The Chicago Bulls widen their net to include the NBA's former highest-paid assistant and a key Hawks staffer with ties to Bryson Graham.
The Chicago Bulls barely had time to process missing out on their top target, Sean Sweeney. Instead, the net they cast for their head coaching search stretched wider
According to ESPN's Jamal Collier on Friday, the Bulls expressed interest in BYU head coach Kevin Young, believing that he was the first and only college coach on a firm list that has exceeded 10 candidates. CHSN's K.C. Johnson then followed with another report that Atlanta Hawks assistant Ryan Schmidt, a former colleague of Bulls EVP Bryson Graham, was also under consideration.
Young is the more unconventional name, but his NBA roots run deep. Before taking the BYU job in 2024, he spent eight years as an NBA assistant, including four seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers and four more with the Phoenix Suns. In Phoenix, he served as associate head coach from 2021 to 2024 under Monty Williams and Frank Vogel.
On June 3, 2023, Young was given a five-year contract extension worth $10 million with the Phoenix Suns, making him the highest-paid assistant coach in the NBA after finishing as the runner-up for the open head coach position for them. He remained in the associate head coach role with the team under newly-appointed coach Vogel.
Feb 28, 2026; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; BYU Cougars head coach Kevin Young answers questions from the media after being defeated by the West Virginia Mountaineers at Hope Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn ImagesDespite the extension, Young joined BYU after the Suns were eliminated in the first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs, filling the vacancy left by the departure of Mark Pope to the University of Kentucky. He signed a long-term extension with BYU in May 2025, the program that later secured projected No. 1 pick for the 2026 NBA Draft, AJ Dybantsa.
Young's path to this point started far from the spotlight. He began coaching at Oxford College before stints at Utah Valley and a brief overseas experience at Shamrock Rovers Hoops in Ireland. He then returned stateside as an assistant with the Utah Flash — the Jazz's former G League affiliate, later relocated and rebranded as the Delaware Blue Coats — before his first NBA job in Philadelphia.
Compared to Young, Schmidt brings a kind of familiarity to the current Bulls. The current Hawks assistant worked directly alongside Graham in Atlanta last season. Born in Keizer, Oregon, Schmidt played collegiately at the University of Hawaii and Oregon State before being selected by the Idaho Stampede in the 2008 NBA D-League Draft.
His coaching career includes four seasons with the Raptors 905, with one season under Jerry Stackhouse, who was included in the Bulls' list, before joining the College Park Skyhawks as head coach in 2023 and transitioning to the Hawks bench that same year under Quin Snyder.
Per ClutchPoints' Brett Siegel, the Bulls will finalize a new head coach by the second week of June.
