On Tuesday morning, Billy Donovan stepped down as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls. Chicago now enters the offseason with a clean slate, needing to hire a VP of Basketball Operations, a GM, and now, a head coach as well. Whether or not you believed in Donovan as a coach, it is undeniable that hiring a new front office and allowing them to install a head coach of their choosing is a better recipe for success, or at the very least, everyone being on the same page. 

With the Bulls' head coaching job officially open, we look at six viable candidates as the search begins. 

Boston Celtics assistant coach Sam Cassell would be at the top of my list of head coaching candidates personally, especially if the Bulls are planning to continue with Josh Giddey as the lead playmaker. Cassell is one of the most experienced assistant coaches in the NBA, starting his assistant coaching career with the Washington Wizards in 2008.

Since then, Cassell has had coaching stops with the Los Angeles Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics. 

Similar to Billy Donovan, Cassell was once an NBA point guard. But unlike Donovan, Cassell was a major player at the NBA level, finishing as a one-time All-Star, one-time All-NBA, and three-time NBA Champion. Cassell was one of the premier midrange scorers and floor generals despite a lack of athleticism compared to his peers. The knowledge that Cassell possesses would likely do wonders for the game of Josh Giddey, who hasn't fully untapped his potential as a scorer who relies on craft more than straight-line speed or jumping ability. 

Cassell has been a winner as player and a coach and clearly has the coaching acumen to lead his own team. At this stage of his career, the biggest question would be does he desire to be a head coach now? Or is he comfortable in his role with a great Boston Celtics franchise?

The Miami Heat have long been known to have a great coaching staff led by Erik Spoelstra, who himself is often referred to as the top coach in the NBA. A huge part of Spoelstra's success has been Chris Quinn, the longest-tenured member of the Heat staff. Quinn is Miami's associate head coach, a promotion he received in 2024 as a "formality," as Spoelstra said Quinn had long been fulfilling the duties of an associate head coach. 

Quinn has been a part of a Miami Heat franchise that has only known for winning during his tenure. Like the first candidate mentioned in this article, Quinn is a former NBA PG. He worked his way up from journeyman NBA PG to Northwestern player development coach, before eventually getting a chance to coach for the team he started his NBA career with.

He was an assistant coach for Miami's G League franchise, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, before moving up to be one of Spoeltra's assistants. Like Cassell, Quinn has also not served as an NBA head coach yet despite being a finalist in several coaching searches. 

It is almost inevitable that the 42-year old Quinn--young for an NBA head coach--will get plenty of looks this offseason considering all the vacancies. Chicago selecting Quinn would make all the sense in the world, letting a young assistant with a track record of success get his first shot to mold a team in his image. 

Even if you're not familiar with Sean Sweeney, his face may be familiar if you're an avid NBA watcher. Sweeney started his NBA career in the video room with the then-New Jersey Nets, eventually becoming an assistant coach as they transitioned to the Brooklyn Nets. Sweeney has had stints with the Milwaukee Bucks, Detroit Pistons, Dallas Mavericks, and currently, the San Antonio Spurs. 

Sweeney was closely attached to the hip of Jason Kidd, who he worked under in Milwaukee and Dallas. He had a large hand in crafting the very successful defenses of those Bucks and Mavs teams. The best moment of Sweeney's career was his NBA Finals run with the Mavericks that culminated in them losing 4-1 to the Boston Celtics.

Sweeney left the Mavs to become the associate head coach in San Antonio under head coach Mitch Johnson. Could the allure of running his own show pry Sweeney away from Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs?

Taylor Jenkins shouldn't need much of an introduction to recent NBA fans. Jenkins was the head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies from 2019 to 2025, amassing a record of 250-214 (53.9% Win Percentage). His teams played tough defense, usually got excellent effort from their role players, and had a decent postseason run to the Western Conference Semifinals in 2022. 

Jenkins was shockingly fired in Memphis ahead of the 2025 NBA postseason. At the time of this firing, the Grizzlies were 44-29. 

If the Bulls choose to go with an internal hire, they already had a look at Unseld Jr. as a head coach. Unseld Jr. took over as head coach when Donovan was out in late February, a 110-101 loss to the Toronto Raptors. 

Unseld's job in that Toronto game was an extremely tough one, managing a roster that had just turned over quite a bit. He did his best to form a rotation that gave almost all of their new guards--sans Jaden Ivey--minutes, and the results weren't great to say the least. It's possible that Unseld can make a better meal once he gets to choose the ingredients, but his tenure with the Washington Wizards wasn't inspiring. At the very least, Bulls ownership should have plenty of intel already on Unseld's relationships with the current Bulls players. 

This one is more a wildcard that I don't foresee happening but still feel compelled to mention. If the Bulls truly wanted to make the splashiest hire possible, hiring local legend Jon Scheyer away from the Duke Blue Devils would be the move. 

There have been many--mostly unreliable--rumors that Scheyer would heavily consider the Bulls job if offered.

Scheyer has been a masterful recruiter with the Blue Devils, has won 83.2% of his games as head coach there, and is coming off of a season in which Duke won 92% of its games and lost in the Final Four. 

The 38-year-old Scheyer is a Northbrook, Illinois native and made his mark as a dominant prep player at Glenbrook North ahead of his career at Duke. The 2006 Illinois Mr. Basketball would certainly bring a ton of excitement and energy to the franchise he grew up rooting for.

The hiring of the young-for-an-NBA-head-coach Scheyer would draw comparisons to Brad Stevens, who was 36 years old when he left the Butler Bulldogs for the Boston Celtics. Scheyer was a high basketball IQ guard with an aggressive scoring mentality as a player, and brings that same attitude and edge as a head coach. If the Bulls were to go into the NBA Draft without a head coach, and proceeded to land Duke star Cameron Boozer, the Scheyer-to-Chicago noise would only get louder.