Milwaukee Bucks assistant Darvin Ham among contenders for Bulls job

With the Chicago Bulls head coaching job now vacant, Milwaukee Bucks lead assistant Darvin Ham is expected to be among the leading contenders.

The Milwaukee Bucks and the rest of the league’s best teams may currently be preparing to get their postseason campaigns underway at Walt Disney World Resort, but for one of the Bucks’ nearest neighbors and biggest rivals, there’s a very different task now top of the agenda.

In a move that was only really surprising in terms of how long it took, the Chicago Bulls officially fired Jim Boylen on Friday morning.

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In spite of having multiple promising young players, the Bulls have consistently floundered in recent seasons, and the hard-line, abrasive approach of Boylen certainly didn’t offer up the solution when his interim head coaching role was made permanent.

Now, the Bulls are once again on the look out for a new head coach, and one who should get to play a very different role under a greater cultural overhaul with the organization.

The decision to fire Boylen was the first of note to be made by Arturas Karnisovas since he took over as Chicago’s Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations, and his next move could well be a defining moment in the franchise’s future.

On that front, it will be no surprise to any Bucks fan that among the names being touted as a candidate who will receive notable interest from the Bulls is Milwaukee’s assistant coach Darvin Ham.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski listed Ham as among a shortlist of contenders in Chicago, which was also confirmed by K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago.

Ham has been a loyal assistant to Mike Budenholzer since he first took the jump into head coaching with the Atlanta Hawks back in 2013. In the time since, Ham has ascended to the role of lead assistant on Bud’s staff, and significantly grown in stature as a coach around the NBA.

Ham is a near annual presence on Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN’s annual breakdown of the coaches most likely to make the jump to being head coaches.

Beyond that, Ham also discussed his desire to be a head coach, along with the challenges he faces when he does interview for lead jobs, in an interview with his former head coach as a player in Milwaukee, George Karl.

Ham was a favorite among Bucks fans during his time as a player, and that sense has certainly only been reignited since his return to Milwaukee as a coach.

It’s also clear that Ham is held in the highest regard by those who do work with him, as the following tweet from Seth Partnow, now of The Athletic and formerly Bucks’ Director of Basketball Research, highlights:

At this point, it simply seems like a matter of time before Ham will move on from Milwaukee for a shot as a head coach elsewhere, and that journey is something Bucks fans will only wish him well on.

With Quin Snyder, Kenny Atkinson, and Taylor Jenkins already having enjoyed success since making the jump from being Budenholzer’s assistant, the hope will be that the right kind of opportunity falls to Ham too.