2 reasons to like this hire. 1) search firm found him, not John Paxson, 2) he was behind the trade with the Pelicans that should land a very high lottery pick so he doesn't treat draft picks like dogwater like a certain Arturas did.
well we don't know how much he was 'behind' that Pelicans draft-day trade, but it is probably a good sign that he left New Orleans months after Joe Dumars was hired and knew his team should call that guy
It is being reported that he was the lead negotiator on that trade, to what extent that is true--who knows. But yes, it does seem like he used insider knowledge to extract maximum value.
Definitely a surprise! Due to the search firm’s connection to Graham, I’m guessing they played a legitimate role in this decision. Probably not a bad thing to have someone other than the Reinsdorfs or Paxson be a prominent voice when hiring.
I’m good with the hire.
Michael said they want someone decisive and the Hawks this season certainly fit that description. Between the draft night trade with the Pelicans and the Trae Young trade, they had a pretty good season from the perspective of making good decisions to set up their future.
Due to his age and lack of extensive experience running a team, this feels like a hire that a team makes when they’re about to rebuild.
I didn't know about the search firm's connection but knowing the Reinsdorfs, it would make sense if Bryson Graham paid them as "reverse headhunters" to find him a top exec job, and then they offered their services to the Bulls at a bargain basement price to steer them to the PERFECT candidate.
Cowley doesn't know shit. He's now reporting Graham has a blank check. Said the same thing about Karnisovas in 2020. Cowley will always pump up his pal Mike Reinsdorf
Want to be excited, but knowing the Bulls logic… they chose him because he was cheaper than the competition.
Hope I am wrong. I’m also hoping the Bulls don’t force him to build with the Bulls current “core” instead of letting him choose/develop his team.
I am mentally prepared for the Bulls to make this an AKME 2.0 situation (but better?) and have the FO cobble together some dudes so they’re perpetually play-in/1st round playoff canon fodder.
Haven't read in years (sorry), your take was a lot less cynical than expected. My first thought was that New Orleans and Atlanta aren't exactly winning cultures. Just a dart throw though, hope it hits. God help us.
arturas had generated a deep well of photos to choose from where he looked like an incompetent dolt. so i am appreciating the honeymoon phase of only seeing smiling press-package headshots
Not gonna lie, I had kind of got myself excited about the matt lloyd Micah Nori rumor. But whatever, don't actually have any reason to prefer that over this.
Happy for change. Just want to care about the bulls again, so at least this buys like 8 months in which I can do that, at a minimum, before slipping back into familiar indifference.
I am skeptical of this heavy emphasis on the search firm. It seems to be that they are looking for an external source of validation on this decision that will not fundamentally challenge the actual reasons this team can never succeed.
yeah I mean it doesn't solve the control freak problem. AKME seemed promising at first too at the outset and then quickly dropped off into doing nothing.... I will never believe they'll give a GM free rein.
I'm glad they didn't hire Ujiri. Dude had a rough run after 2019. Exec hires are pretty opaque outside out the org. Since their job is to select and orchestrate the people who do the work, and to make decisions, they can only be judged after the fact. I appreciate seeing a "young guy with experience" get the job, rather than a retread failure from the Booth/Kupchak/Griffin pile.
Graham's best experience, we're told, is drafting. He's getting credit - even as not lead drafter - for Trey Murphy (17), Dyson Daniels (8), Herb Jones (35)
Ujiri, who did much more than drafting, drafted Pascal Siakam (27), OG Anunoby (23), Norm Powell (46)
I don't believe orgs should prioritize technical skills, like college player evaluation, over leadership skills such as decision-making, communication and managing upward when it comes to execs. The job is building and focusing the scouting, analytics and development staff, then using their input to make informed decisions and take smart risks. Execs fail when they work down a level, doing work they're comfortable with. Masai (and his scouts and analysts?) killed it with drafting through 2019 and put a banner up with the inspired Kawhi trade. But he flubbed the transition to post-Kawhi, mismanaged trading his veterans and just flailed around with a mediocre team for 6 years.
