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The Chicago Bulls are in a new era, and Tiago Splitter will be leading it as the franchise’s next head coach. The Bulls hired Splitter on Monday after an impressive stint as the Portland Trail Blazers’ interim head coach this past season, where he led the team to its first playoff berth in five years after taking over for Chauncey Billups following his arrest as part of a sprawling FBI probe into illegal gambling. Splitter did well under tough circumstances, and now he’s earned a new job.
Splitter is 41 years old. As a player, he was a member of the San Antonio Spurs’ 2014 championship team, and he moved directly into coaching after retiring in 2018. Splitter was an assistant for the Brooklyn Nets from 2019-2023, then spent a season with the Houston Rockets, then became head coach at Paris Basketball, where he led his team to a French Cup championship and qualified for the EuroLeague playoffs. Splitter left Paris Basketball after one season to take a job on Billups’ staff in Portland, and he was unexpectedly thrust into the head coaching seat in the second game of the season after Billups’ arrest. He’s the second tallest head coach in NBA history at 6’11.
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Why didn’t the Blazers retain Splitter as head coach? New owner Tom Dundon reportedly wanted to cut costs on his next head coach well below league standards. Dundon’s cheapness turned into an opportunity for the Bulls.
The Blazers had not make the playoffs since 2021, but Splitter helped get them back there despite not having his starting point guard Scoot Henderson for much of the season due to injury. Deni Avdija made an All-Star leap under Splitter as he took on a more heliocentric role as an offensive creator by spamming pick-and-rolls as the handler. The Blazers closed the regular season with a 32-20 record over their final 51 games, and posted a top-10 defense over that time. Portland earned its way into the playoffs through the play-in tournament, and they were knocked out by the San Antonio Spurs in five games in the first-round of the playoffs.
Splitter is taking over a Bulls organization in flux. Chicago fired Arturas…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/chicago-bulls-instant-grade-tiago-173216181.html
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Publish date : 2026-06-15 17:32:00
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