He will be taking over for Henry Domercant, who has been the coach for Windy City since the 2021 season. Although Demercant didn't have much luck in the G-League coaching department, some credit him with developing players like Adama Sanogo, Onurlap Bitim, Carlik Jones, and others who all had great seasons under him. Next, it will be up to Donovan to keep the train rolling as the Bulls are hoping their G-League affiliate can start to turn the corner to be a legitimate playoff-contending team. Apart from learning much of his coaching from his father, Donovan III has filled various coaching roles, which will benefit his time with Windy City. Following his stint with the Austin Spurs, Donovan was an assistant video coordinator position with the Phoenix Suns in 2019-20; Donovan III went on to earn an assistant coaching position with the Spurs, where he worked under one of the greatest head coaching minds in the game today, Gregg Popovich. Although he was only on the Spurs staff for one season before latching on with his father in Chicago, the type of knowledge he took away that season is second to none, which will go a long way in determining how far he can go as a head coach in the G-League. He may be just 32 years old, but Donovan III already has plenty of experience from a wide range of experienced coaches, and he still has room to grow to become the best Head Coach possible. This is an excellent opportunity for him to grow as a coach and prove his worth as a Head Coach, which could go a long way should he want to become an NBA Head Coach. Although having the Bulls hired him to work under his dad is a great story, you have to wonder if the Bulls settled on him to lead the team, as there were probably more qualified candidates for the job. You can't blame Donovan III for that, but instead blame the organization, especially Mark Eversly and Arturas Karnisovas, who continue to show unbelievable loyalty despite this team being stuck in neutral for years. For whatever reason, this front office doesn't care about the results or the credentials like most front offices do. All they care about is consistency, and if you're consistently struggling but still consistently making it to the play-in-round, that is good enough for them. Karnisovas acknowledged at the end of the season that there will be some changes made to the roster this off-season, but one has to wonder what those changes will be and if you can trust him based on his track record since coming to Chicago. The same can be said about Eversly as a GM, which doesn't bode well for a team trying to go star-hunting this off-season. While their jobs may seem safe for now, this could be a make-or-break offseason and season for all three of them, as the Bulls could be gearing up to blow everything up in 2025.
