The Bulls have officially hired Bryson Graham to lead their basketball operations department, per a team press release. Graham’s title will be executive vice president of basketball operations.
“We’re excited to name Bryson Graham as our Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations,” Bulls president and CEO Michael Reinsdorf said in a statement. “Bryson is an elite talent evaluator who has earned tremendous respect across the league, and that stood out immediately during our process. He has worked his way up through basketball operations from the ground level, and that experience has given him a deep understanding of how to build and sustain a successful organization.
“He is an effective communicator, a disciplined and thoughtful decision-maker, and someone who truly connects with players and people. He understands today’s league, today’s players, and what it takes to develop talent and build a winning culture. Just as important, Bryson is committed to building a high-level group around him. He knows what he does well, and he is focused on surrounding that with strong leadership across strategy, scouting, and player development. This is an important step for our organization. We know there is work ahead, but we are confident in Bryson’s ability to lead, build, and move us forward.
The news was first reported by Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter links).
Graham was the Hawks‘ senior VP of basketball operations for the 2025/26 season. He spent 15 years in New Orleans before that, Charania notes, working his way up the ranks from an intern to general manager.
The 39-year-old was GM for the Pelicans under former top executive David Griffin until the end of last season, when Griffin was fired and replaced by Joe Dumars. Graham is highly regarded around the league for his scouting acumen, Charania writes, which will be important for the rebuilding Bulls.
While Timberwolves GM Matt Lloyd had been reported by some outlets as the frontrunner for the top front office job in Chicago, Marc Stein of The Stein Line reported over the weekend that Graham, Pistons senior vice president Dennis Lindsey, and Celtics assistant GM Dave Lewin were still in contention for the position as well.
According to Charania, the Bulls conducted in-person interviews last week and considered Graham, Lloyd and Lindsey over the weekend before selecting Graham on Monday.
K.C. Johnson of Chicago Sports Network says (via Twitter) there were four finalists, and hears all of them interviewed well. However, Graham was the unanimous pick, Johnson reports.
In a full story for ESPN.com, Charania and Jamal Collier report that Graham (in his executive role with Atlanta) helped facilitate trade talks between the Hawks and Pelicans last summer, when New Orleans moved up from No. 23 to No. 13 to select Maryland big man Derik Queen. The 2026 first-rounder the Pelicans sent the Hawks is unprotected and will be the most favorable of the Pels’ and Bucks’ picks.
Trey Murphy III (No. 17 overall), Herbert Jones (No. 35), Dyson Daniels (No. 8) and Nickeil Alexander-Walker (No. 17) are among the players Graham has been credited for drafting, in addition to his work on trades.
Graham will replace former head of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas, who was fired near the end of the regular season alongside ex-GM Marc Eversley.
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised, all these Chicago teams love to hire front office guys from loosing organizations, hire them cheap, come out and declare a new era where they expect to win, they don’t for years and years after re-tooling, rinse and repeat, as long as they sell out the united center, Jerry is happy, please my fellow chicagoans, stop supporting these teams, we’re not in a bottom feeding market, we’re in a top 3 market, expect more from these tightwad owners, specially Jerry reinsdorf
Pretty much. We hire a guy from a team that had a worse record and expect better results. Ive completely stopped watching the NBA at this point and focus on Illinois basketball. At least we are doing something right there.
Booo! Northwestern :) lmao
It’s like hiring the captain of the titanic’s second in command to captain your ship
Bryson has made some sneaky good moves over the years. He is a huge upgrade for Chicago. I could see him fleecing New Orleans again
We don’t listen to what Lakers fans think, Thanasis.
Trajan Langdon is a boss of Dennis Lindsey, Pistons senior vice president ?
Trajan Langdon is in charge of the Detroit Pistons’ basketball operations as the President of Basketball Operations
Sillivan factoid strikes again. Nice !!
I’m just glad they picked a lane and realized that they needed somebody fast because there is a lot of work to be done and in a short period of time. With 4 draft picks( Or more if a deal can be swung) and a lot of FA groundwork to be done sooner rather than later. I don’t pretend to know anything about any of the 4 names that were finalists and I doubt any other fan did either. You can only hope the man knows what he’s doing. The last 2 had good reputations too and were complete failures. Between now, FA and the draft I guess we’ll find out. The last 2 came in like a house on fire, Spent a lot of money( Badly), And then sat on their heels and watched while it all burnt down. This should be a different situation entirely with a slow build up the way to go. Anyway I hope he spells out a plan at the press conference. I’ll be watching.
Zion Williamson please leave the pelicans
For Williams even up. Done. We may even toss in something else like Smith or Okoro.
That’s probably pretty close to the deal Dumars and AK were talking about a couple months ago. Dumars now says that Zion is off the table, but GMs say a lot of things. Graham should have a pretty good idea if he’s gettable. The thing is if Bulls do something like Williams, Okoro and Dillingham for Zion, then Graham wouldn’t even need to use cap space. He could spend his $60 million first and then come back to the Zion deal.
