The Chicago Bulls have found a new lead assistant head coach, as the team is expected to hire Wes Unseld Jr. in the spot under head coach Billy Donovan, per ESPN. The Bulls had a vacancy at the position after the team parted ways with previous lead assistant Chris Fleming in April. Unseld comes to the Bulls after serving as the head coach of the Washington Wizards for the last two and a half seasons. Unseld was let go in January by the Wizards following a 7-36 start to the season and was moved into a front-office advisory role for the team.
The Bulls wanted a lead assistant with previous head coaching experience, per NBC Chicago, and in hiring Unseld, they're checking off that box. While Unseld compiled just a 77-130 record during his tenure in D.C. and made no postseason appearances, he comes with a lengthy assistant coaching resume that includes stops with the Warriors, Nuggets, Magic and the Wizards. Unseld was an assistant coach with the Nuggets when they went to the Western Conference finals in 2020 and has coached under Michael Malone, Mark Jackson and Ernie Grunfeld.
With Unseld filling the lead assistant role, the Bulls are also still searching for another assistant coach on Donovan's staff after Josh Longstaff left the organization to join first-time head coach Charles Lee in Charlotte. Longstaff was previously expected to be a candidate to fill the lead assistant role before accepting a job with the Hornets, per NBC Chicago, but finding someone with previous head coaching experience was important to Donovan and the Bulls.
In addition to that change, assistant coach Maurice Cheeks isn't expected to return to his full-time position under Donovan next season, opting to take a "lesser role" on the staff. Cheeks has essentially been Donovan's right-hand man since the former University of Florida coach became an NBA coach, serving as his assistant during his tenure in Oklahoma City, and following Donovan to Chicago in 2020.
With all the changes happening to the coaching staff, it's clear that the Bulls are trying to shake things up in hopes of finding more success next season. It was another disappointing finish in the Windy City that ended without a playoff spot, once again falling to the Miami Heat in the play-in round, this time without Jimmy Butler, which is even more demoralizing. The Bulls finished with a 39-43 record, the second-consecutive season the team has finished with a losing record.
But while the changes on the coaching staff could ignite some change, the Bulls also need to make some sort of change to a roster that hasn't delivered enough results to justify keeping this core intact. Injuries have certainly played a role in this team's inability to generate any kind of sustained success, as Lonzo Ball hasn't played since January 2022, and Zach LaVine was shut down in January of this season with an ankle injury. But at some point, Chicago needs to realize that his aging group may have run its course. We'll have to see what meaningful roster changes come for the Bulls this summer, but these coaching changes already hint that the team is open to mixing things up in order to find success again.
