Jerry Stackhouse Emerges as a Chicago Bulls Head Coaching Candidate

The Chicago Bulls are in the midst of a lot of change. Following the firing of former Executive VP of Basketball Operations Arturas Karnisovas and General Manager Marc Eversley, Chicago has started a total overhaul of their front office and coaching staff.

Enter Bryson Graham, the 39-year old who is now the Bulls new Executive VP of Basketball Ops, following a stint as the Atlanta Hawks Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations and 15 years with the New Orleans Pelicans in which he worked his way up from intern to General Manager.

Graham hit the ground running as Bulls Executive VP of Basketball Ops, wasting no time as he hired Orlando Magic assistant GM Stephen Mervis as the new VP of Basketball Operations; and former Brooklyn Nets Director of Player Personnel Acie Law as the new VP of Player Personnel.

Before joining the Nets, Law was the Director of Amateur Scouting for the Oklahoma City Thunder, and was a part of OKC's staff when they won the 2025 NBA title. 

With the front office mostly filled out, and lottery luck shining on the Bulls to move them up to 4th in the draft order, the last big piece of business for them to handle is hiring a head coach.

There have been many names rumored, but the rumors are starting to heat up, and the latest head coaching candidate rumored is a former two-time NBA All-Star and member of the 1996 All-Rookie 1st team, Jerry Stackhouse.

Stackhouse is a coaching free agent after spending the past two seasons as an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors on Steve Kerr's coaching staff. Stackhouse, at 51 years old, is not a tremendously young coach, but he would be a first-time NBA head coach.

Being a first-time NBA head coach certainly isn't a requirement, but it would line up nicely with Graham, who is in his first go-round as the man in charge of an NBA front office. Allowing Graham and the head coach of his choosing to grow into their roles together would seem to make the most sense on paper, making a first-timer more likely in my opinion. 

Prior to his time in Golden State, Stackhouse was an assistant coach with the Memphis Grizzlies, and the Toronto Raptors. He started his coaching career as a Raptors assistant coach, with his first year in Toronto being 2016, where they lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Along with coaching the Raptors, Stackhouse also served as the head coach of Toronto's G-League--then called the D-League--squad, the Raptors 905.

That season (2017), the Raptors 905 led by Stackhouse won the G-League Championship, with Stackhouse winning the G-League Coach of the Year.

Stackhouse also was the head coach of the Vanderbilt Commodores for five seasons, being fired before he could complete the sixth and final season in his NCAA contract. Stackhouse didn't find the same success that he did in the NBA G-League at the college level, with Vanderbilt going 70-92 and not making the NCAA Tournament over his tenure. Stackhouse is known as a fiery and passionate head coach, who isn't scared to go at it with referees--sometimes to his own detriment--and focuses heavily on his teams being physical and defensive-minded.

Stackhouse stresses floor-spacing and balance on offense, and most of all, demands accountability from his players. He would be an intriguing and logic choice for a Bulls organization that will be building a team full of extremely young talent in need of guidance.