Central Notes: Cavs, Wade, Siakam, Donovan, Bulls
With the playoffs around the corner, Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson is still considering what his starting and closing lineups will look like, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (subscription required). As Fedor points out, the fact that Dean Wade immediately reentered the starting five in his Wednesday return from a seven-game absence due to an ankle sprain bodes well for the forward’s chances of keeping that role during the postseason.
“We have the data, how good he’s been with that group,” Atkinson said of starting Wade. “We’ve been struggling a little bit defensively. He obviously adds that element and when he makes a three(-pointer) or two like he did, that helps us tremendously.”
Wade, Jaylon Tyson, Sam Merrill, and Max Strus have all dealt with health issues this season and have been active at the same time in just two games this season, so Atkinson acknowledged that availability will be the first factor that determines his playoff rotation. With Wade on a minutes restriction and Tyson still sidelined with a toe injury on Wednesday, it was Merrill who closed the game for Cleveland.
“I feel confident with Sam’s ability,” Atkinson said of that decision. “That’s the hard one. You’re going to have probably three, four people to choose from, I would think. You guys are going to say, ‘Why didn’t you play this guy?’ So, we’ve got to make those decisions, we’ve got to make the right decisions under pressure.”
We have more from around the Central:
- As a result of missing Thursday’s game in Brooklyn due to a left ankle sprain, Pacers forward Pascal Siakam will fall short of the 65-game threshold to be eligible for end-of-season awards, notes Tony East of Circle City Spin (Twitter link). Based on Indiana’s record (19-61), Siakam was a long shot for All-NBA recognition anyway, but he has had an excellent individual season, averaging 24.0 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game while shooting 48.4% from the floor, including 35.8% on three-pointers.
- Responding on Thursday to Bulls president Michael Reinsdorf‘s assertion that the team doesn’t want to hire a head of basketball operations who isn’t a fan of Billy Donovan, the veteran head coach suggested to reporters, including Ian Nicholas Quillen of The Associated Press, not to read too much into it. “I think Michael was making the point of how he felt about me,” Donovan said. “But I also understand that, like I said, everybody’s got to look out for what is best for the Bulls at that point in time.”
- Addressing several Bulls-related topics in a mailbag for The Chicago Tribune (subscription required), Julia Poe says that investing in player development and scouting should be a priority under the next front office, writing that Arturas Karnisovas was “lacking notably in his willingness to fill out staffing in key departments and allowed personal issues to dictate his personnel management.”
- In his preview of their offseason, Bobby Marks of ESPN (YouTube link) looks at potential next steps for the Bulls and explains why the team needs to be careful about how it uses its significant cap room this summer.
Bulls Notes: Donovan, Front Office, Buzelis, More
As the Bulls embark on a search for their next head of basketball operations, CEO and president Michael Reinsdorf made it clear during a video press conference on Tuesday that he doesn’t want to lose head coach Billy Donovan — and that the team likely wouldn’t be a good match for an executive who wants to make a coaching change.
“If I interview someone and they’re not sold on Billy, they’re not sold on a Hall of Fame coach, they’re not sold on a person who’s won championships in college, who’s gone deep in the playoffs with Oklahoma City,” Reinsdorf said, per Jamal Collier of ESPN. “… If Billy wants to be our coach and someone’s not interested in that, then they’re probably not the right candidate for us.”
While the Bulls want to retain Donovan, the veteran coach will have a say in that decision too. As Collier details, Bulls ownership is scheduled to meet with Donovan right after the regular season ends to discuss his future. On Tuesday, Reinsdorf suggested he expects a resolution – one way or the other – relatively quickly, adding that he’d like Donovan to be more involved in personnel decisions if he sticks with the team.
“I don’t think it’s going to take Billy a long time to come to a conclusion on what he wants to do,” Reinsdorf said, according to Andrew Seligman of The Associated Press. “I don’t think the draft or any of that’s going to come into play. The season ends next week. We’ll sit down with Billy as soon as possible, and we’ll find out where his head’s at.”
Here’s more on the Bulls:
- Reinsdorf confirmed on Tuesday that the Bulls are employing a search firm to lead the hunt for a new top front office executive and said the organization wants to cast a wide net for potential candidates. As Collier observes, the Bulls didn’t use a firm in 2020 when they hired Arturas Karnisovas, and they had to conduct that interview process via video calls during the early days of COVID-19 — Reinsdorf didn’t meet Karnisovas in person until after he’d been hired.
