Chicago cleaned house in the front office on Monday, firing VP of Basketball Operations Arturas Karnisovas and General Manager Marc Eversley.
The Chicago Bulls made a massive move on Monday, firing VP of Basketball Operations Arturas Karnisovas and General Manager Marc Eversley. It was a move that some had been predicting as of late, following the fallout from the Jaden Ivey situation in which he was released for "conduct detrimental to the team."
The somewhat bizarre--especially for a franchise that usually keeps thing quiet and stays out of the public eye--Ivey situation was just one of many calls by Karnisovas and Eversley that led to their eventual dismissal. But now it has come out that Chicago is determined to keep current head coach Billy Donovan around, which brings to question: could he be a viable candidate for the next Bulls' VP of Basketball Ops?
Donovan has no experience in an executive role that would say he is interested or extremely qualified to take over, but the situation does draw some slight parallels to Brad Stevens right before his promotion to President of Basketball Operations with the Boston Celtics.
Stevens took over as Danny Ainge departed. And while Stevens had some input on the roster and worked with Ainge during his tenure, Boston took a big swing promoting Stevens to a role he had never worked in before and it paid off. This is not to necessarily say things would play out the same in Chicago, but there is precedent.
Donovan is a Hall of Fame head coach mostly due to his tenure at the University of Florida, where he infamously won back-to-back National Championships in 2006 and 2007. Those teams were led by the extremely talented trio of Al Horford, Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer, and Taurean Green, all recruited to the Gators by Donovan and his staff.
Outside of the championship winning teams, Donovan put together many talented Florida squads over his long tenure. The top players he was able to land as a recruiter include longtime NBAers Udonis Haslem, David Lee, Matt Bonner, Mike Miller, Chandler Parsons and Bradley Beal.
Of course, recruiting at even an elite NCAA level does not directly translate to being a great NBA executive one day. But based off of how much the Bulls organization trusts Billy Donovan, it certainly seems like a possibility. The Bulls certainly value Donovan's input an extreme amount, to the point where his son--who has done a solid job with the Windy City Bulls--joined the organization in 2024.
While it is known that the Bulls want to keep Donovan around, it is not yet known if they would be willing to promote him to a front office role if that's what it takes to keep. But we will find out soon enough.
Even if Donovan isn't promoted to a front office role, one would expect him to have ample input on candidates considering his long tenure with the Bulls, and the fact that the two parties will need to work together closely to prevent the organization from being in this situation again anytime soon. But Donovan jumping to VP of Basketball Ops wouldn't be shocking at all, and the Stevens situation in Boston should showcase to Bulls fans exactly what that transition would look like.