K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago doesn’t see the Chicago Bulls firing head coach Billy Donovan.
Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf doesn’t like to pay people who are no longer working for him. Since Donovan is under contract after this season, Reinsdorf would have to pay Donovan if the coach was fired.
“Same goes for Billy Donovan, who is liked and respected by both ownership and management and also has multiple years left on his extension,” Johnson wrote. “While it has happened in recent situations like Fred Hoiberg and Jim Boylen, the Reinsdorfs typically don’t like paying coaches not to work for them. So Donovan is safe, although it wouldn’t be a surprise to see his staff tweaked moving forward.”
The Bulls are 5-13 this season. They are in 13th place in the Eastern Conference standings despite having Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic.
LaVine, DeRozan and Vucevic have shared the court for 370 minutes, the 11th-most minutes of any NBA trio. Their net rating is minus-13.9.
“When we do practice, we’re still locked in. We try to find ways and talk and everything. It’s just not happening on the court for us for whatever reason,” Vucevic said. “We’re going to stick together and keep trying to find a way to do it. Throughout games, we’ve showed signs of what it can be, but we’re not consistent with it at all. That’s why we have huge gaps in games where we play really well and then we fall off and try to make a push. We do fight and don’t give up, but it’s only results that matter. So we have to play better.”
The Bulls blew a 21-point lead to the Brooklyn Nets on November 26. They are well on their way to missing the playoffs again, but it doesn’t like Donovan will get fired.
This article first appeared on NBA Analysis Network and was syndicated with permission.
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