None of this seems like particular news we couldn'talready surmise. I think the article says staffers didn't know whether the "be competitive at all costs" direction was AKME's direction or ownership. I think that still seems to be the mandate from ownership. This team constructed similarly has fringe play-in potential. More future upside with Wilson, but I think the offseason moves show bottoming out, which is no longer beneficial anyways, isn't the plan. Just means the Reinsdorfs had close door meetings with AKME and kept those confidential.
it does say that pressure came from ownership. at some point you just have to blame ol art and whats-his-job. they were historically terrible. Kenny Williams would've run this team better ffs
There's a few things here. If AKME had been successful, nobody would care about how collaborative they were. But all they did was dig their heels in over and over. I was surprised that their refusal to have a contingency plan for Lonzo's extended absence was also not mentioned.
I do find the idea that the Reinsdorfs don't meddle as laughable though.
I don't think they meddle in the day-to-day. But they definitely have an organizational philosophy (what with all their success, how can you not?) and hire people who share it. That way they don't need to meddle, or lie about it. Which is a real time saver.
I suppose. I mean... I guess it's that I don't buy that they'd listen to some proposal about a rebuild. After all, it is even mentioned about being good at the expense of being great. And that seems to be part of that philosophy, that goes beyond AKME. As you said, they shared that... not wanting to tank or completely tear things down.
I even think they are ok with a rebuild! And Bryson Graham, to his credit, has sold them on it and looks to be going forward with that mindset
but it has to be a rebuild that is very inexpensive. So you don't spend money to give you the best chance at succeeding in a rebuild, but you save money to 'counter' potentially soft revenues during the rebuild
Paxson did a rebuild in the wake of the Jimmy Butler trade, had a league-low payroll and maximum cash in trades for years
Yeah idk. A diff quote says "There was always some sort of ownership pressure in terms of competing and winning games. That was always a thing. So while they can talk about how it's been the VP or GM's decision, that hasn't really been the vibe."
The rebuild being cheap and half assed is a Bulls hallmark though, as is bringing washed up or rapidly aging vets (Ben Wallace, PJ Brown, Thad, Sato, Claxton , Powell) to “mentor” the young guys and stay competitive.
One difference now is that they can’t actually go under the league salary floor like they used to
If I'm remembering correctly (I read the article yesterday so maybe I'm misremembering), Collier quoted some random employees as saying the Reinsdorf's meddle, but then quoted an anonymous exec who said the Reinsdorf's don't meddle. Of course the exec is going to say that. He's probably in his position because the Reinsdorf's want him there.
Yeah there are some contradictory things in there. Some of it's like "this is the way the org does things" (like with 2nd round picks) and then "Reinsdorfs don't meddle" etc etc.
i remember the lead up to 2020, and knowing haliburton was an iowa state guy and assuming there was enough internal inertia that they'd fire garpax and still take the IState guy. then they didnt! and they should have! and now we're learning that they kind of tried? the one time the cyclone was the good pick. lol oops
The "failed regime" achieved their initial goal: "Stop the bleeding. Turn the team around. Step out of the Gar/Pax loser category, at least up into the .500 level." Then they stalled and ran out their string.
AKME "got more insular and defensive as" the drum beat intensified.
"they weren’t collaborative enough" ... maybe so. IDK, but they might not have been at liberty to divulge the Reinsdorf's mandates, even to their subordinates.
"a complete organizational failure" is rank hyperbole. One conflict resolution exercise requires you to make the other side's arguments. If you can't, then you're a hack.
I'd argue that playing winning or competitive BBall is the Reinsdorf philosophy, if only to fill the house. As to: "'their way' turned out to be stupid and terrible" ... and how do you know that "avoiding a rebuild was as much an AKME ... philosophy"? ... I don’t recall the Bulls tanking before drafting MJ, or during his baseball seasons, and yet they won two sets of three championship. Thereby, Krause proved that you can reload. Tanking is optional, not essential and it's not a guarantee of future success. Maybe in 98-99, the season after MJ and before drafting Elton Brand, but that crash could have been organic and not a tank, given the player/coach revolt.
I discuss AKME only to correct the record. It's easy to vilify the dead or those who probably have signed an NDA. I've always been critical of the substandard 2-way contracts, the PWill contract extention, and the inaction/delays at the trade deadlines which led directly to the 2026 firesale. I haven't changed my tune or erased my posts, but I have turned the page, and give credit where credit is due, to each regime.
BTW, I like Wilson, Sellers, Awaka and Atwell to various degrees, and every new front office and coaching hire, and I still have hope for Essengue, Swain and even the much-maligned PWill. Dillingham also needs work. The cup is half full.
"The "failed regime" achieved their initial goal: "Stop the bleeding. Turn the team around. Step out of the Gar/Pax loser category, at least up into the .500 level.""
Uhhh no. You can't just rewrite history. Their initial goal was "win a championship." That's quite literally what AK said in his first press conference as Bulls EVP.
That's an inspirational speech. Every newly appointed leader gives one. Every coach tells his team in the locker room that they're going to fight and win. We've all been there.
But the real issue might be as simple as this: On a 1-10 scale, many others give out a lot of 1's and 2's and 9's and 10's, while I give out a lot of 3's and 4's and 7's and 8's. Our rank order listings of Bulls executives might be similar, but I don't attribute all credit or fault for every positive or negative event to my hero or villain. A lot of people and extraneous factors play a role. But the managers get fired and it was about time. It looks like the new ones are pretty good ... so far.
It's too bad that to understand a person you have to consider his entire career, and it's a long one. If the Yankees' and Dodgers' reputation is partially derived from Mantle and Kofax, why not the Bulls?
