[RUDEBOY-Participant]

The 55 year old Donovan spent 5 seasons with OKC,leading the team many viewed in preseason as lottery bound into the playoffs ..Donovan parted ways with the team after his contract expired …This move by the Bulls is their first coaching hire with previous head coaching experience since Scott Skiles in 2003…
Several of his former Thunder players and Florida Gators players praised him for his willingness to listen to players..When he was coaching the Gators he wanted his teams to move the ball and play aggressive….But that style ended for more iso play with all stars Kevin Durant,Russell Westbrook and later Paul George on his teams……When KD departed for the west coast to become the 4th Beatle…..Donovan put the ball in Westbrook’s hands which lead to a predictable brand of basketball..After 3 early first round exit some felt Donovan would be on his way out…Westbrook was traded Donovan returned to more ball movement..With the help of all star guard Chris Paul and the developement of guard Alexander,OKC surprised alot of people and made it to the playoffs.
The young Bulls Lavine,Lauri,White & Carter will love Donovan’s free flowing offense..Zach Lavine who often butted heads with form coach Boylan,tweeted he loved the hire…. .Even with the 4th pick in the draft and a promising young core..The jury is still out on how much success the Bulls will have next season when you consider teams like Milwaukee,Miami,Boston,Toronto,Indiana, Nets ,76’ers have more talented experienced rosters..

[ndbigdaveParticipant]

Bulls fan here and I am not pleased nor impressed with Donovan (while admitting this is coming from someone “outside the situation” of OKC). From my view, we have a coach who peaked in his first year (with W/L and playoff success) not surpassingly was also the year he had KD and Russ. Following KD’s departure he still had Russ who won an MVP while generally stat-padding. He then had a year of Russ/Paul George and then this season with CPS and Russ. While I concede that OKC overachieved (at least based on pre-season expectations) when I view his record after year 1, we have a coach who averages about 6 games over .500 and who has failed in the playoffs. From what I remember from listening to global NBA podcasts and reading stores about OKC from the last few years, it was about Donovan being in over his head and that college may be better for his style of coaching.

To me, my first thought was just “meh.” Do I think Donovan is a competent coach? Sure, I kinda get the feeling like his is a functional coach – this is an improvement over Boylan – which isn’t saying much and shouldn’t be the barometer of how we judge the hire as my pet rock is likely an improvement over Boylan. I actually cringed when you mentioned how you think Lavine will love playing for him because I would like nothing more than to see Lavine gone.

Who would I have gone with? I was leaning towards Atkinson as I respected what he did with the dumpster fire in Brooklyn with almost no talent, he developed some guys, built a system and culture and continuously improved. I was also big on Unseld Jr. as the “unknown” but someone who comes from systems and programs that I like a great deal and who has earned a tremendous reputation. Do I “know” they would be better? No, but I would be excited about the potential upside of both while I feel like Donovan will lead the Bulls exactly to where we were trying to avoid 3 years ago when we traded Butler to start a fresh rebuild rather than suffering through mediocrity. I have no desire to fight for the 7th or 8th seed, I want to build something with young talent and then spending free-agent money that can compete for championships.

[armchairgmParticipant]

I was hoping the hired within and gave the job to Chris Fleming. I see him being the next Nick Nurse.

[Pro 1Participant]

Another coaching retread…Chicago is winning anything with him leading the way. No playoffs for the next 3-5 seasons.

[CynthiaParticipant]

As an OKC fan, thank you for taking him off our hands. He’s a great college coach but he can’t handle real men and their egos. OKC fans have been begging for him to be gone since the first year…yet it took 5. He was a coach that was hired to be complacent and let Durant basically run the team, it was a last-ditch effort to keep KD. When that failed we were left with a coach that was useless.

The new strategy after KD left was to let Westbrook act a fool every play and lead the team, Westbrook walked all over Donovan. I love Westbrook with all my heart but he’s not a leader. So with a bad coach and a bad leader on the court; OKC descended rapidly and we became stuck in no-mans land of not winning but not losing enough to get high draft picks.

