Billy Donovan's Future With Chicago Bulls Reportedly in Doubt

The Chicago Bulls overhauled their roster at the trade deadline, resulting in a plethora of new faces joining the roster in the middle of the season. Matas Buzelis (21 years old) and Josh Giddey (23 years old) appear to be the franchise cornerstones as the team enters a rebuild, and outside of those two, the Bulls could once again look very different next year.

However, the athletes might not be the only Bulls changing teams this summer. According to the Chicago Sun-Times' Joe Cowley, Billy Donovan may be nearing the end of his tenure as the Bulls' head coach.

"There’s been growing momentum around the building that Donovan could step away from the mess and take a season to re-evaluate what he wants from the profession," Cowley wrote on Tuesday morning. "It would make sense considering how emotional the year has been for the Hall of Famer, losing both his father and mother-in-law within weeks of each other."

Donovan is 11 games away from completing his 11th season as an NBA head coach and his sixth in the Windy City. While he reached the postseason in each of his five years with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Donovan's time with Chicago has been a different story.

The Bulls have exceeded 40 wins in a season just once (2021-22: 46-36), a year that resulted in a first-round playoff loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. Chicago has otherwise hovered slightly under .500 and been a perennial Play-In Tournament participant before finally attempting to bottom out at this year's trade deadline.

A large part of those struggles has stemmed from incompetence in the front office. Executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley constructed rosters that weren't good enough to contend for a title, then failed to move on from their most valuable assets until it was too late.

That's forced the Bulls to be stuck in the middle and caused a difficult situation for Donovan. Chicago has played a startling 27 different players this season, while the Bulls are headed for their worst win percentage since Jim Boylen led the team.

Off-the-court circumstances have made the year particularly challenging as well. On Feb. 14, Bill Donovan Sr. passed away at the age of 85. Assistant coach Wes Unseld Jr. filled in to coach the Bulls' following game while Billy Donovan attended his father's funeral.

Donovan has been a highly successful coach in the past. Prior to joining Oklahoma City, he was the longtime head coach at the University of Florida. Donovan led the Gators to back-to-back National Championship victories in 2006 and 2007 and brought his team to the NCAA Tournament 14 times in 19 seasons.

That success in Gainesville resulted in Donovan's induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame last fall. Somehow, the 60-year-old has won everywhere he's been except Chicago, and if he does decide to step away from the Bulls following this season, there's no doubt he'd be a highly coveted coach at both the professional and collegiate levels.