Another assistant coaching hire has been announced for head coach Billy Donovan. This time it’s a familiar face to Donovan.
Oklahoma City assistant Maurice Cheeks is joining Billy Donovan’s staff as an assistant coach with the Chicago Bulls, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 2, 2020
Maurice “Mo” Cheeks became an assistant coach in Oklahoma City the same year that Donovan became head coach. He was with OKC for the last 5 years all with Donovan. Maurice has a multitude of different coaching experiences over his last 27 years in coaching. Maurice played in the league for 15 years, the bulk of his career with the Philadelphia 76ers. He was a 4 time NBA All-Star and won the 1983 NBA Championship. He had a great career in the league and immediately went to coaching after it concluded.
Cheeks and Donovan clearly got along well if he is following him to Chicago. The OKC Thunder exceeded expectations last season and found their way into the NBA Playoff Bubble. Cheeks was an important piece for that OKC team. As a 15 year pro, he knows the ins and outs of the game. He can help players develop their basketball craft in the eyes of both the coach and the player. It helps that Cheeks played the PG position and can help to mold Coby White into the team’s future PG if that’s the route they want to go down.
The Bulls assistant coaches seem to be rounding out at this point. Earlier today the Bulls announced the hiring of Bucks assistant coach Josh Longstaff. Donovan is bringing in exactly who he wants to be part of this Bulls coaching staff.
The Reinsdorf’s finally get it
By all accounts, it appears that the Reinsdorf’s are finally backing off. The owners/operators of this team are giving Donovan full control over who he is adding to his bench. This is the exact right move needed to create the type of team that Donovan wants. Throughout this offseason, there was fear that former head coach Jim Boylen was going to be sticking around. After he was let go it appeared that the assistant coaches left behind might stay. That wasn’t the case and the Reinsdorf’s paid up and let Donovan decide who wasn’t going to make the cut.
So far this offseason, the Chicago Bulls have:
🔴 Hired Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley, who:
🔴 Fired Gar Forman
🔴 Fired Jim Boylen
🔴 Hired Billy Donovan, who:
🔴 Hired Josh Longstaff and Maurice Cheeks.The future is now, Chicago. pic.twitter.com/Fu0s8RVArH
— Artūras Karnišovas Fan Club (@arturasfanclub) November 2, 2020
Looking at this team as a whole you can tell that the Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Artūras Karnišovas has been given complete control of this franchise. He is allowing Donovan to build the coaching staff that he believes will bring this team to greatness. Like I stated in the previous article this team is young and needs to develop in order to be able to evaluate the players. Under the previous regime, the team was never coached in a way that developed each individual player. This coaching staff is going to focus on fundamentals and development. This will be the only way to truly evaluate this young squad.
The hype around the Chicago Bulls is high right now. We haven’t even gotten to the draft or free agency and Bulls fans are excited. The Bulls stock appears to be trending upwards. This Bulls coaching staff looks great on paper, let’s see how they execute come next season.