Holding on to an executive for about 5 years in spite of only modest success is characteristic of Reinsdorf. Should no one work for him? Splitter, Graham?
Playing .500 ball in front of a full house is not a complete failure. But after a while, you get fired for that.
I can see an argument for AK not being collaborative enough. *IF* he were skilled at his job, then he wouldn't need to be collaborative. He'd just need to be right (although, I would argue that even the best need to take feedback from others to heart, if that qualifies as collaboration).
But AK wasn't good at his job. Being collaborative is a change he could make without needing to get smarter or more skilled. It just takes listening to others and giving more weight to the opinions of people who are consistently correct.... and firing those who are consistently wrong.
What were they right on, Tyrese Haliburton? That's just one player, and no reason not to think it was just due to Iowa State not scouting acumen. If it was years of correct things that'd be another matter
You should know at least one! You literally brought up AKME firing Patton for being outspoken in your article!
We don't know who was right more than others in the front office, but we know that AK fired at least one person who was actively good at their job and wasn't afraid to speak up.
I mean, that one player is essentially why you tank. He was the outlier, of course, but if you're tanking it, you're doing it to get a star. He's better than any player they've had since. That's not a hand-wave. He's not a superduper star, but he's in that Jimmy Butler late-Bulls to mid-Heat tier. Top 20-25. If yo'ure right on that, you can literally be wrong on everything else and still be better off than where they are now.
Since he was not good at his job, not collaborating with those smarter than him (most people) was a flaw for him. It wouldn't be for a top tier VP (or at least not as much of a flaw), but it was for him.
The article is pretty clear that the people he “wasn’t collaborative enough” with were the guys from the previous regime he probably thought he was replacing.
They are almost certainly who was whining to Collier, since everyone else has moved on. But it's clear the lack of collaboration extended to people who actually added something to the team.
And just because people like Paxton weren't good at their prior jobs, doesn't mean they are good at nothing. In the same way that a good manager can get the best out of flawed employees, a good VP can get the most out of flawed advisors.
That said, Paxton & co. were likely just whining to make themselves look better to the media. Attempting to separate themselves from the wreckage.
this article feels like a big nothing. A bunch of anonymous staffers saying if only their ideas were followed everything would have been good and almost no specifics. I don't need anonymous staffers to tell me AKME sucked, the product on the court made it clear.
As noted by others, much of this piece pretty much confirms what we'd all been thinking. I've long been a broken record in claiming that AKME's lone strategy was putting all of their eggs into the Patrick Williams basket (and constructing a team that he was intended to take over). But even in its confirmation of that fact, this article still made me shudder at how AKME kept doubling down on their delusion that one morning "The Paw" would wake up feeling a bit different, then drive over to practice, stride into to the gym, and suddenly everyone would see Kawhi Leonard standing before them. It's also true that in the parallel universe where that actually occurred, we would still be living in the AKME era right now (perhaps happily so?). But it wasn't ever going to happen in our universe.
Another note -- for those who aren't as familiar with journalist code, the phrase "source with knowledge of their thinking" is commonly used to signify the quote comes from the person themself, who's given permission to be quoted under the condition they will not be named directly as a source.
So when Jamal Collier writes:
"We knew exactly where we were," said one source with knowledge of their thinking. "Everybody knew it. We were constantly explaining that we're getting young players on rookie scales and we're trying to minimize the timeline. There was clear direction."
...this is either AK or ME giving him a direct quote. You can take that to the bank. A few of the other pro-AKME quotes might be from them, as well.
I disagree that collaboration can be a separate issue from success. If your staff is vestigal, why are you paying them? Paying people you don't use is dysfunctional behavior for a business. If theyre worth paying, why wouldn't you use them?
It also ties in to a very long standing issue of the Bulls hiring real fuckin weirdos to run the team. And not just weirdos, but people who have a almost misanthropic streak.
It's an intense business. I get it. People jump on each other from time to time. But with the Bulls that intensity always seems to ferment into a kind of aggressive paranoia. Graham hasn't done a single smart thing to my mind, and he reads to me as a guy without a plan. But it may help the health of the org a little bit if he's just a more normal dude.
the head weirdo is Jerry Reinsdorf of course. Loyalty over performance, and that performance is assessed as positive if you apply some nebulous half-measures towards success but never really committing towards it
Maybe Graham is so far removed age-wise from Jerry that he got hired being normal. If vestigial staff is a problem, I fear that is entrenched in this franchise beyond what Graham can touch.
I think you're not disclosing some evidence that disproves your arguments.
In 1978-79, Reinsdorf hired GM Rod Thorn and HC Larry Costello. For 11 years, they had 9 HCs; the Bulls were irrelevant during this period. Jerry Krause replaced Thorn in 1985 and eventually hired Phil Jackson. Krause did what he was hired to do: The Bulls improved. But even with MJ they couldn't get past the Celtics and Pistons.
But after 5½ years of GM Jerry Krause, in 1990-91 they won their 1st Championship. IMO, Krause might have gotten fired otherwise. After MJ played baseball for two seasons, Krause reloaded the Bulls, and they won their second set of three Championships up to the 1997-98 season. Then, after 4½ miserable seasons, Krause was replaced.
Krause and Jackson had great accomplishments with the Bulls, but from Thorn and Costello to AKME and Donovan, and the many others in between ... not so much. Even Tom Thibodeau was fired, by the Bulls and the Knicks. He was replaced in NY by Mike Brown, who had been fired as HC by the Cavaliers, Lakers and Kings, but Brown won a Championship with the Knicks.
The Reindorf's turn over their GMs and HCs at their pace. Some have had much shorter reigns than others, maybe because of performance not loyalty. Sometimes it's a matter of being in the right place at the right time or catching a break. IMO, the worst aren't as bad as they're made out to be and the best aren't as great as the championships are marvelous. Everyone can pick their most and least favorites.
