Bulls hire former NBA head coach as top assistant

Former Wizards head coach Wes Unseld Jr. has agreed to join the Bulls as Billy Donovan‘s top assistant, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports. Unseld went 77-130 in two-and-a-half seasons as head coach of Washington.

Before earning the top spot in Washington, Unseld was a longtime assistant coach in the NBA. He began his coaching career as an assistant with the Wizards from 2005-11 before joining the Warriors for a season. Unseld then went to the Magic from 2012-15.

After that, he was an assistant in Denver before becoming associate head coach in his final year there, in 2020-21. Unseld helped the Nuggets improve and was key in allowing Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. to develop and flourish.

Unseld was named Washington’s head coach in 2021, giving him the chance to coach the team his father played a legendary career for and bringing his own career full circle. The Wizards went 35-47 in both of his first two seasons, missing the playoffs both years. This year, he went 7-36 before being relieved and replaced by Brian Keefe.

Unseld wasn’t technically fired this season. Instead, he was re-assigned to an advisory role in the front office. As we relayed in January, Wizards executive Michael Winger made sure to applaud Unseld for the strides several players made in their development during his tenure.

As K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago reports, Bulls PR officially announced the move. According to Johnson, the Bulls had been seeking someone with head-coaching experience to work under Donovan, and Unseld was a candidate for Chicago’s head-coaching job in 2020 before Donovan became available.