The Bulls have received permission to interview several candidates in their search for a new head of basketball operations, according to Shams Charania of ESPN.
Charania reports that Timberwolves general manager Matt Lloyd, Pistons senior vice president of basketball operations Dennis Lindsey, Hawks senior VP of basketball operations Bryson Graham, Cavaliers general manager Mike Gansey and Spurs assistant GM Dave Telep will make up the initial group. He adds that the Bulls also hope to talk with agent Austin Brown, the head of CAA’s basketball division.
Lloyd began his career with the Bulls in 1999 as a media coordinator and worked his way up to the scouting staff and then senior manager of basketball operations. He became assistant GM in Orlando in 2012 before joining Minnesota in 2022 as senior VP of basketball operations. He was promoted to GM two years ago.
Lindsey’s NBA career began in 1996, and he spent time with Utah, San Antonio and Dallas before joining the Pistons in 2024. He has been part of a remarkable rebuilding project that saw Detroit go from the league’s worst record to the East’s top seed in two years.
Graham spent 15 years with New Orleans, including one season as general manager, before moving to Atlanta last summer. He earned a reputation in the Pelicans’ front office for identifying young talent in the draft.
Gansey took over as general manager in Cleveland when Koby Altman was promoted to team president in 2022. He previously served as assistant GM and ran the Cavs’ G League affiliate.
Telep has 13 years of experience with San Antonio and formerly served as VP of basketball operations, director of player personnel and director of scouting. He was the senior national recruiting analyst for ESPN.com and a sideline reporter for ESPNU before joining the Spurs.
A Chicago native, Brown is one of the NBA’s top agents with a client list that includes Donovan Mitchell, Jaren Jackson Jr., Cooper Flagg, Trae Young and OG Anunoby. He has received offers for numerous front office roles, according to Charania, including the Bulls’ GM position in 2020.
Chicago launched a complete front office overhaul by firing executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley on April 6.
If this was a Kalshi market, Lloyd would be the overwhelming favorite simply because the Reinsdorf’s LOVE working with people they know. Book it.
Why do they want to interview a sports agent for the position?
Rob Pelinka says hi.
1. Knows all the GMs.
2. Good communicator.
3. Knows player values and is strong negotiator.
4. Good relationships with other agents and understands their perspectives.
5. Leadership experience as head of CAA.
Hope that whomever the Bulls hire is good at evaluating college players and other players on NBA teams.
Never mind looking backwards. What’s done is done. Going forward, the Bulls have the lowest payroll of all thirty teams and two first round draft picks. Hope that whomever the Bulls hire, doesn’t try and ‘hurry up’ the process of building a championship team. Is terrible to jam up the payroll with ‘over the hill’ players such as Beal, Draymond, Van Vleet, Klay Thompson, etc. Just be patient.
But being patient means adding old overpaid players to your roster to get draft picks, doesn’t it? The other way to go is to use cap space to add young players that can get better, but everyone agreed that was a bad strategy.
First question, Does Donovan come with? Answer- yes. Reply- I gotta plane to catch.