The Chicago Bulls are shaking up their coaching staff a bit this offseason . Shams Charania of The Athletic reported Tuesday that Maurice Cheeks will depart from his full-time assistant coach role and move into a new role reporting to head coach Billy Donovan. Charania added that assistant coach Chris Fleming was no longer a member of Donovan’s Bulls’ coaching staff.
Rearranging Chairs
K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago touched on the ripple effects of these departures, noting that assistant coaches John Longstaff and John Bryant project to have more prominent roles for the Bulls moving forward.
Johnson added that Cheeks voluntarily chose to move on from being an on-bench assistant to Donovan.
Fleming was hired by the Bulls in 2019, originally joining as an assistant coach to Jim Boylen. Fleming earned an offensive-centric reputation from previous coaching with the Brooklyn Nets and Denver Nuggets.
Cheeks is a four-time NBA All-Star, 1983 NBA champion, Basketball Hall of Famer, and Chicago native. As a player, Cheeks was highly regarded as a defensive-oriented point guard who earned five All-NBA Defensive Team selections and famously played 11 of 15 NBA seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Cheeks’ NBA coaching career spans 28 seasons, with nine seasons as a head coach. In 620 career games as head coach, he owns a 305-315 record.
