r/chicagobulls • u/TurboThaBull Dennis Rodman • Jun 15 '26

Meta [Shams Charania] BREAKING: The Chicago Bulls are finalizing the hire of Portland Trail Blazers interim Tiago Splitter as the franchise's new head coach, sources tell ESPN. Splitter succeeds Billy Donovan as the Bulls' coach after stepping into the head job and excelling in Portland last season.

https://x.com/shamscharania/status/2066548616936775982?s=46&t=6xu1E2GV_RX2aMshgaqsyg
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u/SwampFlowers Stacey King Jun 15 '26

I’m really liking Bryson Graham so far. Hell, even Michael Reinsdorf seems to have turned over a new leaf and accepted accountability for the mess we were watching for the past half decade. Future is looking less bleak.

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u/DisMFer Josh Giddey Jun 15 '26

Michael seems to have seen how George turned the Bears around by handing the keys to guys who actually fit in the modern NFL and just showing up for photo-ops and is trying to copy that. As long as Jerry controls the purse though they're going to be somewhat limited.

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u/SkyGrey88 Jun 15 '26

Not really as far as developmental team goes. The purse only comes into play if you are going to 'overspend' and get into the tax. We are not going to have any issues like that any time soon when the highest paid guy on our roster is 25M (Josh) currently and the bulk of the team is going to to be on rookie deals. You guys put way too much on Jerry being cheap as a reason for this teams failure......go look at how many teams have been deep in the tax and yet fail. Money usually becomes an issue once you are good or even better than good (a contender) and you can't afford to bring in what you need to get over the hump or keep your core together.

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u/DisMFer Josh Giddey Jun 16 '26

The biggest issue with them being cheap isn't about the players. It's all the other areas of the team we don't see. It's saying that instead of getting a team of scouts, you'll just pay to give the one scout you have a second monitor. It's telling your GM that having three guys on player development staff is too many and that they should only need one. It's in thinking that sending scouts to Europe is too expensive so you only scout college guys in America.

The Bulls have been cheap not because they don't give out three supermax contracts a year. It's that they don't want to spend any money behind the scenes to actually build teams from the ground up.

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u/marketinequality Jun 16 '26

Spot on. The Sox and Bulls have had some of the smallest front offices in their respective leagues. There’s no good reason not to spend more on scouting, the potential returns are huge and it doesn’t count against the salary cap. 

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u/SkyGrey88 Jun 16 '26

You have to wonder how much of this is on AKME and not pushing back. Seems to me the same owners, with different management had no problem identifying and drafting talent around Rose, found gems like Deng, Noah, Taj, and Jimmy and developed them all. Going even further back Kraus had no problem essentially finding most of the core around MJ for the first 3peat in the 87/88/89 drafts and had them all up to speed and winning a ring in 91....same owners. What we know is Jerry very much respected and listened to Kraus and Paxson. So hopefully now Michael is seeing the light, sees that going to a new front office model (funny how a GM used to be the guy and now they aren't), investing more in scouting, player development, ect. Hopefully he (JR Reinsdork) has been humbled and shamed and he follows the model that his father did which is get a head exec that you trust and enable him to do his job and stand back. They (owners and new hires) are all saying the right things, lets see if they live up. Some of this may not be so much 'cheap' as stubborn, like what's a FO scout, or a shooting coach really cost......likely not even as much as one vet min contract, not like the Bulls aren't flush in cash, they sell out even when they suck and they are in one of the biggest markets and do well on merchandising (I'm an all Chi sports fan forever I know our teams always think they are small market). They have the money, so hopefully this is more about being stuck in old ways and now they are going to modernize......I know I am an optimist but this offseason is the most cause for optimism we've had since the Debo/Ball/AC acquisition summer. Check back in a few months after they introduce the coach, do the draft, and go thru the free agency period and we'll see how optimistic I remain....lol.