AKME did what they were hired to do, and then they did not take the Bulls any further and were fired. Initial success, but it didn't continue. Not good enough.
I think the fact you have to go back 30 years to find a good decision Jerry made doesn't actually disprove anything. What was normal in 1979 is now "weird" that's how things work
Was hiring Krause a great decision? He had been a baseball scout. The experts thought MJ wasn't championship caliber, until they won a championship. Reinsdorf couldn't have foreseen a championship. They all just pick the most attractive of the available options. We all have feet of clay.
Did they really do what they were hired to do? The Bulls had a single winning season during their tenure and a single playoff game victory. And that was in 2022... they actively got worse over the last 4 years.
Let's all play the "Lies, damned lies and statistics" game! The Bulls cumulative W/L record for 4.5 years was .500 ... much better than the prior years under Gar/Pax which was around .350.
Good = .600+
Average = .500
Bad = .400-
They got into the postseason most seasons, the play-ins.
I've acknowledged some of AKME's shortcomings earlier or elsewhere.
AKME was hired to turn it around. He traded some of the players he inherited and some picks for Vucevic and DeRozen, to add to LaVine, then added Caruso, Ball and Ayo. If they had any more or better resources to trade, they would have tried to acquire Shaq and Coby, but alas. They did what they could, what they were hired to do. Blame Reinsdorf.
Watch what someone does, then set the standard above that, and then label him a failure.
Boy that is a hot take and also a complete misrepresentation/cherry picking of the facts. I didn't lie in fact. Thibodeau was 255-139... a .647 record. Made the playoffs every year. And that was under Garpax.
I don't defend Garpax much (and was certainly against them throwing Thibs under the bus) but if anything, they had earned the right to reset. Their "down years" was only 3 years... Before that? 41-41, losing in the first round of the playoffs (winning more games than AKME's playoff showing). If you take the previous 6 seasons to match with AKME's, their average was about .429 (and that 1st season was under Thibs where they last won a playoff series!). Not fair to compare it only to the previous 3 years. AKME had a single season above .500 which brought up their average. Started 10 games under .500, ended 20 games under .500. Actively. Worse.
So no. They never improved on what Garpax did really. Never won more games in the playoffs.
I liked what AKME did at the start. They just never had a plan B.
I never claimed that overall AKME/Donovan were better than GarPax/Thibodaux, who achieved higher heights.
I pushed back on the notion that AKME was a complete failure, by saying that Reinsdorf wanted to stop the bleeding (of the final years of GarPax) and AKME achieved that.
I guess it's risky to challenge the sacred cows and defend the whipping boys. Almost all of them get fired, after some level of success.
Also the other thing I wanted to say, I know that folks who are familiar with me will back this up, is that I am not overly harsh and in fact am more forgiving than a lot of folks in terms of being critical, I really try to see all sides and give the benefit of the doubt for as long as possible. But there's just no way to spin this one... despite what you try to do.
The post-season play-ins in the Eastern Conference in the AKME area is exactly why they made it. So people like you can say, "Hey, they made the post-season even though they were the 20th-best team in the league!"
Yo'ure bad at this. Or good. Depending if you want to go for truths and accuracy or obfuscation.
Gar Forman / John Paxson era (2009-10 → 2019-20, 11 seasons):
Combined regular-season record of 450–419, a .518 win percentage.
Arturas Karnišovas / Marc Eversley era (2020-21 → 2025-26, 6 seasons):
Combined regular-season record of 226–256, a .469 win percentage. Season by season: 31-41, 46-36, 40-42, 39-43, 39-43, 31-51
The Bulls under AKME won a single playoff game in 6 years.
Karnišovas / Eversley (2020-21 → 2025-26): 1 playoff game won, across 1 playoff series (0-1 in series).
Forman / Paxson (2009-10 → 2019-20): 26 playoff games won, across 7 postseason appearances. Breakdown by run:
That's all "straw man" arguments. You can't dispute what I said so you dispute what I didn't say. I think we're beating a dead horse. No one ever changes their minds.
Reinsdorf didn’t buy the Bulls until 1985 which was after when they drafted Jordan. One of Reinsdorf’s first moves was to fire Thorn and head coach Kevin Loughery.
Wow, I can't recall ever knowing that. That changes the responsibility from Reinsdorf for the rapid turnover in coaches in the late '70's and early '80's ... actually makes Reinsdorf look more consistent. Plus that ownership group won a championship 6 years after acquiring controlling interest in the franchise. Thanks for the history lesson.
The answers are clear from the article. They’re still there and still being paid because they were on the Reinsdorf family plan.
This isn’t to give any legitimacy to AKME but it’s pretty evident he was told “Hey, it’s your show!”, but when he went to bring in his guys Reinsdorf was like… “we already have Brian Hagan!” And obviously Paxson.
So instead of getting to make a full staff, AK got a couple guys he trusted and wanted, his guys, and got a roomful of guys who were not his guys, and were the guy of the guy with ownership’s ear, second guessing everything.
It’s textbook dysfunction, and directly stemming from ownership keeping around a whole previous regime.
And, same thing now. Whereas AK seems to have fought this and just ignored the old regime, BG seems to be leaning into it. At least so far. I don’t have much good to say about the though processes I’ve seen so far either.
Yeah, I think this nails it. And it's related to why in another thread I gently pushed back against the idea that development is a putative strength for Graham: development is a system, an infrastructure; not a person. Graham may care about development on a personal level. But if Graham doesn't have enough power to really change/elaborate personnel, then his personal feelings on development won't matter.
