It was almost shocking to Marc Eversley.
In combing through the structure of his new Bulls organization before immediately accepting the general manager seat months ago, Eversley quickly pointed out an all but empty player development cupboard.
“I really believe winning starts from a foundation of player development,’’ Eversley said then. “I was surprised to find there was one player development coach on the staff as I was doing my research for this job. That’s a helluva job for one person to take on.’’
A job that was officially fortified on Saturday.
Not only did the Bulls announce the full assistant coaching staff under head coach Billy Donovan with the hiring of Maurice Cheeks, Josh Longstaff, John Bryant, Damian Cotter and Billy Schmidt, but added Henry Domercant, Ronnie Burrell, Ty Abbott and Max Rothschild as player development coordinators.
Assistant coach Chris Fleming was retained from the old staff.
What does that mean for a young Bulls roster? Not only a hands-on coaching staff, but multiple bodies to help out in that development category.
Domercant will be a familiar face, previously an assistant coach for the Windy City Bulls for two seasons, and brings a Euroleague background into the mix, including being named All-Euroleague in 2011 as a player.
Burrell was an assistant coach with the Long Island Nets in 2019-20 and was a player development and video assistant for the Brooklyn Nets in the 2018-19 season.
Like Eversley, Abbott and Rothschild are coming over from the 76ers, where they were involved in player development during the 2019-20 season.
As far as the assistant coaching staff, Cheeks’ homecoming back to Chicago is the headliner. The Hall of Famer worked under Donovan the last five years, and brings more than 40 years of NBA experience to the Bulls as both a player and a coach.
He had stints as a head coach with Detroit, Philadelphia and Portland, but is also considered a huge asset as an assistant, not only because of his defensive background, but his ability to build relationships with players.
