The Chicago Bulls made a big splash on Monday afternoon when they hired former Portland Trail Blazers head coach Tiago Splitter as their new head coach.

Splitter took over as the head coach of Portland following Chauncey Billups' arrest on October 23rd, 2025, for his involvement in a federal gambling investigation. 

The Trail Blazers finished the regular season with a record of 42-40, and won their NBA Play-In game to qualify as the 7th seed in the NBA postseason. 

Out of the plethora of head coaching candidates the Bulls were looking at, Splitter is the only one who had any sort of--albeit brief--NBA head coaching experience. 

It may seem a little bit of an overreaction when we get to the grading portion of this piece, but I think Splitter's resume speaks for itself.

I find it hard to give this hire anything other than the highest possible mark for Chicago. An "A" would've sufficed, but I think an "A+" is deserved when considering that the Bulls grabbed the only head coach from their candidate list with prior NBA head coaching experience, and a very positive experience at that. 

Splitter was thrust into an NBA head coaching role unexpectedly, and led a young Portland team to immediate success.

Per Basketball-Reference, Portland was 20th in Offensive Rating (114.4) and 14th in Defensive Rating (114.7). That DRtg finishing in the top half of the league was the driving force behind the Trail Blazers' success. 

What was most impressive about Splitter getting that type of performance from his young group was that he didn't give up on the development of 21-year old PG Scoot Henderson. The 6-foot-3 Henderson played 24.9 MPG and averaged a career-high 14.2 PPG. His assist numbers went down as a result of sharing playing time with veteran Jrue Holiday, but Splitter managed to maintain a wonderful balance between winning now and keeping an eye towards the future. 

Young guard Shaedon Sharpe (23 years old) averaged a career-high 20.8 PPG and a career-best 1.4 steals per game, showing off the same type of defensive intensity that Splitter will be expected to extract from Chicago's young talent. 

Splitter will get to work with Matas Buzelis, Josh Giddey and the Bulls 4th and 15th overall picks, giving him a very intriguing group to work with as he starts his new role. 

The Bulls have been reportedly working hard behind the scenes to move up in the draft order from their 15th overall spot, and with Splitter in tow, it will now be easier to form a cohesive vision. 

There is, of course, a chance that Splitter is not a homerun hire. But everything from being a Gregg Popovich disciple, to Portland's immediate success as he was thrust into the role, says that Splitter is an "A+" hire.