I must admit, i am not moved by this hire, though I'm also not (terribly) upset or disappointed by it either. I was thinking if we were to take the "young-up-and-comer" swing, someone like Lewin was a lot easier to buy into just because of the higher ceiling due to his analytic background, as well as the pedigree of organization he was coming from. Additionally, can't say we've ever had an analytic guy as the head executive of the team, so that also would've been a (nice) change of pace. While I'm not moved by the hire, I will reserve judgement until we see who he hires as GM. But this does smell awfully similar to how the Bears hired candidates when they used a search firm. Speaking of, these search firms aren't very neutral are they? They seem to strongly push for those associated with them lol
Bryson Graham looks and sounds like an organization man, an able assistant. Maybe he can build and manage the support staff and evaluate the scouting reports. The Reinsdorf's have a committee that hired him and will probably guide the decision to hire the new GM and HC. Graham never hired a GM or HC. Maybe he can work to a budget.
Probably no real bearing on whether he'll be a good GM, but it's funny to cite the Pels trade in his resume. "This guy is pretty good. Some bozo parked a dump truck full of money near his house and said it's yours for free if you want it. The new guy said 'yes'. Sharp move". Of course the Bulls also probably could have taken possession of said dump truck. In that sense this reads like Doc Rivers seeking out players only among those who went off against his team.
My predictive skills have not proven to be very effective this past year. I thought the team would finish around .500 (if reasonably healthy, which they weren't) and make the play-in again -- I certainly didn't see a trade deadline fire sale coming, and then when that started happening I thought we were surely going to make a desperation "splash" move to stay mildly competitive (e.g., Zion Williamson trade). And I was definitely on the "Matt Lloyd is inevitable" train, and whiffed. So I need to keep that in mind when my gut reaction tells me I don't love this hire, and that it feels like Matt Lloyd got an offer that didn't blow him away financially and/or didn't give him the true autonomy he would have liked, and so the Bulls pivoted to the guy who commanded less dough and was willing to work under more restrictions.
As others have noted, I also had measured optimism about Lloyd coming over with Micah Nori, and was actually pretty psyched about the idea that maybe Dave Lewin would join as GM under Lloyd's EVP of Basketball Operations role (technically neither Nori nor Lewin are totally ruled out...but yeah, probably not happening).
At the same time, for anyone who wanted change and distrusts the Reinsdorfian way of doing business, longtime Bulls employee and Pax mentee Matt Lloyd was certainly not the "change candidate" -- and Lloyd being in the same "2nd fiddle to Tim Connelly" category from whence we hired AK was always going to make me a bit queasy.
So, that being said, Bryson Graham actually COULD be the one who gets the Bulls doing things differently for once. Or at least, doing things within the same constraints of the "Bulls way" but being smarter, savvier, more creative, and more competitive about it than anyone we've had in this role in quite some time (at least since Pax stopped trying, if not further back).
I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, for now. But one thing I know, is that he's going to look at lot more effective this upcoming year if a Bulls ping pong ball lands in one of the top few slots on Sunday than if we stay at #9 (or slide further down). May luck be on all of our sides this weekend!
If he’s only mediocre he’ll be light years ahead of AK so there’s that at least.
2 reasons to like this hire. 1) search firm found him, not John Paxson, 2) he was behind the trade with the Pelicans that should land a very high lottery pick so he doesn't treat draft picks like dogwater like a certain Arturas did.
well we don't know how much he was 'behind' that Pelicans draft-day trade, but it is probably a good sign that he left New Orleans months after Joe Dumars was hired and knew his team should call that guy
It is being reported that he was the lead negotiator on that trade, to what extent that is true--who knows. But yes, it does seem like he used insider knowledge to extract maximum value.