Yes we overachieved this year, there is no denying that. But that has nothing to do with Donovan and everything to do with our real coach, Chris Paul. CP3 is old but he’s still got it, he was a godsend this year and drastically helped develop SGA become a potential star.

I’m legit shocked another team picked him up, and so fast. He will be an improvement over Boylan but like the guy above said, that’s not saying much. Maybe he will prove me wrong and a change of scenery is what he needs, I just don’t think so.

Good riddance.

[Dazzling Dunks and Basketball BloopersParticipant]

I’m still very surprised okc let him go. He had his ups and downs there but really overachieved this past season. I think he’s a solid hire for a young developing team and he won’t have to deal with the egos he did throughout the majority of his okc tenure. He had to cater to Westbrook’s strengths and weaknesses and ego and never really had the opportunity to fully implement his coaching until this past season, which went very well all things considered. His success in Chicago will likely depend on the front office and his ability to develop the young talent and get them to play more cohesively as a unit. I’d give this a chance before writing it off.

[armchairgmParticipant]

OKC didn’t let him go they offered him a 2 year contract extension as his deal was expiring and he rejected it because OKC is going to blow it up this offseason and he didn’t want to be part of the rebuild.

[armchairgmParticipant]

Surprised Donovan took the Bulls job as he wouldn’t accept a 2 year extension from OKC because they were going to be rebuilding. OKC with SGA and all those 1st rounders is still a better job than the Bulls.

[OhCanada-Participant]

SGA got exposed in the Playoffs. He was a liability on the defensive end and the Rockets took advantage of that which cost them a bunch of quarters. No doubt he will improve though.

[HitsterParticipant]

Billy Donovan as a previous top college coach would seemed to have been a logical guy to lead OKC’s rebuild but sometimes a change of scenery is needed. He might be able to help improve the young Bulls Team but I don’t see him taking them to legit contention unless the new GM makes some great moves.

[ndbigdaveParticipant]

I’d really be curious to hear more from OKC fans, I am basing my feelings on what limited things I heard about Donovan since he came to OKC and then the results. While again, I concede there was an overachieving season (this year) that was primarily because everyone thought OKC was blowing it up, they actually had a good amount of talent and CP3 had a really solid season (while generally staying healthy) so I am not entirely sure I give a ton of credit to Donovan for beating minimal expectations while having a future HOF PG take the lead for the team and having a pretty decent group of guys this year.

What also confuses me is that OKC is, apparently, going to go through a rebuild by likely moving on from CP3 if they can and following a youth movement lead by SGA, Bazley, Furgeson and the picks which makes sense. Donovan may not wanted to be a part of that and the two sides separated. Ill accept that, though I find it interesting that if he was such a tremendous coach OKC wouldn’t have made it work and Donovan would have stayed.

So Donovan avoids a true rebuild to go to a Chicago team that has zero cap space (unless Porter ops out of his contract), no all-star level players and the #4 pick in a “meh” draft. While Ill be the first to say that some injury luck alone would have helped the team in 19/20, does anyone really think the Bulls, even if EVERYTHING went right are anything better than the 6th seed? Are we catching the Bucks, Heat, 76ers, Nets, Celtics? The Raptors are primed to take a step back, but the Pacers are likely going to be better with Victor back and some moves to make. So in my eyes we have a team, at what appears to be its “Peak” that could vie for the #6 seed with a closer bet to be the #7 or #8 (without considering what steps forward a team like the Hawks may make, the Wizards getting Wall back and Orlando improving (Issac being out will hurt them).

So dont go through a rebuild with OKC to get bounced in the first round of the playoffs? Sounds on brand for Donovan and the Bulls. Which again brings me back to my initial reaction of “meh.” We got a coach that is competent but nothing exciting, I dont see the upside here at all. Just feels like the franchise will be happy to sneak into the playoffs, have no assets to get a real star and be stuck “in the middle” until the bottom falls out again which was what happened when we embraced the tank (kinda) and traded Jimmy.

Totally disappointed.

[Author]

Posts