Chicago Bulls: Billy Donovan must hire Gilbert Arenas as an assistant coach

One of the areas Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan struggled the most with last season was in determining lineups. Players were constantly shuffled in and out throughout the season. With everyone’s role constantly in flux, I believe it made it difficult for many of the younger players on the Bulls to settle into a job and deliver consistently.

The Chicago Bulls need to find a consistent lineup next season – they cannot be rotating players in and out every couple of games if they want to improve next year.

Someone who could help the Bulls with this issue is Gilbert Arenas. I’ve been following Arenas during the pandemic as he’s emerged as a content creator with the “No Chill w/ Gilbert Arenas” podcast and various other guest appearances on other shows. However, on his podcast, I recently listened to him break down where the Los Angeles Lakers went wrong with their lineups in their first-round series versus the Phoenix Suns.

Immediately, I realized that Billy Donovan could benefit greatly from a voice like Arenas on the sideline. Donovan struggled to find the lineups that highlighted his players’ strengths and while he’s bound to improve in year two, bringing in a basketball genius like Gilbert Arenas to provide his perspective could be extremely beneficial.

Setting aside the value Arenas brings with lineups, his presence on the coaching staff could profoundly impact both Coby White and Zach LaVine. During game 1 of the Jazz-Clippers series, we saw Donovan Mitchell look to NBA legend Dwyane Wade on the sideline and get his perspective on what the Clippers were doing. Having someone like Arenas on the Bulls’ sideline could help Coby and Zach both in the development of their game but also provide a real-time breakdown of how opponents are defending them.

On another episode of the No Chill podcast, Gilbert Arenas revealed that he had even reached out to Lebron James for a coaching internship with the Los Angeles Lakers. So, we know he’s interested in learning more about coaching and that he is actively exploring coaching as a potential career path following his playing career. Former players as smart as Gilbert Arenas rarely express an interest in assistant coaching jobs – most of the time they go straight to head coach. The Chicago Bulls should do whatever they can to bring this legendary basketball mind into their building and if the interest is reciprocated, the Bulls could take an unexpectedly large leap forward next season.