I’d be a lot more inclined to put stock in the views of anonymous Bulls staffers if the organization had a reputation or track record of having knowledgeable or innovative front office talent. But…they absolutely don’t! Very much the opposite. If anything it’s shocking that AKME were such poor managers that even these guys could see a problem.
Let that article be the final eulogy for that regime. They had one plan and it was fun for half a season with the occasional DDR heroics, then it fell apart. I never wanna think about AKME ever again. The prevailing image in my mind of that regime is Wile E. Coyote blowing himself up time and time again. I hope he fares better in his new job.
I feel bad for him. He's convinced himself that no one on here will change their mind, but really no one is changing their mind because he picked a dumb hill to die on.
I'm not getting Terry vibes at all. Terry was irrationally confident when he actually sucked. Swain seems like he's totally in his head and has zero confidence.
Yeah he looks really lost out there and he's been indecisive. He's managing to get close to the basket but his finishing isn't there. Scouting reports have been saying he's a good finisher so maybe he probably just needs more time to figure things out.
I keep thinking about missing out on Carr, but there is something I don't love about his vibe, body language, etc. He had a lot of red flags during his college career.
I am not on the Swain Train at all but it's not like the Bulls were the only ones to pass on Carr. Memphis had pick 16 and said "no thanks". Then a bunch of both up-and-coming and traditionally elite NBA front offices (at least in regard to identifying talent) had their shot. Sam Presti/OKC passed in order to trade for Stirtz. Then Toronto, Detroit, San Antonio, Philly, Atlanta, and the World Champion Knicks (among others) all could have grabbed Carr but they didn't. Given Carr's skill and athletic prowess, why did he fall? There's definitely a reason, just not sure what it is. (He does make a ton of sense next to Luka on the Lakers.)
Yeah, I definitely agree. Admittedly last night was my first time watching him, but he just seemed really cocky. And not like Caleb Wilson cocky where he has this irrational belief in himself and he's going to prove it on the court.
Yeah and it's not like he was flying under the radar or anything. Starting at the combine, he was getting more "buzz" than anyone outside the top 4.
NBA execs may have put less stock into the combine showing, and more into workouts/interviews...and asking why Scott Drew had a run of over 20 years of strong /elite seasons at Baylor until Carr showed up and they went into the tank.
Haha I do occasionally mute commenters that are clearly just trolls, but I've never muted anyone on this site. Everyone comments in good faith, even if I highly disagree with them.
One thing about Noa though is we've seen him play well in the past summer league and the G League. Maybe part of his awkwardness has to do with rust and also not being used to his body yet because of that growth spurt.
- Caleb understandably still has some areas of his game to further develop, but he’s been phenomenal overall.
- Swain needs a reset. The Bulls should not have him play PG in the preseason and see what that does for him.
- Essengue has potential, but desperately needs to focus on body control. You can’t get away with falling down that much if you’re not a good player yet.
- Sellers has a real chance to make it to the league. He has NBA skills and plays with a good edge.
- Awaka is good, but might not be versatile enough to be an NBA big.
- Carr is going to be a good player. If Swain doesn’t develop (and I still think he will), then Carr will be a player Graham hears a lot about during the start of his tenure.
- Who is Jon Elmore and why does he look like my dad’s entire side of the family?
Noted this above but I'm not sure Graham will get too much grief if Carr shines in the league. There were a bunch of really solid NBA front offices drafting after the Bulls who didn't want him either.
As for Elmore, I keep thinking he won some sort of contest or charity raffle, or it's a Celebrity game and Kyle/KG from Tenacious D is on the court.
Yes 100% (though I'm not sure why he's been oversold on that front, he never came out and said he's gonna destroy as drafter).
But I think the scrutiny should be based on who he DID draft, not who he didn't draft. The Swain pick feels suspect in some regards, let's scrutinize what we see, but it's all also so damn early right now.
NEW POST for Summer League 'recap'. I will not mind if you re-paste comments here into that thread:
https://www.blogabull.com/p/what-the-summerbulls-showed-us
None of this seems like particular news we couldn'talready surmise. I think the article says staffers didn't know whether the "be competitive at all costs" direction was AKME's direction or ownership. I think that still seems to be the mandate from ownership. This team constructed similarly has fringe play-in potential. More future upside with Wilson, but I think the offseason moves show bottoming out, which is no longer beneficial anyways, isn't the plan. Just means the Reinsdorfs had close door meetings with AKME and kept those confidential.
it does say that pressure came from ownership. at some point you just have to blame ol art and whats-his-job. they were historically terrible. Kenny Williams would've run this team better ffs
There's a few things here. If AKME had been successful, nobody would care about how collaborative they were. But all they did was dig their heels in over and over. I was surprised that their refusal to have a contingency plan for Lonzo's extended absence was also not mentioned.
I do find the idea that the Reinsdorfs don't meddle as laughable though.
I don't think they meddle in the day-to-day. But they definitely have an organizational philosophy (what with all their success, how can you not?) and hire people who share it. That way they don't need to meddle, or lie about it. Which is a real time saver.
I suppose. I mean... I guess it's that I don't buy that they'd listen to some proposal about a rebuild. After all, it is even mentioned about being good at the expense of being great. And that seems to be part of that philosophy, that goes beyond AKME. As you said, they shared that... not wanting to tank or completely tear things down.
I even think they are ok with a rebuild! And Bryson Graham, to his credit, has sold them on it and looks to be going forward with that mindset
but it has to be a rebuild that is very inexpensive. So you don't spend money to give you the best chance at succeeding in a rebuild, but you save money to 'counter' potentially soft revenues during the rebuild
Paxson did a rebuild in the wake of the Jimmy Butler trade, had a league-low payroll and maximum cash in trades for years
Yeah idk. A diff quote says "There was always some sort of ownership pressure in terms of competing and winning games. That was always a thing. So while they can talk about how it's been the VP or GM's decision, that hasn't really been the vibe."
