CAA’s Austin Brown Won’t Pursue Bulls’ Front Office Job
Austin Brown, the co-head of CAA’s basketball division, was repeatedly cited as a possible target for the Bulls after they dismissed front office executives Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley earlier this month, with Shams Charania of ESPN confirming on Monday that Chicago hoped to meet with Brown about the team’s vacancy at the top of its basketball operations department.
However, according to Charania (Twitter link), the Bulls have been informed that Brown won’t be pursuing the job.
Brown has one of the most impressive client rosters of any NBA agent, with RealGM listing Donovan Mitchell, Cooper Flagg, Jaren Jackson Jr., Trae Young, Myles Turner, Andrew Wiggins, OG Anunoby, Nic Claxton, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker among the players he represents.
It’s not unprecedented for an agent to transition to a front office role. Former Warriors general manager Bob Myers and current top executives Rob Pelinka (Lakers) and Leon Rose (Knicks) are a few of the most notable executives who have made that transition. It’s unclear whether Brown isn’t looking to take that route at this time or if he’s just not interested in the Bulls’ job specifically.
Either way, the Bulls have no shortage of alternatives as they search for a new lead basketball executive. Timberwolves general manager Matt Lloyd has been identified as a frontrunner, but the team has also been linked to Dennis Lindsey, Bryson Graham, Mike Gansey, and Dave Telep, among others.
According to Charania, Bulls officials began their first round of meetings with potential candidates on Monday.
Bulls Get Permission To Interview Five Front Office Candidates
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.
Numerous Teams Considering Coaching Changes
The NBA’s coaching carousel has already started spinning with Doc Rivers‘ decision to step down from the Bucks, and Michael Scotto of HoopsHype suggests it could be an active offseason throughout the league on that front.
Milwaukee has a potential replacement on hand in lead assistant Darvin Ham, but sources tell Scotto the Pelicans could also have interest in Ham if they decide not to retain interim head coach James Borrego, echoing recent reporting from Jake Fischer.
Former Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins may be the top name on the market and is expected to draw interest from the Bucks, Scotto confirms. Jenkins previously served as an assistant under Mike Budenholzer in Milwaukee.
Scotto states that Borrego could also emerge as a candidate for the Bucks if New Orleans decides to move on, noting that he interviewed with the organization before it hired Adrian Griffin in 2023.
Scotto shares more coaching and front office rumors from around the NBA:
- The Bulls are hoping to hold onto coach Billy Donovan after upending their front office last week. Scotto believes Donovan may have some interest in taking over the Magic if they decide to fire Jamahl Mosley, pointing out that Orlando hired Donovan in 2007 before he changed his mind a few days later and decided to remain at Florida. Scotto cites Timberwolves general manager Matt Lloyd as a potential front office addition in Chicago, noting that Lloyd began his career with the Bulls. He also points to CAA’s Austin Brown as a possibility if the organization wants to make a run at one of the top agents in the business.
- Jenkins and Tom Thibodeau could also be options for the Magic if they make a coaching move, according to Scotto. Borrego, a former assistant in Orlando, may emerge as another possibility. Sources tell Scotto that Michael Malone had been considered throughout the league as a potential candidate for the Magic before he accepted a job with North Carolina.
- The Pelicans will consider keeping Borrego, but sources tell Scotto that Ham and Kevin Ollie will also be in the mix, while Mosley has “several admirers” in New Orleans and could be among the leading candidates for the position if he becomes available. Scotto also points out that Ham worked with Pelicans executive vice president of basketball 0perations Joe Dumars for two years in Detroit, while Ollie interviewed for the head coaching job when New Orleans general manager Troy Weaver was running the Pistons.
- Steve Kerr and the Warriors will discuss their future this summer, Scotto hears. Stephen Curry remains a huge advocate for Kerr and wants them to finish their careers together, but Kerr is the league’s highest-paid coach and there are concerns about burn-out after a difficult season.
- Interim head coach Tiago Splitter will be a candidate to remain with the Trail Blazers after leading the team to the eighth seed in the West, but several top assistant coaches throughout the league and some college coaches will also be considered, sources tell Scotto.
- Wizards coach Brian Keefe still has strong support from his front office, but Scotto’s sources say his future is “undecided” as the organization hopes to transform into a playoff contender next season.
- The Hawks‘ late-season surge could result in an extension for coach Quin Snyder, according to Scotto.
Korver, Dunleavy, Fields Reportedly Among Bulls’ GM Targets
In addition to confirming the Bulls have been connected to Timberwolves general manager Matt Lloyd, Kurt Helin of NBC Sports adds a few other names to watch as Chicago begins its front office search.
Hawks assistant general manager Kyle Korver, Warriors GM Mike Dunleavy Jr., former Hawks GM Landry Fields, and CAA’s Austin Brown are among the other potential targets for the Bulls in the wake of the firings of Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley, league sources tell NBC Sports.
As Helin writes, Dunleavy is unlikely to leave his job with the Warriors, so his inclusion could be more of a “wish list play” for Chicago. The 45-year-old spent three seasons with the Bulls near the end of his playing career, which spanned 15 years (from 2002-17).
