The Bulls are doing their thing with hiring a new leader, which is not guaranteed doom

their process may be poor, but only results matter

I will not be getting caught up in evaluating how the Bulls are going about this search, or the candidates themselves, to replace the league-worst AKME regime and lead their basketball team in what Billy Donovan correctly saw will be a years-long rebuild. The process is likely going to be bad, because Michael Reinsdorf has not needed to be good at anything to posses his current role. While his family name has gotten him this job, it also brings some limiting factors in his most important task, including lack of spending power and reliance on John Paxson.

So it is not surprising that the rumored names making the in-person interview round are mostly cheap first timers, and that Matt Lloyd is currently a rumored frontrunner because of his career ties to Paxson.

One of the highest-trafficked posts to BlogABull over the years was a fanpost¹ extolling Lloyd’s role in Bulls drafts when he worked for the team as a scout from 2003-2012. Lloyd since worked for the Orlando Magic for ten seasons and now 2nd in command with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Lloyd’s draft record with those teams is spotty because every teams’ is. And it’s important to remember that we have zero evidence of what influence - we know he wasn’t the ultimate decider - Lloyd had on these drafts, or other player evaluations. Do you remember who else was an underling for a successful team given credit for draft picks in particular that had every media member - local and national - ascribe the ‘highly regarded’ label to? Arturas Karnisovas.

Maybe the Bulls should be instead poaching the guy making the final decisions for Lloyd’s Timberwolves and Karnisovas’s Nuggets, Tim Connelly². But we know they don’t operate that way. The Miami Heat talk about winning titles, whereas our mid-market team talks ‘sustainable success’³. The only rumored finalist who has actually had the job before is Dennis Lindsey, who called the shots for the Utah Jazz from 2019 to 2021⁴.

If the Bulls hire Lindsey, we can further scrutinize his record. If it’s Lloyd or another first-timer, there really is no point. I will not pre-judge one way or the other, and instead wait for words and actions. I was quickly suspicious of Karnisovas after his initial mumble-fest and the inaction of ‘evaluating’ Jim Boylen. It turned out Karnisovas was a bad hire. Not because of how the Bulls got to hiring him, but because of Karnisovas being literally the worst at the job.

Surely they have to hire someone more competent this time by default, right?

1. RIP to SBNation, and one day I will get the archives - which I possess - up on the web again

2. they brought his brother on board with AK

3. unmentioned it has to be economically sustainable, too

4. Lindsey was demoted partially due to performance - they hired Danny Ainge over his head which was technically later but likely in the works - and partially due to controversy.