Pax is a de facto Reinsdorf though.
The rebuild being cheap and half assed is a Bulls hallmark though, as is bringing washed up or rapidly aging vets (Ben Wallace, PJ Brown, Thad, Sato, Claxton , Powell) to “mentor” the young guys and stay competitive.
One difference now is that they can’t actually go under the league salary floor like they used to
Yeah and as I said before, not to defend Garpax too much, but they were much more successful prior to the teardown than AKME was.
If I'm remembering correctly (I read the article yesterday so maybe I'm misremembering), Collier quoted some random employees as saying the Reinsdorf's meddle, but then quoted an anonymous exec who said the Reinsdorf's don't meddle. Of course the exec is going to say that. He's probably in his position because the Reinsdorf's want him there.
Yeah there are some contradictory things in there. Some of it's like "this is the way the org does things" (like with 2nd round picks) and then "Reinsdorfs don't meddle" etc etc.
i remember the lead up to 2020, and knowing haliburton was an iowa state guy and assuming there was enough internal inertia that they'd fire garpax and still take the IState guy. then they didnt! and they should have! and now we're learning that they kind of tried? the one time the cyclone was the good pick. lol oops
I would've been a-OK with Arturas saying "I didn't draft Haliburton because of Iowa State stink in this organization"
Yeah I mean. I didn't mind the risk... they just never showed an ability to go to plan B.
The "failed regime" achieved their initial goal: "Stop the bleeding. Turn the team around. Step out of the Gar/Pax loser category, at least up into the .500 level." Then they stalled and ran out their string.
AKME "got more insular and defensive as" the drum beat intensified.
"they weren’t collaborative enough" ... maybe so. IDK, but they might not have been at liberty to divulge the Reinsdorf's mandates, even to their subordinates.
"a complete organizational failure" is rank hyperbole. One conflict resolution exercise requires you to make the other side's arguments. If you can't, then you're a hack.
I'd argue that playing winning or competitive BBall is the Reinsdorf philosophy, if only to fill the house. As to: "'their way' turned out to be stupid and terrible" ... and how do you know that "avoiding a rebuild was as much an AKME ... philosophy"? ... I don’t recall the Bulls tanking before drafting MJ, or during his baseball seasons, and yet they won two sets of three championship. Thereby, Krause proved that you can reload. Tanking is optional, not essential and it's not a guarantee of future success. Maybe in 98-99, the season after MJ and before drafting Elton Brand, but that crash could have been organic and not a tank, given the player/coach revolt.
I discuss AKME only to correct the record. It's easy to vilify the dead or those who probably have signed an NDA. I've always been critical of the substandard 2-way contracts, the PWill contract extention, and the inaction/delays at the trade deadlines which led directly to the 2026 firesale. I haven't changed my tune or erased my posts, but I have turned the page, and give credit where credit is due, to each regime.
BTW, I like Wilson, Sellers, Awaka and Atwell to various degrees, and every new front office and coaching hire, and I still have hope for Essengue, Swain and even the much-maligned PWill. Dillingham also needs work. The cup is half full.
Dude if the cup is only half full for like 4 years you start to wonder why no one is refilling it
"The "failed regime" achieved their initial goal: "Stop the bleeding. Turn the team around. Step out of the Gar/Pax loser category, at least up into the .500 level.""
Uhhh no. You can't just rewrite history. Their initial goal was "win a championship." That's quite literally what AK said in his first press conference as Bulls EVP.
https://www.nba.com/bulls/features/karnisovas-talks-basketball-philosophies-introductory-conference-call
If you feel like your life calling is to defend AKME, that's fine. Just don't whitewash what was actually said and done. That's just lazy.
That's an inspirational speech. Every newly appointed leader gives one. Every coach tells his team in the locker room that they're going to fight and win. We've all been there.
But the real issue might be as simple as this: On a 1-10 scale, many others give out a lot of 1's and 2's and 9's and 10's, while I give out a lot of 3's and 4's and 7's and 8's. Our rank order listings of Bulls executives might be similar, but I don't attribute all credit or fault for every positive or negative event to my hero or villain. A lot of people and extraneous factors play a role. But the managers get fired and it was about time. It looks like the new ones are pretty good ... so far.
"I don’t recall the Bulls tanking before drafting MJ"
my man that was literally 45 years ago
I'm literally doing age discriminating training on my laptop when I read this comment 💀
It's too bad that to understand a person you have to consider his entire career, and it's a long one. If the Yankees' and Dodgers' reputation is partially derived from Mantle and Kofax, why not the Bulls?
Holding on to an executive for about 5 years in spite of only modest success is characteristic of Reinsdorf. Should no one work for him? Splitter, Graham?
Playing .500 ball in front of a full house is not a complete failure. But after a while, you get fired for that.
I just meant I'm old lol
Apologies. It's getting testy.
One thing this article confirmed to me was that AK was terrified of the draft.
“There were no guarantees in the draft, they said. No guarantees the years of misery would pay off.”
They didn’t rebuild, in part, because AK didn’t trust himself to pull it off.
Which makes the Pat and Terry picks so bizarre. Why draft massive projects with bust potential if you don’t trust your abilities to draft?
well if they didn't have the draft they weren't good (or even qualified, really) at the other ways of player acquisition either
so they kind of HAVE to be better than average at the draft. Same applies for Bryson Graham, at least based on his history and first offseason
I can see an argument for AK not being collaborative enough. *IF* he were skilled at his job, then he wouldn't need to be collaborative. He'd just need to be right (although, I would argue that even the best need to take feedback from others to heart, if that qualifies as collaboration).
