Gut-check time for coach Billy Donovan as the Bulls await his decision

Billy Donovan is go-by-the-gut type of guy.

It’s more than worked for him, whether it was to stay at Providence and continue playing for a young coach named Rick Pitino, walk away from a Wall Street job right out of college and pursue coaching, or turn down an Orlando head coaching job 15 years ago after initially agreeing to it.

It’s a feel for Donovan and one that has a great track record, taking him on a journey to multiple college National Championships as the coach at Florida all the way to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Trust the gut.

So when the coach was talking in Dallas Sunday night after the Bulls wrapped up the season 31-51 and seemingly a few years away from even getting back to play-in game status, it was difficult to get a read from him and his decision to stay the Bulls coach or walk away.

Before the firing of executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley last week, the Sun-Times was reporting that Donovan was likely gone. How gone? Put it at a solid 90%.

In the wake of those front office changes, it felt like it dropped to 49% gone.

Not even because there was major friction between Donovan and his two front office bosses, as much as it was Karnisovas and Eversley having no real direction or plan in place that left Donovan feeling like he could compete for something meaningful.

An idea that Donovan actually could have drawn an opinion on early on.

According to a source, Karnisovas and Eversley’s talent evaluation was questionable right away, going back to the 2020 draft – the duo’s first bite at the apple.

Holding No. 4, Karnisovas settled on Patrick Williams. There were multiple scouts and other personnel in the draft room, however, that wanted Tyrese Haliburon. Now, the entire draft process was messed up because of Covid, but Karnisovas specifically was not only fixated on Williams, but didn’t even consider Haliburton a serious prospect.

The source indicated that Karnisovas didn’t even feel like Haliburton would be a top four talent on the Bulls roster at the time.

Before his Achilles injury in the NBA Finals last season, there was an argument to be made that Haliburton was a top four talent in the entire Eastern Conference.

Not a good first step for the front office to provide Donovan with talent, and it never really got better from there.

Because that’s where Donovan is in his career.

He coaches to win games and compete. There is no fame or legacy being chased down at this point.

In the wake of the front office purge, Donovan wanted to have a sit-down with both Jerry and Michael Reinsdorf to get a feel of their vision and did so on Tuesday. He returned home to Florida to mull over everything with the expectation that an answer would come quickly.

“I don’t want to make excuses,” Donovan said. “Organizationally, Jerry and Michael, Arturas and Marc, and myself, we didn’t win as much as we wanted to. That’s just the bottom line. There’s a lot of things maybe you can point to, but the reality is we all share in that.

“You’re coming to an organization with an incredible fan base and great support, an organization that has won obviously a significant amount of NBA championships. You feel a responsibility to be able to win at the highest level and that did not happen. I always try to look through my own personal lens of how could I in some way done more or done better with the guys we had?”

The fact that Donovan left Chicago and returned home this week without an answer, however, says something.

Best guess, it feels like 60% Donovan is gone now.

Was something said or leaked? Nope.

Just trusting the gut.