Definitely a surprise! Due to the search firm’s connection to Graham, I’m guessing they played a legitimate role in this decision. Probably not a bad thing to have someone other than the Reinsdorfs or Paxson be a prominent voice when hiring.
I’m good with the hire.
Michael said they want someone decisive and the Hawks this season certainly fit that description. Between the draft night trade with the Pelicans and the Trae Young trade, they had a pretty good season from the perspective of making good decisions to set up their future.
Due to his age and lack of extensive experience running a team, this feels like a hire that a team makes when they’re about to rebuild.
Please be good, Bryson! We’re all begging you!
I didn't know about the search firm's connection but knowing the Reinsdorfs, it would make sense if Bryson Graham paid them as "reverse headhunters" to find him a top exec job, and then they offered their services to the Bulls at a bargain basement price to steer them to the PERFECT candidate.
we're so lucky to have KC Johnson as an insider:
"Bulls went into finalist phase with open mind and all four finalists interviewed well, I’m told."
My guess is that at least one of the other guys declined
Based on Cowley's (ahem) reporting, maybe it was Matt Lloyd?
Cowley doesn't know shit. He's now reporting Graham has a blank check. Said the same thing about Karnisovas in 2020. Cowley will always pump up his pal Mike Reinsdorf
Agree. But Michael is a good source. A lot of Cowley's sourcing seems to be a couple levels down from there though.
Jon Greenberg at The Athletic said that's not true, FWIW
Yeah, there's always a lot of room for interpretation and wish casting in these things
Want to be excited, but knowing the Bulls logic… they chose him because he was cheaper than the competition.
Hope I am wrong. I’m also hoping the Bulls don’t force him to build with the Bulls current “core” instead of letting him choose/develop his team.
I am mentally prepared for the Bulls to make this an AKME 2.0 situation (but better?) and have the FO cobble together some dudes so they’re perpetually play-in/1st round playoff canon fodder.
Haven't read in years (sorry), your take was a lot less cynical than expected. My first thought was that New Orleans and Atlanta aren't exactly winning cultures. Just a dart throw though, hope it hits. God help us.
Not sure any of the “winning culture” stuff matters when we’re talking about people who didn’t actually run the team.
AK came from a playoff organization with a future hall-of-fame player and it didn’t matter at all.
arturas had generated a deep well of photos to choose from where he looked like an incompetent dolt. so i am appreciating the honeymoon phase of only seeing smiling press-package headshots
Cue up the Snoop Dogg meme
*WHO?*
Not gonna lie, I had kind of got myself excited about the matt lloyd Micah Nori rumor. But whatever, don't actually have any reason to prefer that over this.
Happy for change. Just want to care about the bulls again, so at least this buys like 8 months in which I can do that, at a minimum, before slipping back into familiar indifference.
I am skeptical of this heavy emphasis on the search firm. It seems to be that they are looking for an external source of validation on this decision that will not fundamentally challenge the actual reasons this team can never succeed.
yeah I mean it doesn't solve the control freak problem. AKME seemed promising at first too at the outset and then quickly dropped off into doing nothing.... I will never believe they'll give a GM free rein.
I'm glad they didn't hire Ujiri. Dude had a rough run after 2019. Exec hires are pretty opaque outside out the org. Since their job is to select and orchestrate the people who do the work, and to make decisions, they can only be judged after the fact. I appreciate seeing a "young guy with experience" get the job, rather than a retread failure from the Booth/Kupchak/Griffin pile.
Graham's best experience, we're told, is drafting. He's getting credit - even as not lead drafter - for Trey Murphy (17), Dyson Daniels (8), Herb Jones (35)
Ujiri, who did much more than drafting, drafted Pascal Siakam (27), OG Anunoby (23), Norm Powell (46)
To be fair to the original point - those guys were all drafted prior to 2019.