L M F A O
If he was the guy smart enough to see that Derrick Queen was a good idea I like him already.
Mike, he help gave up an unprotected first rounder in a LOADED draft.
Let’s try not to disregard that. Queen is nice but you don’t trade picks like that while being a bad team.
Yeah but if he was here last year he wouldn’t have to. And his job would be easier now. That’s a guy we need now who is smart enough to make the right pick. LOL
That’s true. I’m just going to wait and see. I hope he brings his scouting eyes with him LOL
It’s the opposite actually. Graham was part of the Hawks at the time, so he helped acquire that unprotected first-rounder, not give it up. I apologize if the wording didn’t make that clear, I tweaked it for clarity.
Thank you Rory! That actually reduced my anxiety.
It’s a start. Like Mike said, let’s just hope this guy knows what he’s doing and values winning over anything else. I don’t care about where he came from, or all of that nonsense about bad markets. The point is, what can this guy do right now? He’s got credibility from his work ethic, so let’s see where it all goes from Chicago. I’m hoping for a bright future for the bulls, as a true nba fan should. 🙏
Rearranging deck chairs on the titanic smh
Well anyways
How to fix the Bulls
1. Swap Giddey or Quickly
Quickly offers much more offensive upside than Giddey does and for a team that lacks a true play maker on offense Quickly immediately steps in and becomes that. I can see Quickly finally becoming Tyrese Maxey under the right coach in Chicago
Giddey offers better passing and rebounding from the G position for Toronto and easily steps into the 3/4 option behind Barnes Barrett possibly Murray Boyles
2. Id offer # 9 to OKC for # 12 and # 37
Thatd give the bulls
12, 15, 37, 38
12- Yaxel Landenborg
15 – Chris Cenac
37 – Keyshawn Hall
38 – Otega Oweh
3. Trade everyone but Buzelis and Miller
Id keep Sexton as an experinced back up PG to Quickly but other than that retool the entire roster.
Let’s wait until next Sunday to see where we pick 15th is slotted in 100% but 9th is still up for grabs.
If anything I’d offer 9 for 12 and 18 because I don’t think there is a whole bunch of difference between picks 12 and 30 so give me more bites at the apple. Not like OKC needs more picks. 12 and 37 isn’t worth my time. I’d trade 9 unless Ament is still there. He’s something we need. Maybe trade 15 for 18 and 37. I could go for that. My favorite plan is Bulls get in the top 4, Draft Walger then I could trade Giddey but not before. I like the Cenac idea, But the other 2 I’ll have to look up. Walger and Giddey might be interesting together.
Just looked up his other 2 picks and they’re 2 wings the Bulls need like the Cancer Building needs Cigarette Machines so his draft picks are just as bad as AKME’s. You can stop suggesting now.
Oops. While I looked them up on NBA draft room it said Wing for Wing Span so my bad I thought that was position. But that being said I’m not sure they’re what we need. LOL Apologies
You’re having a bad day UncleMike
Quickley is decent but he’s not better than Josh Giddey imo. Quickley is better than Josh when it comes to scoring but he’s not a better playmaker. Honestly, either one could be good for the bulls but both need their own team. Quickley needs to be on a team with a star like the Mavs or the pistons, next to Cade. The bulls on the other hand need a good combo guard like Ayo that can come in and help Giddey in the backcourt, so no, I don’t think Quickley is the right fit for the bulls atm, they don’t have a star that he can play off of
And giving up the 9th pick in this draft, is like giving up 10 dollars for 5 dollars back..you’re giving up the chance at more value for blind hope and luck, later down the line. No thanks. They should stick with the 4 picks that they have, and plan for the best.
Yeah I was just saying about the bad proposal the guy made. But most Mocks have the Bulls taking a G at 9 and if they’re going to do that I’d rather trade back and get another pick but not all the way back to 37 that would be dumb. Most of the bigger guys are projected between 12 and the late twenties then it makes sense and get an extra guy. If the Bulls draft a G he better be able to shoot and play defense. Do they run FAgency before the draft? Might be better to see what they get there first because I think they do. If they get a C in FA then I might be a little more tolerable if we can a lights out shooter for a 2 G who can defend. That’s also a need. Giddey has nobody to pass to who can really shoot when he drives.
I agree, OKC has too many players to keep and too many draft picks to use, so they should be looking to do consolidation trades. If Graham moves down from 9 to 12 though, he needs to get back a lot more than a 2nd round pick. Sober would be good, or Topic. Maybe Jaylin Williams or Isaiah Joe.
He must have asked for the least amount of money because no doubt he was the least qualified of the final four candidates
Graham is supposed to be a good communicator and a great judge of talent. Let’s see if he is also a good negotiator and can do deals. Bulls have 2 top 15 draft picks but also $60 million in cap space, which he should use to get us at least two more good players. We should have a pretty good idea of what he can do in the next couple months.