The Chicago Bulls are making their coaching identity pretty clear for 2026-27.
According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype on Tuesday, the Bulls plan to add three assistant coaches to Tiago Splitter’s staff: Blake Ahearn, Jonah Herscu, and Rex Kalamian. All three come with strong player development backgrounds, which points the Bulls even more toward that lane as they build out the staff around Splitter.
Herscu looks like the cleanest fit on paper. He’s coming out of the Portland Trail Blazers organization, just like Splitter did after the 2025-26 season, and he also served as head coach of Portland’s G League team, the Rip City Remix.
Chicago basketball isn’t new to him either. Herscu worked for the Bulls as a video coordinator from 2013 to 2015 and later joined the WNBA’s Chicago Sky as an assistant coach for the 2016 season.
There’s also a natural connection there beyond the résumé. Herscu’s relationship with Splitter is one obvious factor, and the Bulls’ senior adviser in basketball operations, John Paxson, may also have some prior basketball familiarity with him.
Kalamian brings the deepest NBA track record of the group. He has been in NBA organizations continuously since 1992 and has worked as an assistant for the Bucks, Pistons, Kings, Clippers, Raptors, Thunder, Timberwolves, and Nuggets.
For Bulls fans, his Toronto run stands out most, since he was with the Raptors from 2015 to 2018. That stretch lined up with the Raptors 905 winning the 2017 NBA G League championship and taking two conference titles in 2017 and 2018.
Ahearn’s path fits the same mold. He won an NBA G League championship in 2018 as head coach of the Austin Spurs, the San Antonio Spurs’ affiliate. Given Splitter’s own Spurs background, that hire makes sense as another piece that ties player development to Spurs culture.
The broader picture is pretty straightforward. Ideally, Splitter would have had the freedom to assemble an entirely new staff at the start of a rebuild. But the Bulls have a habit of leaning on internal succession and familiar names rather than opening things up to a wide outside search.
Still, this is not a total reset. The entire staff from Billy Donovan’s tenure - Wes Unseld Jr., Dan Craig, John Bryant, Billy Schmidt, Damian Cotter, and Henry Domercant - is expected to remain with Splitter. So these three additions look like the Bulls’ way of giving Splitter some say in the room and putting a firmer stamp on the staff’s identity for next season.
In Other News...
Bulls Veteran Suddenly Looks Like A Major Trade Piece
The Bulls are heading into a stretch where the roster could keep shifting around the edges, and Tre Jones has emerged as one of the names worth watching. Chicago has a few young pieces it wants to sort through, but Jones fits the profile of a veteran who can draw interest from teams looking for help, especially as the front office weighs how to balance development with any chance to reshape the roster.
Josh Giddey is a different kind of decision, and one that figures to get more attention if rival teams start calling. The Bulls are expected to hear inquiries on him, even if moving him would take a significant return and come with more layers than a simple deadline deal. With Tiago Splitter likely to lean into development next season, the Bulls have to decide which players are part of that long-term picture and which ones become movable pieces as the market takes shape. [Read more 🡒]
Pete Crow-Armstrong Just Proved His Bears Bond With Caleb Runs Deeper
Pete Crow-Armstrongs connection to Caleb Williams goes beyond the kind of casual crossover that usually comes with two young Chicago athletes sharing a city. The Cubs outfielder has built a real friendship with the Bears quarterback, and his affection for the Bears traces back to growing up with a Chicago-born father and to the kind of highlight-reel memories that stick with a kid around the game. It is the sort of local bond that makes Chicago sports feel smaller, and a little more interconnected, than it does on most nights.
Crow-Armstrong and Williams now give the city a fresh version of the old athlete-friendship formula, the kind fans remember when different teams and different eras start to overlap. For the Bulls, it is another reminder of how much Chicago still loves its crossover stars, especially when one of them is openly tied to the Bears and the other is trying to become the face of the franchise. The friendship is already real enough to matter, and it carries the kind of future intrigue that Chicago always seems willing to embrace. [Read more 🡒]
Caleb Wilson Sends A Message Bulls Fans Will Love
While the Wizards and Jazz have already shut down top rookies AJ Dybantsa and Darryn Peterson before the end of Summer League, Caleb Wilson has taken a different approach. The Bulls No. 4 overall pick has stayed on the floor, showing the kind of energy and athleticism that made him such an intriguing prospect in the first place while giving Chicago fans a longer look at what he can do.
Wilson also made clear he wants as many reps as possible, and that mindset will play well in Chicago. Beyond the highlight plays, he has talked about sharpening the outside shot that could determine how quickly his game translates, which is part of what makes his continued Summer League run worth watching even with the bigger payoff still ahead. [Read more 🡒]