I don't believe orgs should prioritize technical skills, like college player evaluation, over leadership skills such as decision-making, communication and managing upward when it comes to execs. The job is building and focusing the scouting, analytics and development staff, then using their input to make informed decisions and take smart risks. Execs fail when they work down a level, doing work they're comfortable with. Masai (and his scouts and analysts?) killed it with drafting through 2019 and put a banner up with the inspired Kawhi trade. But he flubbed the transition to post-Kawhi, mismanaged trading his veterans and just flailed around with a mediocre team for 6 years.
I must admit, i am not moved by this hire, though I'm also not (terribly) upset or disappointed by it either. I was thinking if we were to take the "young-up-and-comer" swing, someone like Lewin was a lot easier to buy into just because of the higher ceiling due to his analytic background, as well as the pedigree of organization he was coming from. Additionally, can't say we've ever had an analytic guy as the head executive of the team, so that also would've been a (nice) change of pace. While I'm not moved by the hire, I will reserve judgement until we see who he hires as GM. But this does smell awfully similar to how the Bears hired candidates when they used a search firm. Speaking of, these search firms aren't very neutral are they? They seem to strongly push for those associated with them lol
Bryson Graham looks and sounds like an organization man, an able assistant. Maybe he can build and manage the support staff and evaluate the scouting reports. The Reinsdorf's have a committee that hired him and will probably guide the decision to hire the new GM and HC. Graham never hired a GM or HC. Maybe he can work to a budget.
Probably no real bearing on whether he'll be a good GM, but it's funny to cite the Pels trade in his resume. "This guy is pretty good. Some bozo parked a dump truck full of money near his house and said it's yours for free if you want it. The new guy said 'yes'. Sharp move". Of course the Bulls also probably could have taken possession of said dump truck. In that sense this reads like Doc Rivers seeking out players only among those who went off against his team.
tbf the sox did that with Jermaine dye and aj pierzynski and they won it all
There's been plenty of reporting on AK saying no thanks to several money drops during his time with the Bulls
I don't want to overreact but I just feel hopeless. A pelicans/hawks guy with ties to gar?
You ever worked with anybody that sucks ass?
um. yeah why?
My predictive skills have not proven to be very effective this past year. I thought the team would finish around .500 (if reasonably healthy, which they weren't) and make the play-in again -- I certainly didn't see a trade deadline fire sale coming, and then when that started happening I thought we were surely going to make a desperation "splash" move to stay mildly competitive (e.g., Zion Williamson trade). And I was definitely on the "Matt Lloyd is inevitable" train, and whiffed. So I need to keep that in mind when my gut reaction tells me I don't love this hire, and that it feels like Matt Lloyd got an offer that didn't blow him away financially and/or didn't give him the true autonomy he would have liked, and so the Bulls pivoted to the guy who commanded less dough and was willing to work under more restrictions.
As others have noted, I also had measured optimism about Lloyd coming over with Micah Nori, and was actually pretty psyched about the idea that maybe Dave Lewin would join as GM under Lloyd's EVP of Basketball Operations role (technically neither Nori nor Lewin are totally ruled out...but yeah, probably not happening).
At the same time, for anyone who wanted change and distrusts the Reinsdorfian way of doing business, longtime Bulls employee and Pax mentee Matt Lloyd was certainly not the "change candidate" -- and Lloyd being in the same "2nd fiddle to Tim Connelly" category from whence we hired AK was always going to make me a bit queasy.
So, that being said, Bryson Graham actually COULD be the one who gets the Bulls doing things differently for once. Or at least, doing things within the same constraints of the "Bulls way" but being smarter, savvier, more creative, and more competitive about it than anyone we've had in this role in quite some time (at least since Pax stopped trying, if not further back).
I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, for now. But one thing I know, is that he's going to look at lot more effective this upcoming year if a Bulls ping pong ball lands in one of the top few slots on Sunday than if we stay at #9 (or slide further down). May luck be on all of our sides this weekend!