Who should the Bulls hire as their new coach? Here are 6 candidates.

CHICAGO — The pieces are beginning to fall into place for the Chicago Bulls.

After hiring two right hands in Acie Law IV and Stephen Mervis earlier this month, new executive vice president of basketball operations Bryson Graham turned his focus to the next item on the checklist: finding a coach to replace Billy Donovan.

This entire process is moving at a rapid pace out of sheer necessity. Although ownership bought itself a bit of extra time by cleaning house on the former regime before the end of the regular season, a full front office overhaul is no easy task in the 10-week span between the last game and the NBA draft on June 23. The Bulls are also competing with teams like the Orlando Magic and Dallas Mavericks that also need a new head coach.

So far, the Bulls have reportedly shown interest in and extended interview offers to six potential candidates: Miami Heat assistant Chris Quinn, Minnesota Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori, San Antonio Spurs assistant Sean Sweeney, Oklahoma City Thunder assistant Dave Bliss and Portland Trail Blazers interim head coach Tiago Splitter, per a report from Clutch Points; and Cleveland Cavaliers associate head coach Johnnie Bryant, per a report from ESPN.

This is not a definitive list — the Bulls’ coaching search is expansive and Graham has made it clear that he wants to plumb significant depths in this process — but it still serves as an informative guide to how this new front office is approaching the position.

The defining test of Graham’s task in Chicago is whether he can utilize his acumen for player scouting to hit gold several times — mostly in the draft, but also via trade and free agency — and thus methodically and organically build a winning roster. But the coaching search is a similar gauntlet for a different type of talent identification.

The Bulls are not seeking a vaunted veteran who has led teams deep into the playoffs. This is partially due to the steep financial commitment required to lure a top-level coach into a years-long rebuild, which will ostensibly include a lot of losing. But Graham’s search for an up-and-comer also reflects a broader ethos in the Bulls front office, which is focused on following a more patient process for developing talent internally.

The main throughline of this process so far is that the Bulls are clearly seeking the league’s next coaching star. Five of these six candidates are aged 40 to 42. (Nori is the lone outlier at 52.) Five of these candidates are also lead assistant coaches or associate head coaches with no prior head coaching experience.

As the lone head coach in this lineup, Splitter is notable due to the strangeness of his current situation. He stepped into the interim head coaching position with remarkable aplomb after the Trail Blazers were rattled by the removal of Chauncey Billups at the start of the season due to an FBI investigation into illegal sports betting. Splitter guided a young Trail Blazers team through a transformative season, finishing 42-40 in the regular season with a playoff berth via the play-in tournament. In any other situation, this should be his job for the taking in Portland, but due to the stingy lack of spending from owner Tom Dundon, Splitter is expected to leave for a better offer.

With his balance of experience while still retaining newcomer status, Splitter could be an ideal candidate for a Bulls team ready to build around young talent. The coach showed considerable skill working with young stars like Portland’s Deni Avdija, and managed a difficult workload competing against the stacked Western Conference.

Nori brings a similar blend of experience with nearly two decades under his belt as an assistant coach in the NBA, which includes serving as lead assistant with the Timberwolves since 2021 and helming the team for portions of the 2024 NBA playoffs while coach Chris Finch recovered from a knee injury.

Another clear focus from the Bulls in their coaching search is an emphasis on player development, which will be key for a team building around draft picks — beginning with this year’s No. 4 selection in a highly touted class. Bryant, Quinn, Sweeney and Bliss are all known as player development specialists who could help the Bulls solidify their foundation.

Player development can feel like a tricky buzzword in the NBA. This aspect of team building relies on a delicate combination of factors: identifying truly talented players, creating an off-court infrastructure to support player growth and engaging an on-court system that provides opportunities for young talent to fail, learn and ultimately improve.

Coaches who specialize in player development might require a greater infrastructure around them —such as experienced assistant coaches like Wes Unseld Jr. — to help navigate the other ins and outs of developing a system and executing game plans. But this is a worthwhile investment for a Bulls team prepared for a slow burn process that won’t require immediate in-game acumen.

Bliss and Quinn are notable for another reason: the roots of the coaching trees from which they respectively blossomed. Quinn spent more than a decade working under Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who is widely considered to be a future first ballot Hall of Famer and one of the top three current NBA coaches. Since 2018, Bliss worked his way up from the Thunder’s player development staff to the front bench under 2024 Coach of the Year Mark Daigneault.

Both candidates came into their own under two of the top minds in NBA coaching. Spoelstra and Daigneault operate different strategies and systems. But fundamentally, both represent the ideal type of coaching hire the Bulls hope to accomplish — identifying a talented young coach in an introductory stage of his career, then positioning him to build into his prime with a young roster.

For Graham, there’s still plenty of value in taking his time to make this decision. But the basic parameters for the next head coach — young with pedigree, specialized in development, hungry to prove himself — are already set.

All that’s left is for the Bulls to pick a name and let the next era begin.

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