Bulls’ Housecleaning of Assistant Coaches Another Sign Towards Progress
From the moment Arturas Karnisovas was hired, the Bulls have done everything possible to remove the stink from the previous regime. That continued Monday when Billy Donovan informed multiple assistant coaches from this past season that they won’t be retained for the 2020–21 season. Say goodbye to Nate Loenser, Roy Rogers, Chris Cooper and early Jerry Krause hire Karen Stack Umlauf. Lead assistant Chris Fleming, who ran the Bulls’ recent bubble workouts, remains employed by the organization, but it’s currently unknown if he’ll retain that or any role with the Bulls.
The Bulls aren’t simply removing bad seeds from their rankings. They’re performing a complete cleansing. That’s the only way they can move in a different direction that’s hopefully the right one. Whatever it is has to be an improvement because it’s not the same old Bulls, who wore out their welcome a long time ago.
Donovan will remake the Bulls the way he sees fit, at least strategically and as far as the people he wants working under him. The man is a proven winner as a head coach, which is more than we can say about almost each of his predecessors. That alone is a reason to be high on Bulls stock (no pun intended). He knows what to look for in an assistant, and he’ll implement the best ones he can find.
Of course, any success won’t be all Donovan’s doing. Karnisovas and Marc Eversley have to give him the right personnel, and there’s a good chance at least some of the current core won’t be around when the Bulls return to the playoffs, let alone become a contender. They’ve at least enabled him not to be shackled by the contracts the outgoing assistants have. If they have to pay them to go away in the name of improvement, so be it.
Had the 2019–20 Bulls assistants been allowed to stick around, we might have seen them at least some of them become disgruntled over having to teach a different strategy from the one of the man that hired them. On the other hand, Donovan commands respect that few other NBA coaches can, so they would at least have to do him the courtesy of giving him the benefit of the doubt. Even so, it’s likely they wouldn’t have lasted together longer than a season. Donovan obviously recognized this and decided it was better to pull the plug now rather than delay the inevitable.
It’s likely that most outsiders won’t know the exact role each new assistant coach will have unless it’s explicitly stated. But just like each outgoing assistant has a reason for now being unemployed, each person Donovan picks for his new staff won’t be picked only because he/she is available. It’s a major step towards establishing a new, healthy culture in Chicago. And that little bit will go a long way.
The most important offseason for the Bulls in years has begun. Already, we’ve seen a lot of good things. It’s definitely out with the old, and in with the new. This time, there’s no preconceptions with recent franchise history to spoil whatever new people are coming in. How great is it to think that for a change?
