The Chicago Bulls already stole Bryson Graham from the Atlanta Hawks, and they came pretty close to bringing in another key member of their staff before ultimately landing on another impressive candidate.
According to ESPN's Shams Charania, "The Chicago Bulls are finalizing the hire of Portland Trail Blazers interim Tiago Splitter as the franchise's new head coach." This hiring comes days after the reported candidates included Hawks' assistant coach Ryan Schmidt.
While Splitter is an obviously-talented young coach, Atlanta knew that Schmidt walking would be quite the loss. Maybe Chicago should've taken a little more time in their evaluation process, but the decision is already made, and the Hawks are very thankful.
Atlanta wants to keep the core of their staff together for the long-run
They've clearly prioritized continuity in their early moves of the offseason. The first thing they did upon first-round elimination was promoting and extending Onsi Saleh, naming him the franchise's new president of basketball operations.
Shortly after, they locked in Head Coach Quin Snyder to a multi-year contract extension - a move that had become inevitable after the team's impressive final two months of the season. Of course, they then allowed other members of the staff to search for promotion opportunities, and one valuable one got away.
The Chicago Bulls hired Onsi Saleh's wingman, Bryson Graham, to be their general manager as they finally enter a full-scale rebuild. The move made a ton of sense, and after firing Head Coach Billy Donovan, they had a legitimate chance to steal Ryan Schmidt, as well.
According to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line, Schmidt was among the final four candidates for the Bulls' opening, and even went in for multiple interviews. If he was offered the job, he would've taken it, and the Hawks couldn't have been upset.
Assistants' main goal is to climb the ladder, and doing so for a franchise as historic as Chicago's would've been a pretty inspiring local success story.
The Hawks will have one of the league's best staffs if they hold on to him
When there's an organization-wide vision that everyone is seemingly committed to, the goal at the end of the day becomes a lot more attainable. No team is winning a championship - or even getting close to true contention - without having a connected group at the top.
It's been something that's plagued the Hawks for much of the last decade, but now, it's clear it shouldn't be a problem any longer. Especially if Ryan Schmidt doesn't get a head coaching job this summer.
It's inevitable that at some point, he'll get one, but at least one more season with him on the staff would do wonders for a team looking to make some real noise in the Eastern Conference.
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