But AK wasn't good at his job. Being collaborative is a change he could make without needing to get smarter or more skilled. It just takes listening to others and giving more weight to the opinions of people who are consistently correct.... and firing those who are consistently wrong.
Yet he didn't have the authority to fire those who are consistently wrong, so he did the next best thing and ignored them
But he didn't listen to those who were right. Which is just as important when you are... (being polite) not great at your job.
What were they right on, Tyrese Haliburton? That's just one player, and no reason not to think it was just due to Iowa State not scouting acumen. If it was years of correct things that'd be another matter
You should know at least one! You literally brought up AKME firing Patton for being outspoken in your article!
We don't know who was right more than others in the front office, but we know that AK fired at least one person who was actively good at their job and wasn't afraid to speak up.
that's true he was able to fire Patton, who wasn't a made man
I mean, that one player is essentially why you tank. He was the outlier, of course, but if you're tanking it, you're doing it to get a star. He's better than any player they've had since. That's not a hand-wave. He's not a superduper star, but he's in that Jimmy Butler late-Bulls to mid-Heat tier. Top 20-25. If yo'ure right on that, you can literally be wrong on everything else and still be better off than where they are now.
right this is what I was saying too, if he had been right, it wouldn't have mattered if he collaborated.
I was kinda adding an addendum to your point.
Since he was not good at his job, not collaborating with those smarter than him (most people) was a flaw for him. It wouldn't be for a top tier VP (or at least not as much of a flaw), but it was for him.
The article is pretty clear that the people he “wasn’t collaborative enough” with were the guys from the previous regime he probably thought he was replacing.
They are almost certainly who was whining to Collier, since everyone else has moved on. But it's clear the lack of collaboration extended to people who actually added something to the team.
And just because people like Paxton weren't good at their prior jobs, doesn't mean they are good at nothing. In the same way that a good manager can get the best out of flawed employees, a good VP can get the most out of flawed advisors.
That said, Paxton & co. were likely just whining to make themselves look better to the media. Attempting to separate themselves from the wreckage.
this article feels like a big nothing. A bunch of anonymous staffers saying if only their ideas were followed everything would have been good and almost no specifics. I don't need anonymous staffers to tell me AKME sucked, the product on the court made it clear.
As noted by others, much of this piece pretty much confirms what we'd all been thinking. I've long been a broken record in claiming that AKME's lone strategy was putting all of their eggs into the Patrick Williams basket (and constructing a team that he was intended to take over). But even in its confirmation of that fact, this article still made me shudder at how AKME kept doubling down on their delusion that one morning "The Paw" would wake up feeling a bit different, then drive over to practice, stride into to the gym, and suddenly everyone would see Kawhi Leonard standing before them. It's also true that in the parallel universe where that actually occurred, we would still be living in the AKME era right now (perhaps happily so?). But it wasn't ever going to happen in our universe.
Another note -- for those who aren't as familiar with journalist code, the phrase "source with knowledge of their thinking" is commonly used to signify the quote comes from the person themself, who's given permission to be quoted under the condition they will not be named directly as a source.
So when Jamal Collier writes:
"We knew exactly where we were," said one source with knowledge of their thinking. "Everybody knew it. We were constantly explaining that we're getting young players on rookie scales and we're trying to minimize the timeline. There was clear direction."
...this is either AK or ME giving him a direct quote. You can take that to the bank. A few of the other pro-AKME quotes might be from them, as well.
I disagree that collaboration can be a separate issue from success. If your staff is vestigal, why are you paying them? Paying people you don't use is dysfunctional behavior for a business. If theyre worth paying, why wouldn't you use them?
It also ties in to a very long standing issue of the Bulls hiring real fuckin weirdos to run the team. And not just weirdos, but people who have a almost misanthropic streak.
It's an intense business. I get it. People jump on each other from time to time. But with the Bulls that intensity always seems to ferment into a kind of aggressive paranoia. Graham hasn't done a single smart thing to my mind, and he reads to me as a guy without a plan. But it may help the health of the org a little bit if he's just a more normal dude.
the head weirdo is Jerry Reinsdorf of course. Loyalty over performance, and that performance is assessed as positive if you apply some nebulous half-measures towards success but never really committing towards it
Maybe Graham is so far removed age-wise from Jerry that he got hired being normal. If vestigial staff is a problem, I fear that is entrenched in this franchise beyond what Graham can touch.
I think you're not disclosing some evidence that disproves your arguments.
In 1978-79, Reinsdorf hired GM Rod Thorn and HC Larry Costello. For 11 years, they had 9 HCs; the Bulls were irrelevant during this period. Jerry Krause replaced Thorn in 1985 and eventually hired Phil Jackson. Krause did what he was hired to do: The Bulls improved. But even with MJ they couldn't get past the Celtics and Pistons.
But after 5½ years of GM Jerry Krause, in 1990-91 they won their 1st Championship. IMO, Krause might have gotten fired otherwise. After MJ played baseball for two seasons, Krause reloaded the Bulls, and they won their second set of three Championships up to the 1997-98 season. Then, after 4½ miserable seasons, Krause was replaced.
Krause and Jackson had great accomplishments with the Bulls, but from Thorn and Costello to AKME and Donovan, and the many others in between ... not so much. Even Tom Thibodeau was fired, by the Bulls and the Knicks. He was replaced in NY by Mike Brown, who had been fired as HC by the Cavaliers, Lakers and Kings, but Brown won a Championship with the Knicks.