- Describing his ideal candidate to run the front office, Reinsdorf said he wants someone who is “process-oriented” and isn’t afraid to “pull the trigger” on personnel moves, per Seligman. Strong communication skills are also a must, Reinsdorf added. “I want someone who’s really strong in communication not just internally within the organization, but also externally when he’s talking to people like you, talking to our fans,” he said. “I think that’s really important. What are we trying to accomplish? What is the plan? Our fans have a right to understand what we’re trying to accomplish so I think that’s incredibly, incredibly important.”
- Although the Bulls signaled with their trade deadline moves in February that they’re in rebuilding mode, Reinsdorf stated on Tuesday that he isn’t a fan of tanking, as Collier relays. “It’s unfair to the coach. It’s unfair to the players. It’s actually unfair to our fans,” Reinsdorf said. “Sure, there are some fans, many fans who might say, ‘Lose games on purpose, tank, do whatever you can to hopefully win the lottery.’ But there are a lot of fans that go to the games who aren’t there to see us get blown out every game and who want to see us compete.”
- Despite his aversion to tanking, Reinsdorf indicated that he wants the Bulls’ front office to have an eye toward the long term rather than focusing on short-term success. “Going forward, it’s about sustainability,” Reinsdorf said. “We want to build this for the long term. I don’t want to be just good for one or two years. I want it to be year in and year out, we have a chance to be competitive and win.”
- Second-year forward Matas Buzelis, who figures to be at the center of the team’s plans going forward, is making it a priority to bulk up and add muscle this offseason, as he tells Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune. “I mean, look at me. I’m skinny as hell,” Buzelis said. “I definitely have to add strength. Your body’s a temple, so you really want to take care of it.”
Bulls Rumors: Donovan, Front Office, Ownership, Ivey, More
The Bulls fired executive VP of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley on Monday, but Marc Stein reported on Sunday that the team hopes to retain head coach Billy Donovan and Shams Charania of ESPN has heard the same (Twitter video link).
“My understanding is the Bulls want to keep [Donovan] as long as he wants to be there, in Chicago,” Charania said on NBA Today.
Donovan, who signed a multiyear extension with the Bulls last summer, is expected to draw interest from rival NBA teams with head coaching vacancies this offseason, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link), who confirms Chicago would like to keep the 60-year-old.
As for potential front office replacements, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic suggests Timberwolves GM Matt Lloyd could be a name to watch (Twitter link). Lloyd is well regarded around the league and began his NBA career in Chicago, Krawczynski notes.
Here are some more rumors and notes on the Bulls:
- Team sources tell Jamal Collier of ESPN that ownership had been considering a front office overhaul “for weeks,” and the urgency to do so increased after the team traded for — and then waived — Jaden Ivey. While the front office defended the homework it did prior to acquiring Ivey, ownership had questions about the process involved and Karnisovas and Eversley had a “credibility problem” around the league and with the team’s fans, according to Collier.
- Collier hears there was a “growing disconnect” between the front office and several areas of the organization, not just ownership. Bulls employees were reportedly unsure of the team’s direction after it traded away several veterans ahead of the February deadline to add seven second-round picks. “People didn’t know the plan,” one team source told ESPN on Monday. “They didn’t know the process. We needed to move on — with a clean slate and start this thing over.”
- According to Collier’s sources, Karnisovas and Eversley long maintained they were “working under the constraints of ownership,” which was reluctant to embark on a rebuild. Donovan also isn’t a fan of rebuilds, Collier writes, even though the team was stuck in mediocrity for years.
- Collier suggests the front office’s relatively underwhelming trade returns also factored into the decision to let Karnisovas and Eversley go, pointing out that the team waited too long to break up the previous core roster of Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Nikola Vucevic, Alex Caruso, Coby White and Lonzo Ball. “We took too long to pick a lane,” the team source told ESPN. “The Lonzo thing just really messed them up. We saw that success early on, and didn’t have the foresight to pivot early.” Ball missed two-plus years due to a knee injury which required multiple surgeries.
