Tiago Splitter is filling out his coaching staff with several new assistants.
The Chicago Bulls have their most important pieces in place: Bryson Graham at the top, Tiago Splitter as the head coach and Caleb Wilson as the franchise's next cornerstone.
Supplementary executives have joined the fold as well, with Stephen Mervis managing salary cap strategy and analytics and Acie Law IV managing player personnel, the draft and scouting.
Now, Splitter has begun the process of building out his coaching staff as he sees fit. According to HoopsHype's Mike Scotto, the Bulls are hiring three assistant coaches to join Splitter in Chicago: Rex Kalamian, Jonah Herscu and Blake Ahearn.
Kalamian was previously an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks, where he spent the last two-plus years. The 57-year-old has worked in the NBA since 1995 and made stops with the Los Angeles Clippers (twice), Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Sacramento Kings (twice), Oklahoma City Thunder, Toronto Raptors and Detroit Pistons, before Doc Rivers hired him to join the Bucks in January of 2024.
December 15, 2020; Sacramento, California, USA; Sacramento Kings assistant coach Rex Kalamian during the first quarter against the Golden State Warriors at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn ImagesHe is also the head coach of the Armenian National Team, a position he has held since 2022. Under Kalamian's leadership, Armenia won the 2022 FIBA European Championship for Small Countries after going undefeated in tournament play.
Herscu joins Splitter after serving as the coach of the Portland Trail Blazers' G League affiliate — the Rip City Remix — last season. He attended Lake Forest College in the northern suburbs of Chicago before beginning his NBA career as an assistant video coordinator in 2016 for Luke Walton's Los Angeles Lakers.
When Walton parted ways with the Lakers and joined the Kings, Herscu came with him. Herscu was a scout before being named an assistant coach for Sacramento in 2021-22, but Walton's mid-season firing led to Herscu being on the move once again. Chauncey Billups brought him on-board Portland in 2022, and last July, he was named the Remix's next head coach. Rip City was the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference Playoffs with a 19-17 record.
Dec 25, 2022; San Francisco, California, USA; Memphis Grizzlies assistant coach Blake Ahearn (left) talks to guard Ja Morant (right) before the game against the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn ImagesAhearn, 42, is the only one of Chicago's new additions with previous NBA playing experience. After going undrafted out of Missouri State in 2007, Ahearn worked his way up through the D-League (now G League) and landed a 10-day contract with the Miami Heat. He averaged 5.8 points in his 12 NBA games played and was named the D-League Rookie of the Year.
The next seven years, Ahearn bounced around several D-League teams and made stops playing basketball in Spain, Italy, China, Ukraine and Puerto Rico. He made seven more appearances between the San Antonio Spurs and Utah Jazz, but ultimately pivoted to coaching in 2015.
Ahearn coached high school for a few years before joining the Austin Spurs as the head coach in 2017, then finally returned to the NBA as an assistant for the Memphis Grizzlies in 2020. He worked under both Taylor Jenkins — now with the Bucks — and current head coach Tuomas Iisalo.