The Reindorf's turn over their GMs and HCs at their pace. Some have had much shorter reigns than others, maybe because of performance not loyalty. Sometimes it's a matter of being in the right place at the right time or catching a break. IMO, the worst aren't as bad as they're made out to be and the best aren't as great as the championships are marvelous. Everyone can pick their most and least favorites.
AKME did what they were hired to do, and then they did not take the Bulls any further and were fired. Initial success, but it didn't continue. Not good enough.
I think the fact you have to go back 30 years to find a good decision Jerry made doesn't actually disprove anything. What was normal in 1979 is now "weird" that's how things work
Was hiring Krause a great decision? He had been a baseball scout. The experts thought MJ wasn't championship caliber, until they won a championship. Reinsdorf couldn't have foreseen a championship. They all just pick the most attractive of the available options. We all have feet of clay.
Did they really do what they were hired to do? The Bulls had a single winning season during their tenure and a single playoff game victory. And that was in 2022... they actively got worse over the last 4 years.
Let's all play the "Lies, damned lies and statistics" game! The Bulls cumulative W/L record for 4.5 years was .500 ... much better than the prior years under Gar/Pax which was around .350.
Good = .600+
Average = .500
Bad = .400-
They got into the postseason most seasons, the play-ins.
I've acknowledged some of AKME's shortcomings earlier or elsewhere.
AKME was hired to turn it around. He traded some of the players he inherited and some picks for Vucevic and DeRozen, to add to LaVine, then added Caruso, Ball and Ayo. If they had any more or better resources to trade, they would have tried to acquire Shaq and Coby, but alas. They did what they could, what they were hired to do. Blame Reinsdorf.
Watch what someone does, then set the standard above that, and then label him a failure.
Boy that is a hot take and also a complete misrepresentation/cherry picking of the facts. I didn't lie in fact. Thibodeau was 255-139... a .647 record. Made the playoffs every year. And that was under Garpax.
I don't defend Garpax much (and was certainly against them throwing Thibs under the bus) but if anything, they had earned the right to reset. Their "down years" was only 3 years... Before that? 41-41, losing in the first round of the playoffs (winning more games than AKME's playoff showing). If you take the previous 6 seasons to match with AKME's, their average was about .429 (and that 1st season was under Thibs where they last won a playoff series!). Not fair to compare it only to the previous 3 years. AKME had a single season above .500 which brought up their average. Started 10 games under .500, ended 20 games under .500. Actively. Worse.
So no. They never improved on what Garpax did really. Never won more games in the playoffs.
I liked what AKME did at the start. They just never had a plan B.
I never claimed that overall AKME/Donovan were better than GarPax/Thibodaux, who achieved higher heights.
I pushed back on the notion that AKME was a complete failure, by saying that Reinsdorf wanted to stop the bleeding (of the final years of GarPax) and AKME achieved that.
I guess it's risky to challenge the sacred cows and defend the whipping boys. Almost all of them get fired, after some level of success.
Also the other thing I wanted to say, I know that folks who are familiar with me will back this up, is that I am not overly harsh and in fact am more forgiving than a lot of folks in terms of being critical, I really try to see all sides and give the benefit of the doubt for as long as possible. But there's just no way to spin this one... despite what you try to do.
The post-season play-ins in the Eastern Conference in the AKME area is exactly why they made it. So people like you can say, "Hey, they made the post-season even though they were the 20th-best team in the league!"
Yo'ure bad at this. Or good. Depending if you want to go for truths and accuracy or obfuscation.
Gar Forman / John Paxson era (2009-10 → 2019-20, 11 seasons):
Combined regular-season record of 450–419, a .518 win percentage.
Arturas Karnišovas / Marc Eversley era (2020-21 → 2025-26, 6 seasons):
Combined regular-season record of 226–256, a .469 win percentage. Season by season: 31-41, 46-36, 40-42, 39-43, 39-43, 31-51
The Bulls under AKME won a single playoff game in 6 years.
Karnišovas / Eversley (2020-21 → 2025-26): 1 playoff game won, across 1 playoff series (0-1 in series).
Forman / Paxson (2009-10 → 2019-20): 26 playoff games won, across 7 postseason appearances. Breakdown by run:
But sure, they're basicallyt he same.
That's all "straw man" arguments. You can't dispute what I said so you dispute what I didn't say. I think we're beating a dead horse. No one ever changes their minds.
Reinsdorf didn’t buy the Bulls until 1985 which was after when they drafted Jordan. One of Reinsdorf’s first moves was to fire Thorn and head coach Kevin Loughery.
Wow, I can't recall ever knowing that. That changes the responsibility from Reinsdorf for the rapid turnover in coaches in the late '70's and early '80's ... actually makes Reinsdorf look more consistent. Plus that ownership group won a championship 6 years after acquiring controlling interest in the franchise. Thanks for the history lesson.
The answers are clear from the article. They’re still there and still being paid because they were on the Reinsdorf family plan.
This isn’t to give any legitimacy to AKME but it’s pretty evident he was told “Hey, it’s your show!”, but when he went to bring in his guys Reinsdorf was like… “we already have Brian Hagan!” And obviously Paxson.
So instead of getting to make a full staff, AK got a couple guys he trusted and wanted, his guys, and got a roomful of guys who were not his guys, and were the guy of the guy with ownership’s ear, second guessing everything.
It’s textbook dysfunction, and directly stemming from ownership keeping around a whole previous regime.
And, same thing now. Whereas AK seems to have fought this and just ignored the old regime, BG seems to be leaning into it. At least so far. I don’t have much good to say about the though processes I’ve seen so far either.