- While the Bulls want to retain Donovan, Collier hears it may not be as head coach, depending on what Donovan wants to do in the future. As Collier writes, Donovan’s father and mother-in-law both passed away within eight days of each other in February, and there has been previous speculation that the veteran coach might take a year off to reevaluate his options moving forward.
Former Nuggets Coach Michael Malone Headed To UNC
Former Nuggets head coach Michael Malone is the surprising choice as North Carolina’s new head coach, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reports.
North Carolina had been looking for a high-profile coach to take over the program after firing Hubert Davis. Final Four coaches Tommy Lloyd and Dusty May were reportedly high on the wish list but both opted to stay put at their respective universities. Bulls coach Billy Donovan was also a prominent target, according to The Athletic’s Brendan Marks, so the hiring of Malone came seemingly out of nowhere.
Malone, 54, is the all-time winningest coach in Denver history with a 471-327 career record and led the Nuggets to their only NBA championship in 2023. He has since spent time as an analyst and commentator for ESPN. Malone certainly would have been high on the list of many NBA teams looking for new coaches this offseason and beyond. Instead, he chose to take over an elite college program.
In his Sunday column, Marc Stein reported that the Bulls would like to retain Donovan, who received a multiyear extension after the Knicks were denied permission to talk to him about their head coaching vacancy last summer. Donovan reportedly wanted to wait until after the season concluded on Sunday to potentially meet with the Tar Heels, but North Carolina decided to pivot to Malone.
With the UNC off the table, Donovan could be more inclined to remain in his current job.
Stein’s Latest: Rivers, Karnisovas, Donovan, Splitter
Bucks coach Doc Rivers will become a Hall-of-Famer this year, and there may be more news coming from him in the months ahead. According to Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Substack link), there is a growing sense that Rivers and the Bucks could either part ways or change his responsibilities after a season that has gone off the rails. Milwaukee has a 31-47 record and the franchise appears to be growing increasingly at odds with star Giannis Antetokounmpo.
While Stein doesn’t specify what such a restructuring would look like, the implication is that it could include a move to the front office.
“At the very least, Rivers’ Springfield induction in August, at age 64, has helped fuel the notion that he will not be coaching the Bucks after the regular season concludes,” Stein writes.
Jake Fischer, also of the Stein Line, agrees (via Twitter) that significant changes are expected in Milwaukee this offseason, while Stein adds that former Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins is seen as a potential candidate to replace Rivers should the Bucks decide to move on this summer.
We have more updates from Stein:
- The Bulls may be weighing the future of executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas, as the team will miss the playoffs for a fourth straight season. Chicago has advanced beyond the play-in just once during Karnisovas’ tenure, and that playoff appearance resulted in a quick first-round exit in 2022 against the Bucks. The Bulls’ front office under Karnisovas has also struggled to find a direction or extract peak value in trades. Meetings to determine the veteran executive’s future with the team will be taking place soon, per Stein.
- Despite their front office uncertainty, the Bulls would like to retain head coach Billy Donovan, Stein writes, noting that the team denied the Knicks’ request to interview him for their head coaching vacancy last summer before signing him to a multiyear extension. Donovan has recently been linked to the UNC head coaching job, but Stein writes that the Bulls’ coach will likely want to wait until after the season concludes on April 12 to meet with the Tar Heels, and the university may want to make a decision sooner than that.
- The Trail Blazers may be one of the teams looking for a new coach this offseason. New owner Tom Dundon is said to be surveying the coaching landscape as he determines interim head coach Tiago Splitter‘s future with the team. According to Stein, there’s an expectation that there could be more league-wide coaching movement than there was last year, and Splitter, who took over at the beginning of the season following the arrest of Chauncey Billups, may be one of the coaches on the move.
Central Notes: Giannis, Bucks, Trade Market, Bulls Shakeup, Pistons
The NBA weighed in with a statement on Saturday as it continues the investigation of a disagreement between Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bucks, writes Eric Nehm of The Athletic. Antetokounmpo, who has been sidelined since March 15 with a left knee hyperextension and a bone bruise, contends that he’s healthy enough to return to action, but the team won’t give him medical clearance. The Bucks say he hasn’t fully healed and isn’t sincere about wanting to play.