Korver, a longtime NBA sharpshooter whose playing career ended in 2020, joined the Hawks in the summer of 2022 as the team’s director of player affairs and development and was promoted to assistant GM in January 2023. He’s another ex-Bull, having played two seasons in Chicago.
Fields, 37, played five NBA seasons before eventually transitioning to a front office role. He was Atlanta’s GM for three seasons prior to being let go in last April. The team won 41, 36, and 40 games in his three years at the helm, making a single playoff appearance during that time and not advancing past the first round.
Fields was hired in January to be the new president of league operations for Overtime Elite. OTE is transitioning to become a national prep league, a source tells Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress (Twitter link), rather than running its own teams and housing players year-round.
Brown, the co-head of CAA’s basketball division, is one of the most powerful agents in the NBA. He was linked to the Hawks’ front office search last May, and his client list includes Donovan Mitchell, Cooper Flagg, Trae Young, Jaren Jackson Jr., OG Anunoby, and many other noteworthy current and former players, per RealGM.
Hawks Interested In Masai Ujiri To Run Front Office
Raptors executive Masai Ujiri has emerged as a target for the Hawks as they search for a new president of basketball operations, Marc Stein reports in his latest Substack article (subscription required).
Sources tell Stein that it’s unclear if Atlanta has a legitimate chance to lure Ujiri, who has been with Toronto for the past 12 years. Ujiri’s contract status hasn’t been made public, but Stein hears that he’s believed to be entering the final season of his current deal.
After starting his career as a scout, Ujiri worked his way up to assistant general manager with the Raptors in 2008 before leaving to become the GM in Denver in 2010. He was named Executive of the Year with the Nuggets in 2013, then returned to Toronto as executive vice president.
Ujiri bolstered his reputation as one of the NBA’s top executives when he built the Raptors team that captured the franchise’s first-ever NBA title in 2019. The final piece of the puzzle was a bold move to trade for San Antonio’s Kawhi Leonard, who was entering the final year of his contract and only spent one season with the team.
Ujiri, who has since been promoted to president and vice chairman, is still recognized as a master team builder, even though Toronto has fallen on hard times in recent years, missing the playoffs in four of the past five seasons. Stein notes that after finishing 30-52 this year, Ujiri promised at an April press conference to bring another championship to Toronto.
The Hawks shook up their front office after being eliminated in the play-in tournament, firing general manager Landry Fields on April 21. Assistant GM Onsi Saleh was promoted to interim GM and is currently handling the day-to-day operations, but the new hire is expected to run the organization.
A Stein Line report last week indicated that owner Tony Ressler was exploring the idea of having a player agent take over the job, with Trae Young‘s agent, Austin Brown of CAA, among the top candidates. League sources confirm to Stein that Octagon’s Alex Saratsis, who represents Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo, has also moved into the picture, as previously reported by Grant Afseth.
Hawks Interested In CAA’s Austin Brown For Front Office Job
Marc Stein and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line reported on Friday that the Hawks owner Tony Ressler was highly intrigued by the possibility of adding an “established” player agent to run Atlanta’s front office.
With that in mind, CAA’s Austin Brown has emerged as a candidate for a “top executive role” with the Hawks, sources tell Grant Afseth of RG.org.
Brown, the co-head of CAA’s basketball division, is one of the most powerful agents in the NBA. The Evanston, Illinois native played college basketball at DePauw in Indiana before becoming an investment banker with J.P Morgan and then attending law school, he said in an interview in 2022 (YouTube link).
As Afseth writes, Brown’s client list includes Hawks guards Trae Young and Caris LeVert. He also represents Donovan Mitchell, Jaren Jackson Jr., OG Anunoby, and Myles Turner in addition to several other noteworthy current and former players, per RealGM.
Brown’s name has popped up in the past when teams have made front office changes — he was previously linked to the Knicks and Bulls back in 2020. Fischer also reported a couple years ago that Brown remained an agent to keep an eye on for future front office openings.
The Hawks are looking for a new president of basketball operations after firing former general manager Landry Fields. Assistant GM Onsi Saleh was promoted to interim GM and is currently running Atlanta’s day-to-day basketball operations, but is expected to work under the new hire.
Former Warriors Exec Bob Myers Likely To Get Job Offers
Bob Myers indicated that he wanted some time away from the game when he stepped down as president of basketball operations and general manager of the Warriors, but fans should expect to hear his name mentioned in connection to any openings that arise in the next few months, writes Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports.
The most obvious team for Myers, according to Fischer, is the Clippers because of his longtime association with team consultant Jerry West and the working relationship they developed during their time together with Golden State. Myers spent more than a decade with the Warriors and helped to win four championships, so Fischer believes he’ll be among the first names that any team will call if it decides to shake up its front office.
Fischer identifies a few other former general managers who may be in line for a second chance, including ex-Utah GM Dennis Lindsey, who is currently working in the Mavericks‘ front office, Kings assistant GM Wes Wilcox, who has rebuilt his reputation after his experience in Atlanta, and former Orlando GM Rob Hennigan, who is VP of basketball operations with the Thunder.
