It’s a done deal.
The Chicago Bulls have given Billy Donovan a multi-year extension, according to Shams Charania of ESPN.
Bulls PR confirmed the extension.
According to Charania in a follow-up tweet, “The Bulls and Billy Donovan started negotiations at the end of last season and continued conversations through this week amid offseason planning, a brief pursuit of Donovan by the New York Knicks, and the draft, free agency and summer league.”
Rumors of the extension started surfacing in mid-June when Marc Stein originally broke that negotiations were ongoing. This comes ahead of the final season of Donovan’s first extension, taking him two years beyond his original four-year deal.
As first reported by Drew Stevens of The Bigs, the Bulls have also extended the contracts of Executive VP of Basketball Operations Artūras Karnišovas and GM Marc Eversley.
Donovan, now the third-longest tenured coach in the NBA following only Steve Kerr and Erik Spoelstra, is 195-205 during the regular season as the Bulls’ Head Coach. He’s made the Playoffs once in five years, going out in five games. In each of the past three years, the Bulls lost to the Miami Heat in the Play-In Tournament, with a 2-3 record.
Following the departure of DeMar DeRozan in the 2024 offseason, Donovan overhauled the Bulls offense, turning up the pace from 28th in 2023-24 to second in 2024-25.
The Bulls also adapted their shot profile to the modern NBA in 2024-25, shooting 42 three-pointers per game, the third most in the league. That figure can be a little misleading, considering they had more possessions per game than all but one team.
Still, their three-point attempt rate — the percentage of their total shots that came from beyond the arc — ranked third most in the league, at 42.4 percent. That improvement launched them up from 32.9 percent the previous season, 26th in the NBA.
Still, their offensive rating remained stagnant — 20th in 2024-25 and 19th in 2023-24.
Donovan has also done well to get the most out of a cast of misfits on the defensive end. Though they were 19th last season, they were top-11 in defensive rating after the All-Star Break. They also had a top-five finish in 2022-23.
Donovan’s record and performance by season:
- 2020-21: 31-41, -1.3 net rating (21st), 111.8 offensive rating (18th), 113.1 defensive rating (15th)
- 2021-22: 46-36, -0.2 net rating (19th), 113.9 offensive rating (14th), 114.1 defensive rating (22nd)
- 2022-23: 40-42, +1.3 net rating (13th), 113.8 offensive rating (24th), 112.5 defensive rating (5th)
- 2023-24: -1.9 net rating (21st), 115.1 offensive rating (19th), 116.9 defensive rating (22nd)
- 2024-25: -1.4 net rating (19th), 114.1 offensive rating (19th), 115.4 defensive rating (18th)
Despite the stagnation and consistently mediocre output, Donovan has been an excellent figurehead, spokesperson and leader in the organization. His patient, long-term approach to player development has played a critical role in the successful breakouts and turnarounds for Matas Buzelis, Ayo Dosunmu, and Coby White. And he’s got a strong, collaborative relationship with the front office as well as ownership.
In an NBA geared towards all-out race towards either the bottom or the top, one season above .500, one Playoff appearance and one Playoff win in five seasons doesn’t stand out as legitimate justification for a job extension.
But with the Bulls’ front office and coach locked in for the future, Bulls ownership is committing to their group and hoping that the beginnings of the roster and stylistic overhaul that started last summer can carry over and lead to better outcomes in the future.