“The investigation has found that the Bucks scheduled Giannis to work out last week in three-on-three scrimmages as part of his return-to-play process, but he declined to participate,” the NBA said on Saturday. “There is a disagreement as to whether the team requested that Giannis participate in a group workout earlier this week, and the league is continuing to monitor the situation.”
The NBA has held conversations with Bucks officials as part of the probe, a source told Nehm. Antetokounmpo emphatically expressed his desire to return to action during an interview after Milwaukee’s loss to Boston on Friday, but with only five games remaining, it may be too late even if the dispute is resolved in his favor.
There’s more from the Central Division:
- Trading Antetokounmpo this summer could be the first step in a massive roster overhaul for the Bucks, suggests Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter video link). He points to Bobby Portis, Myles Turner and Kyle Kuzma as other veteran players who might be moved and says coach Doc Rivers’ future with the team is also uncertain. Scotto expects the Heat, Warriors, Knicks, Cavaliers and others to approach Milwaukee with offers.
- Major changes could be coming to the Bulls over the next 10 days, a source tells Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times (subscription required). Executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley could both be held accountable for the disappointing season, and a coaching move is possible as well. Cowley notes that Billy Donovan is one of the main targets for the vacant North Carolina job, and there are also suggestions that he could stay and help revamp the front office or move into the top management role himself.
- If there’s a bright side to Cade Cunningham‘s injury, it’s that his teammates are learning how to succeed without him as the playoffs approach, notes Hunter Patterson of The Athletic. Isaiah Stewart is also out indefinitely with a left calf strain, but the Pistons keep winning and look ready to be a force in the playoffs if the roster gets healthy again. “Obviously, we’re better with (Cade), Stew and today Tobias (Harris) on the floor,” Jalen Duren said. “But I think having guys come in and get reps in, get shots up, see the ball go through (the rim) — the type of offense we’re playing with everybody being involved — it gets everybody’s confidence up. It gets everybody’s juices flowing going into that postseason.”
Bulls Notes: Donovan, McClung, Giddey, Jones, Ivey
Billy Donovan is seriously giving thought to leaving the Bulls at the conclusion of the season, Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints reports.
Siegel hears that Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd was North Carolina’s top choice to become its head coach. However, Lloyd agreed to a five-year deal to stay at Arizona, which makes Donovan the Tar Heels’ clear choice for the job.
Donovan is committed to the Bulls through the remainder of the season and won’t make any decisions on his future until April 12, Siegel adds. However, there is a growing belief around the league that Donovan will leave the franchise.
Here’s more on the Bulls:
- Mac McClung has done it again. The three-time NBA dunk contest champion has been named NBA G League MVP for the second time, the NBA announced (via Twitter). McClung, who is on a two-way contract, has been playing for the Windy City Bulls. The 27-year-old guard put up huge numbers in the regular season, averaging a G League-best 31.8 points, 7.9 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.2 steals on .515/.381/.781 shooting in 29 games (37.3 minutes per contest). Rockets two-way guard Tristen Newton and Kings swingman DaQuan Jeffries finished second and third in voting, respectively.
- Josh Giddey (hamstring) and Tre Jones (ankle) have been upgraded to probable for tonight’s game against the Knicks, K.C. Johnson of Chicago Sports Network tweets. McClung is also probable with abdominal tightness.
- Brian Sandalow of the Chicago Sun Times details how the team has tried to move on from the Jaden Ivey saga. Ivey was waived earlier in the week following several controversial live streams on social media, among other factors.
Central Notes: Buzelis, Donovan, Giddey, Allen, Stewart
Amid rumors about Billy Donovan‘s future with the Bulls, second-year forward Matas Buzelis made it clear he hopes Donovan remains in his role as head coach next season, according to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times.
“He’s been everything, man,” Buzelis said. “He’s been a role model to me; he’s someone I look up to as a person, as a human being. He’s a guy that’s been a cornerstone for me. He’s pushed me to my limits, and he’s going to keep pushing me until I can’t be pushed anymore.
“I can’t thank somebody like that enough. He tells you the truth every time. It’s hard to do that, especially in this league, to have someone in your corner that is going to tell you everything you need to hear.”
