Latest on coaching searches for Bulls, Blazers, Mavericks

The NBA coaching carousel hasn’t stopped spinning just yet.

Three teams remain without head coaches, with the Bulls, Trail Blazers and Mavericks still searching for answers.

According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst and Tim Bontemps, Chicago appears closest to filling its vacancy.

The Bulls have reportedly interviewed several candidates, including Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori, Blazers interim coach Tiago Splitter, Hawks assistant Ryan Schmidt and current Bulls assistant Wes Unseld Jr.

Whoever lands the job will inherit a young roster that is expected to continue developing around sophomore forward Matas Buzelis, point guard Josh Giddey and a pair of lottery picks at Nos. 4 and 15 in this month’s draft.

Portland’s search appears less urgent.

Windhorst and Bontemps reported that new owner Tom Dundon is currently focused on the Carolina Hurricanes’ pursuit of the Stanley Cup, leaving the Blazers’ coaching situation in a holding pattern for at least a few more days.

The bigger question may be how aggressive Portland plans to be financially once the search begins to heat up.

Then there’s Dallas.

Since parting ways with Jason Kidd, the Mavericks have been linked to college coaches Jon Scheyer of Duke and Dusty May of Michigan. But sources told ESPN they believe the more likely outcome is that president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri promotes one of the NBA’s rising assistants.

That would be consistent with Ujiri’s history. He elevated Nick Nurse to replace Dwane Casey in Toronto in 2018, then hired Darko Rajakovic in 2023 after moving on from Nurse.

With the NBA Draft less than two weeks away, all three franchises would likely prefer to have their coaching situations settled sooner rather than later.