Ranking Bulls' Top HC Targets After Billy Donovan's Exit

For the first time since 2020, the Chicago Bulls are in the mix for a head coach after Billy Donovan stepped down from the position on Tuesday.

Donovan is leaving Chicago after a 226-256 record and one playoff appearance. He's also moving on at a time when the franchise is in the very-early stages of a rebuild after making seven trades in February prior to the deadline, including moving Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu.

One major complicating factor in trying to figure out which direction the Bulls might go with their next head coach is they have to hire someone to run the front office because they fired vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas and general manager Marc Eversley last month.

Keeping that caveat in mind, here are some of the potential candidates the Bulls might have on their radar when they get to the head-coach portion of the interview process.

Sean Sweeney

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Sean Sweeney has been an assistant coach in the NBA for 13 consecutive seasons. He's currently the associate head coach for the San Antonio Spurs on Mitch Johnson's staff.

The Spurs hired Sweeney after he spent the previous four seasons with the Dallas Mavericks. He also worked for the Brooklyn Nets (2013-14), Milwaukee Bucks (2014-18) and Detroit Pistons (2018-21).

Those tenures with the Bucks and Pistons, in particular, overlap with when those franchises were in the midst of transition periods. The Bucks didn't become an elite team until 2018-19, the season after Sweeney left, but the first steps in that evolution began when he was hired.

Per The Athletic's Eric Nehm and Fred Katz, one Eastern Conference scout said that Sweeney is viewed as the "top available" candidate among the potential first-time head coaching options.

Nehm and Katz noted Sweeney was the "primary player development coach" for Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee and played a significant role on Jason Kidd's staff with the Dallas Mavericks during their run to the 2024 NBA Finals.

Chris Quinn

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Few teams in the NBA have had as much sustained success at developing young players as the Miami Heat.

Chris Quinn has spent his entire NBA coaching career working on Erik Spoelstra's staff. He joined the club prior to the 2014-15 season as an an assistant before being promoted to associate head coach in 2024.

The 42-year-old has been a head-coaching candidate for several jobs in recent years. He was reportedly on the radar for the Phoenix Suns last summer. The Bucks, Indiana Pacers and Los Angeles Lakers have also brought him in for an interview within the past six years.

Quinn is regarded as sharing many of the same qualities that have made Spoelstra so successful as a head coach.

For a Bulls franchise that needs as much stability as it can get to lead a rebuild, Quinn seems to have the type of pedigree that would fit exactly what they are looking for.

Johnnie Bryant

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This is one that could be easy to piece together depending on how the search for a new front office executive plays out.

The Athletic's Jon Greenberg and Joel Lorenzi reported on April 20 that Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Mike Gansey is among the candidates to take over as Chicago's lead executive.

Johnnie Bryant is in his second season as an associate head coach on Kenny Atkinson's staff in Cleveland. He has also frequently popped up as a candidate for several vacancies in recent years, including making it to the list of finalists for the Suns last offseason.

The 40-year-old Bryant has been an NBA assistant since 2014. Prior to joining the Cavs, he had stints with the Utah Jazz (2014-20) and New York Knicks (2020-24).

If Gansey ends up getting the Bulls job, hiring a head coach who he already has an established rapport with could make it easier for everyone to be on the same page about how best to build for the long-term future in Chicago.