Here’s more from around the Central Division:
- Bulls guard Josh Giddey hopes the team is able to “keep playing the right way” to close out the season, Cowley writes in another story. Giddey acknowledged Chicago’s roster situation is a little unusual with so many impending free agents. “I’m not going to speak for other guys because I know how it is to be in a contract year, and individually you are always worried about yourself,” said Giddey, who signed a four-year, $100MM contract as a restricted free agent last year. “Everybody wants to play well, that’s no secret, contract-wise or not, especially coming into free agency. You want to perform, you want your visibility to be as high as possible, so I get it from that point of view. But it’s important to make everything about the team. It’s easy for guys to waver and think about themselves. I was guilty of it, as well. I just think it’s important to let that stuff get handled in the offseason. Don’t drag it into the team. In stints I thought we played selfish ball [Wednesday] and started to get in one-on-one stuff, iso stuff, and it’s just not the way we play. It’s not sustainable and not how we have to win games.”
- Veteran center Jarrett Allen provided a major boost to the Cavaliers in Friday’s lopsided victory over Miami, writes Tom Withers of The Associated Press. Allen, who had missed the previous 10 games due to right knee tendonitis, had eight points in the first four minutes, finishing with 18 points and 10 rebounds in 18 minutes. Head coach Kenny Atkinson said the former All-Star big man would be on a restriction of about 20 minutes prior to the game, Withers notes. “It was great,” Allen said of his quick start. “Shout-out to Kenny, he drew up the first play for me. I usually don’t get the first play sometimes, but he wanted to get me going, wanted to get me back in the groove of things and from there, things just started rolling for me.” Max Strus, who was making his sixth appearance of 2025/26 following offseason foot surgery, led the Cavs with a season-high 29 points (on 10-of-14 shooting) in 23 minutes, Withers adds.
- Reserve big man Isaiah Stewart has been cleared to resume on-court activities, the Pistons announced in a press release. The 25-year-old center/forward is recovering from a left calf strain, having last suited up on March 13.
Billy Donovan Addresses UNC Rumors, Says Focus On Bulls
Bulls head coach Billy Donovan‘s future has been a major subject of speculation of this week, with reports linking him to the open coaching job at the University of North Carolina and suggesting that he may be considering leaving his position in Chicago at the end of this season.
Asked ahead of Wednesday’s game in Philadelphia about the UNC rumors, Donovan didn’t explicitly deny that he’d be interested in the job, but said he’s focused on guiding the Bulls to a strong finish to the season, according to Tony Jones of The Athletic.
“My main focus is on these guys and this new team,” Donovan said. “I understand that there’s stuff out there, and I understand that there is going to be certain speculation. But, I have to concentrate on this group, and really, my focus is on what we’re doing here in Chicago, having a game (Wednesday), and traveling to go and play in a back-to-back.”
Before Donovan began being linked to the UNC vacancy, a Chicago Sun-Times report cited rumblings about the possibility that the veteran coach will step down as the Bulls’ head coach in order to take a year off and evaluate what he wants to do next.
While Donovan, who will turn 61 this May, didn’t confirm his plans one way or the other during his pregame media session on Wednesday, he acknowledged that the Bulls’ recent playoff drought has been frustrating. The team is headed for its fourth straight losing season and hasn’t advanced beyond the play-in tournament since 2022.
Donovan told reporters, including Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times and Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune (subscription required), that he’d have to talk to executive VP of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas this spring about the ongoing rebuilding process and the plan to get back to the postseason.
“We’re pivoting right now,” he said. “A lot of it’s going to be me sitting down with ownership, with Arturas, just to find out — OK, what’s the next step? How are we all looking at going through this? What do we need to do to continue to improve and to get better?
“The biggest thing, clearly, with the moves that were made at the trade deadline was — how do we get out of the middle? And if we’re taking a step back, what do we have to do to take a step forward where we’re actually building something? We may have to go through a play-in again, but how are we going to get into the playoffs?”
As Poe writes, there’s an understanding within the organization that if Donovan isn’t enthusiastic about management’s vision for the future, a split is a possibility.
“I wanted to get into coaching to win,” the Bulls’ coach said. “How are we going to work to get into a place where we’re really competing? And how do we build this out going forward? Those are the things I think we need to talk about. Because, yeah — selfishly, competitively, I want us to be in that situation where we’re playing in real, legitimate (games). … I want to be in that situation. I understand that that doesn’t happen overnight or in a blink of an eye. It takes a lot of hard work and diligence.”
