It's Never a Good Sign When You Secretly Give Your Head Coach a Contract Extension

The Chicago Bulls currently sit at 9-11 so far this season and it appeared as though their championship window—which had just opened last season—had been pretty much shut until a strange Billy Donovan story was revealed this week.

Sources: The Chicago Bulls signed head coach Billy Donovan to a contract extension after last season’s playoff run snapping a four-year postseason drought, adding years to his original four-year deal.

Story: https://t.co/8lLG0LWJkz

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 29, 2022

Billy Donovan has a 86-88 record coaching the Bulls and yes, he coached the team to their first playoff appearance since 2017 but they were promptly bounced in the first round by the Milwaukee Bucks in a gentleman’s sweep.

On paper, this team looks like it should be able to at least compete for homecourt advantage in the Eastern Conference but instead, if the season were to end today, the Bulls would be outside of the play-in.

Typically, when organizations sign their head coaches to contract extensions, it’s big exciting news. It gives the executives an excuse to pop champagne and leave the office early as they leak info to ESPN but for some reason, the Bulls swept it under the rug.

It’s even weirder because Billy Donovan had 2 years left on his contract and there was absolutely no rush to give him an extension. Perhaps they thought after making the playoffs, he’d be a hot coaching commodity but honestly, if Donovan was available today I don’t think any NBA team would rush to sign him.

It feels like the only reason why this Donovan contract extension was leaked this week is because people were starting to think he may be fired soon and the Bulls had to reluctantly let everyone know that they actually can’t fire him due to giving him more money for no reason.

So to recap: the Bulls finally made the playoffs for the first time in 7 years and immediately gave Billy Donovan a contract extension when he still had 2 years left on his deal and they signed Zach LaVine to a $215 million max contract. LaVine is currently shooting 40% from the field and is so bad that Donovan can’t play him in 4th quarters.

The Bulls had one good year and now they have to rebuild again. That’s almost impossible but the Bulls figured it out.