New Bulls Rumors on Tiago Splitter's HC Contract After Billy Donovan Resigned and Blazers Exit

The Chicago Bulls haven't won a playoff series since the 2014-15 campaign, and they found the head coach they hope ends more than a decade of futility and mediocrity.

Chicago hired Portland Trail Blazers interim coach Tiago Splitter on Monday, according to ESPN's Shams Charania.

The coaching position was vacant because Billy Donovan announced he was stepping down on April 21 following "a series of thoughtful and extensive discussions with ownership regarding the future of the organization. …  I believe it is in the best interest of the Bulls, to allow the new leader to build out the staff as they see fit."

That staff now has its leader after some significant organizational change.

Donovan stepped down shortly after the Bulls fired executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas and general manager Marc Eversley on April 6. They, along with Donovan, took over ahead of the 2020-21 campaign but were never able to establish consistent success.

ESPN's Jamal Collier reported after those firings there was a "growing disconnect" between the front office and the rest of the organization with Karnišovas and Eversley believing "they were working under the constraints of ownership."

According to Collier, both Donovan and the team's ownership "were hesitant to 'tank' in order to prioritize a high draft pick."

Despite those firings, it seemed like Donovan was going to be part of the Bulls for the foreseeable future when CEO Michael Reinsdorf told reporters candidates for the front office jobs had to be aligned with the coach.

"If I interview someone and they're not sold on Billy and they're not sold on a Hall of Fame coach, they're not sold on a person who has won championships in college, who has gone deep in the playoffs with Oklahoma City, who I believe every year with the Chicago Bulls given the team he was given I think he achieved really good results," Reinsdorf said.

"Not the results that we wanted, but that's not because of Billy. If someone's not interested in Billy as our coach ... then they're probably not the right candidate for us."

It was high praise for a coach who went 226-256 with just one playoff appearance and three additional play-in appearances during his six seasons with Chicago. Still, it wasn't entirely unwarranted since Donovan has proven his coaching abilities with two national titles at Florida and five straight playoff appearances with the Oklahoma City Thunder in previous stops.

It is also easy to blame the ownership and organization as a whole when evaluating the Bulls.

After all, they did not net a single additional first-round draft pick in trading away headline players such as Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Alex Caruso and Lonzo Ball. The team has also paid the luxury tax just twice in its history with the last time coming in 2015.

Donovan simply wasn't working with high-caliber rosters, and the results reflected that.

If history is any indication, those are the constraints Splitter will have to work with after accepting the job.

Still, there is some reason for optimism, as the Bulls own their future first-round draft picks, have some promising young players in Matas Buzelis and Josh Giddey, and have a new vice president of basketball operations in Bryson Graham helping make decisions.

There still isn't a clear cut No. 1 option as a surefire franchise cornerstone, but there is draft capital to work with and potential moves to be made. How the Bulls handle those opportunities will go a long way toward determining whether Splitter will have more success than Donovan did.

Splitter arrives at his first official head-coaching job with plenty of momentum, though, after he helped lead the Portland Trail Blazers to the playoffs from an interim role last season.

He went 42-39 during the regular season and guided the team to the postseason for the first time since the 2020-21 campaign.

Chicago is staring at its own playoff drought and hopes Splitter, who also has experience as an assistant coach for the Brooklyn Nets and Houston Rockets, is the one to fix it.