Community Shootaround: Potential Head Coaching Changes
It’s extremely rare for an offseason to come and go without at least one NBA team making a head coaching change. Half of the league’s 30 coaches have taken over their respective roles since the start of 2024, an indication of the kind of turnover that’s typical of the position.
With that in mind, it’s worth looking ahead to the end of the regular season to see if we can get a sense of which head coaching positions might open up this spring.
We should probably start in New Orleans and Portland, where James Borrego and Tiago Splitter aren’t technically the permanent head coaches for the Pelicans and Trail Blazers, respectively. Borrego replaced Willie Green when he was let go earlier in the season, while Splitter took the reins in Portland after Chauncey Billups was arrested in October in relation to an investigation into illegal gambling.
Whether those two coaches hang onto their jobs through the start of the 2026/27 season remains to be seen, but Borrego has the Pelicans playing their best basketball of the season in recent weeks, and it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which Billups reclaims his position with the Trail Blazers, regardless of how his legal situation plays out. Time will tell whether either of those clubs deems it necessary to conduct a coaching search in the coming weeks or months.
Elsewhere, Bulls head coach Billy Donovan‘s future has been the subject of speculation this week, starting with a report from Joe Cowley of The Chicago-Sun Times that cast doubt on whether Donovan will remain in Chicago beyond this season.
According to Cowley, there has been “growing speculation” that Donovan will step down from his position with the Bulls in order to take a season off and reevaluate his options going forward. It has been an emotional year for Donovan, Cowley writes, noting that the veteran head coach lost his father and mother-in-law within weeks of one another.
A return to college basketball is another rumored path for Donovan, with Jeff Borzello of ESPN suggesting that he’d be “at or near” the top of UNC’s list following Hubert Davis‘ exit from Chapel Hill. Sources tell Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints that Donovan would “seriously consider” the idea of coaching the Tar Heels if the school targeted him for the job.
Siegel (Twitter link) was also among the NBA observers speculating about Jamahl Mosley‘s job security in Orlando after the Magic – losers of six straight games – dropped Monday’s game to the Pacers, who entered the night on a 16-game losing streak of their own. While Mosley and the Magic have had to deal with a handful of injury issues this season, the 38-34 team has still underperformed relative to expectations after parting ways with four first-round picks last offseason for Desmond Bane.
Doc Rivers is one of the NBA’s most widely respected head coaches, and it would be a surprise if the Bucks were to unceremoniously fire him at season’s end, but he’s about to have a losing record across a full season for the first time since 2006/07, tweets Eric Nehm of The Athletic. It’s not all that hard to envision a scenario where he and the Bucks determine they’re better off going their separate ways and mutually announce that they’re “parting ways.”
Steve Kerr is another esteemed member of the NBA’s head coaching ranks and won’t be let go by the Warriors. However, he doesn’t have a contract beyond this season and it’s unclear how enthusiastic he’ll be to remain in his current role on the heels of a disappointing season in Golden State. A banged-up Warriors team would be lucky at this point to claw its way into the playoffs as a massive first-round underdog to Oklahoma City or San Antonio.
Among lottery-bound teams, Doug Christie of the Kings and Brian Keefe of the Wizards are also worth keeping an eye on. The Sixers will at least make the play-in tournament, but if they don’t advance any further than that, we’ll see if Philadelphia sticks with Nick Nurse.
It’s also not uncommon for clubs with championship aspirations to make a change after being ousted in the playoffs, even if they win a series or two, as we saw a year ago in New York with Tom Thibodeau, so it will be interesting to see which clubs are eliminated earlier than expected. While there are no playoff coaches in obvious, imminent danger, first-round exits would be discouraging outcomes for the likes of Kenny Atkinson (Cavaliers), Chris Finch (Timberwolves), Ime Udoka (Rockets), and Mike Brown (Knicks).
We want to know what you think. Which teams do you expect to hire a new head coach this offseason? Will it be a busy spring on the coaching market, or will we only see a couple clubs make changes?
Head to the comment section to weigh in with your thoughts!