The Bulls are finalizing an agreement to add veteran Magic executive Stephen Mervis to their front office, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). According to Charania, Mervis’ title in Chicago will be senior vice president of basketball operations.
Mervis, who was hired by the Magic in 2014 after working as a basketball operations intern for the Pacers, originally held the role of special assistant to the general manager. He worked his way up through the basketball operations department over the next 12 years, earning promotions to assistant director of basketball strategy, director of basketball strategy, VP of basketball strategy, and eventually assistant GM.
According to the Magic, Mervis assisted with “all facets” of basketball operations, though he specialized in salary cap management, strategic planning, and CBA issues. He was also involved in managing components of Orlando’s scouting department.
According to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Sports Network (Twitter link), Mervis immediately emerged as a “prominent target” for a position in the Bulls’ front office after Bryson Graham was hired as the club’s executive VP of basketball operations.
While Chicago hasn’t announced either hire yet, Graham has reportedly identified two lieutenants for his front office so far — in addition to bringing in Mervis, the Bulls reportedly intend to hire Acie Law as their VP of player personnel, as we detailed earlier this morning.
Interesting hire by Graham. I don’t know much about him. I’ll give the baton to someone else.
Sounds like Law will be in charge of personnel matters and should have some nice contacts in Euro ball maybe? And Mervis might be the bean counter every team should have and involved in scouting. We’ll see how it all shakes out but looks like Graham is getting some people he knows well anyway.