Chicago Bulls may need a new coach soon and two candidates already stand out

Chicago Bulls may need a new coach soon and two candidates already stand out originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Chicago Bulls want Billy Donovan to stay. A day after CEO Michael Reinsdorf dismissed VP of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and GM Marc Eversley from their positions, he emphasized that candidates for executive positions who are not willing to keep Donovan as coach are unlikely to fit in.

Yet, what a team wants and what happens often prove to be entirely different things and at this point, it seems as if it will be completely Donovan's call what happens next.

A coaching change might be looming for Chicago

Multiple sources claim that a meeting between Donovan and the Bulls' management is planned right after the regular season is over to discuss Donovan's future. The University of North Carolina job, which many believed was Donovan's most likely exit ramp, went to Michael Malone back in March. That option is gone.

Nevertheless, according to HoopsHype, the Orlando Magic might intrigue Donovan should they replace Jamahl Mosley with another coach this summer. Another simple scenario here would be Donovan deciding that six years in Chicago were enough for him and simply walk away.

If Donovan chooses to leave Chicago, two people immediately come to mind when speaking of potential replacement options. First of which is former guard-turned-coach Sam Cassell, currently working for the Boston Celtics under Joe Mazzulla.

Over fifteen-year-long coaching career, which started right after Cassell retired, includes three titles as a player but no head coaching position of his own. Which seems odd since he has interviewed for numerous NBA head coaching jobs over the years without landing one.

Nonetheless, considering how much respect Sam Cassell enjoys in the league and Charles Lee's success as a coach in Charlotte after leaving Mazzulla's staff at the Celtics, this scenario becomes more realistic with each passing day.

Another name that needs mentioning here is Taylor Jenkins, who was let go by the Memphis Grizzlies last year after having accumulated a 250-214 record and three consecutive appearances in the playoffs with the team.

It goes without saying that a coach who took a team that was out of the playoffs entirely and turned it into the third seed in the West has great potential to turn the Bulls' fortune.

They have only appeared twice in the postseason within a decade and were eliminated in the first round both times.

What will happen next entirely depends on Donovan himself. While Reinsdorf is evidently reluctant to change the current situation, it might not play into the Bulls' favor.