And what does that mean for the Bulls?

Stein writes: “Sources say the Bulls, meanwhile, have scheduled an interview this week with [Lawrence] Frank while waiting to see whether Thibodeau takes the New Orleans job or consents to meet with them after Boston’s series with Orlando. Other Bulls candidates besides Frank and Thibodeau, according to the Chicago Tribune, are Houston Rockets assistant coach Elston Turner and Oklahoma City Thunder assistant coach Maurice Cheeks.”

Mike McGraw of the Daily Herald adds: “Dallas assistant Dwane Casey will reportedly get a second interview for Atlanta’s opening. Casey is on the Bulls’ list, but trails Tom Thibodeau and Maurice Cheeks at this point. – The Bulls are not expected to have interest in ex-Cleveland coach Mike Brown. LeBron James won’t want to play in the same slow-down offense. New Jersey might add Brown to its list of candidates.”

Despite the fact that his team still hasn’t closed in on a new coach, Joakim Noah is feeling pretty positive. During a recent appearance on “The Waddle & Silvy Show” on ESPN 1000, Noah compared Chicago to New York: “I think the difference is we’re going to win a lot more ballgames over there. The future is really bright in Chicago. It’s really exciting to be a part of it, and things are looking pretty good.”

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So naturally they just interviewed an assistant coach with no head coaching experience:

“With Doug Collins accepting the Philadelphia 76ers’ coaching vacancy Thursday, the Chicago Bulls moved on with their coaching search, interviewing Houston Rockets assistant coach Elston Turner for four hours Thursday afternoon, according to sources, at the NBA Pre-Draft Camp. The 50-year-old Turner has become a top head coaching candidate in the last three years, after a career as an assistant with the Kings, Blazers and Rockets. … He has developed a reputation as an excellent Xs and Os tactician in his years as Rick Adelman’s top assistant in Houston, which followed the Portland and Sacramento stints.”

Turner sounds like a fine fellow with a long history as a valued assistant…but he doesn’t exactly meet Forman’s “head coaching and playoff experience” criteria, does he?

Meanwhile, Doug Collins is spoken for and you can probably cross Avery Johnson off the list of potential Bulls coaches. From ESPNChicago:

“The Chicago Bulls apparently will once again look past former Dallas Mavericks coach Avery Johnson in their search for a coach. Johnson, who has spent the past two seasons as an analyst for ESPN, talked with executive vice president of basketball operations John Paxson about the Bulls job in 2008 that eventually went to Vinny Del Negro. Now with Del Negro fired and the Bulls in search of a coach again, Johnson hasn’t gotten any attention to this point from the Bulls.”

Brad Miller for player / coach, anyone? (I’m kidding! Mostly.)

The post Coaching Watch: Turner interviewed, Collins spoken for, Johnson ignored appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.