Fischer passes along more information about rising stars in NBA front offices:
- Pelicans general manager Trajan Langdon was among the candidates to become the Wizards’ president of basketball operations and he’ll likely be considered for similar jobs in the future, Fischer writes. Raptors GM Bobby Webster, Cavaliers GM Mike Gansey and new Clippers GM Trent Redden all appear headed for team president roles someday, Fischer adds.
- Jeff Peterson, the Nets‘ assistant GM, is considered one of the league’s best young executives, according to Fischer. Peterson interviewed for the Pistons’ GM slot in 2020, and Fischer hears that he’s viewed as one of the favorites to take over the Hornets if they decide to replace Mitch Kupchak, who’s in the final year of his contract. Pelicans assistant GM Bryson Graham could be first in line to replace Langdon if he leaves, but league sources tell Fischer that he might get an opportunity with another team before that happens.
- Tayshaun Prince is a valuable member of the Grizzlies‘ front office and has received overtures about running other teams, according to Fischer. Among other former NBA players, Jameer Nelson has built a strong reputation in the Sixers‘ front office for his work with their G League affiliate, and Acie Law appears headed for a promotion with the Thunder after Will Dawkins was hired by the Wizards.
- Fischer identifies CAA’s Austin Brown as an agent who might move into a front office role, noting that he was a candidate to run the Bulls in 2020. Fischer also singles out agents Jason Glushon and Todd Ramasar, along with Kirk Berger, a legal counsel with the players’ union.
Bulls Notes: GM Search, Finley, Boylen
The Bulls remain on the hunt for a new general manager, and Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times writes that the interview process may carry through next week.
A since-deleted report on Thursday suggested that CAA agent Austin Brown was in serious talks to become Chicago’s next GM, but a source tells Cowley there’s no frontrunner at this point. Brown’s name is in the mix, per Cowley. Still, there has been no confirmation that he has even interviewed for the job yet.
Although no one has emerged yet as an obvious favorite – as new executive VP of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas did during his own interview process with the Bulls – Cowley’s source says that Mavericks VP of basketball ops Michael Finley “made a great impression” on Karnisovas. Finley reportedly interviewed for the GM position last week.
Here’s more out of Chicago from Cowley:
- Since being hired by the Bulls, Karnisovas has spent plenty of time reaching out to as many of the club’s current players as possible, as well as meeting with “what’s left” of the scouting departments, says Cowley. Karnisovas is collecting information and opinions on what he has to work with in the front office and on the roster, a source tells The Sun-Times.
- While many Bulls fans are impatient to learn the fate of head coach Jim Boylen, a decision on Boylen’s future is further down on Karnisovas’ list of priorities, Cowley writes. As Cowley has previously reported, Boylen remains optimistic that he’ll retain the job. He has been staying in touch with his players for updates and to have them study film clips and has “regularly” met with Karnisovas this month.
- While letting go of Boylen and letting one of his assistants finish the season – if it resumes – could be one path Karnisovas considers, Cowley suggests it’s not likely. A source tells The Sun-Times there’s no obvious candidate to replace Boylen on an interim basis, since the assistants are “all viewed to have equal footing from an experience standpoint.”
Knicks Make Marcus Morris Available
In the wake of Steve Mills‘ ouster, the Knicks may reconsider potential paths at this week’s trade deadline, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link), who notes that Mills was just on the phone on Monday exploring deals, including a possible pursuit of D’Angelo Russell.
Most notably, Wojnarowski suggests that ownership pushed the front office to change course on its plans for Marcus Morris. The Knicks, who were said to be “hell-bent” on retaining and trying to re-sign Morris, have now made him available in trade talks, says Woj.
Marc Berman of The New York Post reported earlier this afternoon that the debate over whether to retain or shop Morris was one issue Mills and GM Scott Perry were divided on. Based on Wojnarowski’s report, it sounds as if Perry was in favor of exploring the trade market for the veteran forward.
Morris, who is on an expiring $15MM contract, is enjoying a career year, with 19.6 PPG and 5.4 RPG with a .442/.439/.823 shooting line in 43 games (32.3 MPG). He has reportedly drawn some league-wide interest, including from the Clippers, and could potentially net the Knicks a first-round pick.
Here’s more on the Knicks:
- Although it appears Perry is making the decisions in the Knicks’ front office for now, the franchise has begun its search for a new president. According to Wojnarowski and ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne (via Twitter), New York has given some thought to hiring a player agent for that role, like the Warriors (Bob Myers) and Lakers (Rob Pelinka) have done.
- Sources tell Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter link) that CAA’s Austin Brown is among the candidates being internally considered by the Knicks. One of CAA’s top agents, Brown represents players like Zion Williamson, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Russell, per Begley (Twitter link).
- Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports classifies the Knicks’ trade discussions with the Hornets involving Julius Randle and Terry Rozier on Monday as serious. However, he hears that Charlotte balked at taking Dennis Smith Jr. in a deal.
- League sources tell Goodwill that Knicks owner James Dolan has had intermediaries get in touch with top executives around the NBA to ask, “What would it take to get you to take over this franchise?”