Yeah, I think this nails it. And it's related to why in another thread I gently pushed back against the idea that development is a putative strength for Graham: development is a system, an infrastructure; not a person. Graham may care about development on a personal level. But if Graham doesn't have enough power to really change/elaborate personnel, then his personal feelings on development won't matter.
we're going to find out in a few months* that Gar is back (worked with Graham in New Orleans)
*and then several days later KC Johnson will confirm and said actually he's been there for a year
I will be depressed if this happens lol
I’d be a lot more inclined to put stock in the views of anonymous Bulls staffers if the organization had a reputation or track record of having knowledgeable or innovative front office talent. But…they absolutely don’t! Very much the opposite. If anything it’s shocking that AKME were such poor managers that even these guys could see a problem.
Let that article be the final eulogy for that regime. They had one plan and it was fun for half a season with the occasional DDR heroics, then it fell apart. I never wanna think about AKME ever again. The prevailing image in my mind of that regime is Wile E. Coyote blowing himself up time and time again. I hope he fares better in his new job.
Wow, things might be as feisty in this comments section as they are between the Bulls and Lakers right now in this Summer League game.
I just looked at the score. oof. WTF lol.
Also like. I'm not even mad at that Tulig dude. It's just a weird hill to die on haha.
I feel bad for him. He's convinced himself that no one on here will change their mind, but really no one is changing their mind because he picked a dumb hill to die on.
This SL Lakers team is really good. Carr has been impressive, a lot of mocks had him going at 15 but he somehow dropped so far.
Dailyn Swain is giving me Dalen Terry vibes. I know its early but I hope he shows improvement.
I'm not getting Terry vibes at all. Terry was irrationally confident when he actually sucked. Swain seems like he's totally in his head and has zero confidence.
Hope Swain figures it out because he sucks in his short stint . No handles and no shot yet.
Yeah he looks really lost out there and he's been indecisive. He's managing to get close to the basket but his finishing isn't there. Scouting reports have been saying he's a good finisher so maybe he probably just needs more time to figure things out.
it would help if the team had a point guard lol
Yeah they probably should've had Dillingham play SL. Not sure why he isn't part of this team, he still needs it.
Yeah, Carr has been really impressive. It's still way too early to tell, but so far it's looking like Graham may have messed up that 15th pick.
I keep thinking about missing out on Carr, but there is something I don't love about his vibe, body language, etc. He had a lot of red flags during his college career.
I am not on the Swain Train at all but it's not like the Bulls were the only ones to pass on Carr. Memphis had pick 16 and said "no thanks". Then a bunch of both up-and-coming and traditionally elite NBA front offices (at least in regard to identifying talent) had their shot. Sam Presti/OKC passed in order to trade for Stirtz. Then Toronto, Detroit, San Antonio, Philly, Atlanta, and the World Champion Knicks (among others) all could have grabbed Carr but they didn't. Given Carr's skill and athletic prowess, why did he fall? There's definitely a reason, just not sure what it is. (He does make a ton of sense next to Luka on the Lakers.)
Yeah, I definitely agree. Admittedly last night was my first time watching him, but he just seemed really cocky. And not like Caleb Wilson cocky where he has this irrational belief in himself and he's going to prove it on the court.
Right, this is what I think re: Carr too. If the Bulls messed up not taking him, so did lots of folks.
Yeah and it's not like he was flying under the radar or anything. Starting at the combine, he was getting more "buzz" than anyone outside the top 4.
NBA execs may have put less stock into the combine showing, and more into workouts/interviews...and asking why Scott Drew had a run of over 20 years of strong /elite seasons at Baylor until Carr showed up and they went into the tank.
Substack does have a 'mute' option if you want to ignore certain commenters. I can't think of any though...
Haha I do occasionally mute commenters that are clearly just trolls, but I've never muted anyone on this site. Everyone comments in good faith, even if I highly disagree with them.
Every time I see Essengue he's somehow fallen down on the floor again. Just give him a life alert at this point.
is this right? 7 fouls in 11 min?
Honestly I didn’t even notice it was 7 fouls but it seems to be accurate. That’s a wild stat.
those goofball refs were calling all sorts of crap though. that said, yeah, he's not the most coordinated guy in the world
One thing about Noa though is we've seen him play well in the past summer league and the G League. Maybe part of his awkwardness has to do with rust and also not being used to his body yet because of that growth spurt.
Some thoughts on the latest Summer League game:
- Caleb understandably still has some areas of his game to further develop, but he’s been phenomenal overall.
- Swain needs a reset. The Bulls should not have him play PG in the preseason and see what that does for him.
- Essengue has potential, but desperately needs to focus on body control. You can’t get away with falling down that much if you’re not a good player yet.
- Sellers has a real chance to make it to the league. He has NBA skills and plays with a good edge.
- Awaka is good, but might not be versatile enough to be an NBA big.
- Carr is going to be a good player. If Swain doesn’t develop (and I still think he will), then Carr will be a player Graham hears a lot about during the start of his tenure.
- Who is Jon Elmore and why does he look like my dad’s entire side of the family?
Noted this above but I'm not sure Graham will get too much grief if Carr shines in the league. There were a bunch of really solid NBA front offices drafting after the Bulls who didn't want him either.
As for Elmore, I keep thinking he won some sort of contest or charity raffle, or it's a Celebrity game and Kyle/KG from Tenacious D is on the court.
doesn't Graham deserve extra scrutiny as a draft whisperer?
Yes 100% (though I'm not sure why he's been oversold on that front, he never came out and said he's gonna destroy as drafter).
But I think the scrutiny should be based on who he DID draft, not who he didn't draft. The Swain pick feels suspect in some regards, let's scrutinize what we see, but it's all also so damn early right now.
I want the Bulls to sign Elmore just for the vibes. Plus, he's a good three point shooter! 😂