Head Coach Billy DoneWithThis

Donovan likely leaving as bosses failing high standard of 'is there a plan?'

Maybe they can work it in the next CBA talks, but for now the NBA season cannot be simulated, and so the Chicago Bulls need to physically play the remaining games in the schedule. It does serve as Chicago-area dinner theater content which pays the bills, but the broader fanbase has little to pay attention to.

We have also began the now-yearly tradition of media no longer paying attention to the 3rd biggest media market team. The smaller independent sites don’t send people on the road, and so we just have beat writers from the Chicago Tribune (Julia Poe) and Chicago Sun-Times (Joe Cowley) to be fan advocates in Philadelphia¹ this week as questions swirl the future of head coach Billy Donovan.

Joe Cowley shit-stirred-in-passive-voice (Cowley’s janky version of ‘reporting’) earlier in the week saying “There has been growing speculation that Donovan might step away from the mess and take a season to reevaluate what he wants from the profession.” Mentioning the personal life struggles Donovan has been through recently as eloquently detailed by Poe.

As we know, Billy has been given zero direction from the front office and is in control of the team for the rest of this year. While that’s a working culture Donovan desires, it can’t be too pleasant of an experience right now. His team sucks, and is consistently further sabotaged by injury and the front office not bolstering the back-end of the roster. Billy is doing what he knows, playing veterans a lot (no mystery why players love praising him even after leaving) and maybe win more games. But with his bosses going into hiding, it’s on Billy to face questions derogatory of the franchise whether they lose (“you guys stink, huh”) or win (“you guys are going to continue to stink if you keep picking 10th, huh”).

And that’s just the day-to-day, there’s the existential crisis that Billy is facing in how he wants his career to conclude. Sure there’s the money, and his son being employed, and the money, also the security from and trust in ownership money , but there is also money in the newly-opened job at University of North Carolina, and as College Hoops insider Jeff Goodman hilariously put things: “there are a ton of people in Billy Donovan’s circle right now who have told him: get the hell out of there, you can’t win”

When asked about it in Philadelphia, Donovan did not deny the speculation. It was pretty telling in that he still doesn’t know of any plan from Arturas Karnisovas:

“We’re pivoting right now. A lot of it’s going to be me sitting down with ownership, with Arturas, just to find out — OK, what’s the next step? How are we all looking at going through this? What do we need to do to continue to improve and to get better?”

“I wanted to get into coaching to win. How are we going to work to get into a place where we’re really competing? And how do we build this out going forward? Those are the things I think we need to talk about. Because, yeah — selfishly, competitively, I want us to be in that situation where we’re playing in real, legitimate (games). … I want to be in that situation. I understand that that doesn’t happen overnight or in a blink of an eye. It takes a lot of hard work and diligence.”

It’s looking like the situation stands where Billy Donovan is just as in the dark as us fans are. Does Donovan really believe in AK after the dogshit rosters he’s been given and, like what us fans hear, vague platitudes about ‘patience’ with any plan simply listing off ways to acquire players?

Donovan, unlike Karnisovas, is smart and accomplished. So I find it pretty obvious that the answer is ‘no’: It’s very hard to think of ways how to get out of this hole in the first place - even winning the lottery, and/or poaching a restricted free agent, then requires a lot of smart decisions - and we know even if there is a plan, there’s no way AK can effectively articulate it.

Like I said 2 years ago when Billy was rumored to be gone to Kentucky, an NBA team - especially a ‘glamor franchise’ - losing a head coach to the college ranks is an embarrassment. I would think it is so much of an embarrassment that ownership would finally pull the plug on the AKME regime. Maybe when that decision is made, Donovan really more needs the time off and will settle in a cushier front-office role? Or ownership will remain stubborn and give AK yet another chance, they’ll hire some Will Hardy or Brian Keefe esque bozo on the cheap (Billy III?) to run this rebuild ‘stage’ for another year, and then like all things Bulls they’ll do the correct thing way too late and mass firings in 2027.

1. Bulls played a game there and got absolutely waxed, doubling-down on the embarrassment of being down 40 points by then using that garbage time for a 53-35 score in the 4th quarter. Giddey almost had a triple-double!