Unbridled Optimism for Bryson Graham Era Ends After Single Draft Round

only the Bulls, always the Bulls

Here was Bryson Graham at his introductory news conference:

“The roster we (have) is in a developmental stage right now. I think everyone here knows we are not where we want to be, but we’ve got four picks in this draft. We own all of our picks going forward. We’ve got a ton of second-round picks.”

If you recall, Graham laughed at that last part knowing that it was the final parting gift of his predecessor, the final sad result of him hanging on to his players for too long and not operating well within the NBA transactional market.

And made funnier (to fans, anyway) because another trait of the AKME era in their franchise-ruination speedrun was a total disregard of 2nd round picks, including their final draft in 2025 where they traded down in the 2nd round and gained nothing but cash for it.

The Graham era has gotten off to a decent start, and the early moves - plus a natural desire of fans to want this to go well - had vibes reaching a new high after their first round selections.

So it was pretty demoralizing (actually, at first it was anger) to see Graham’s 2nd round selections, in that he didn’t make any.

The 38th pick in this draft¹ was traded to the Indiana Pacers for 2nd-year combo guard Kam Jones, plus two future 2nd round pick swaps in 2028 and 2030.

If Jones turns out to be a useful contributor this season and going forward, as much or moreso than any player available to them at this spot, then Graham will deserve credit for using what should be his most honed skill as a new-to-the-head-job executive. Or they’ll inconspicuously waive him - he’s signed for 3 more seasons but a lot of it is non-guaranteed, including half ($1.1M) of this year’s salary - and figure so many other additions will happen we’ll forget about this dud.

I’m skeptical of Graham’s desire to acquire and keep Jones, given Jones’s age (will turn 25 in February). Ricky O’Donnell provided a bit more:

Kam Jones was one of my three sleepers in the 2025 draft … then he did nothing as a rookie. This is a good read on his first year in Indiana

There’s also reason to be curious as to why Indiana is already moving on from Jones when they’re trying to contend this coming season. It’s possible that the Pacers wanted him off the roster without having to pay that guarantee (they’re very close to the luxury tax), in which case shouldn’t the Bulls be receiving more compensation?

As far as what the rest of the compensation actually was: The 2nd round pick swaps, while maybe a bit more valuable with new lottery rules, still seem unlikely to get you higher than the #38 selection you just got rid of. That said, it is technically something of transactional value.

That reminds me, because of something that has zero transactional value: The Bulls also achieved cash in this Indiana trade.

And earlier in the night, before the 2nd round even began, Graham traded the #56 overall selection² to the Lakers FOR JUST CASH CONSIDERATIONS.

This is, of course, literally indefensible. Mere cash gains nothing cap-wise, not even adding to some general yearly pool of cash to be used outgoing in a trade later. And even if the cash was pledged towards building out the organization - remember, Michael Reinsdorf with Graham’s acknowledgement said they learned their lesson and would now spend what was required - that money doesn’t have to come from a team-building asset.

It’s not that the Bulls had to take a player with that pick (they quickly signed 2 undrafted players to two-way slots), it’s that even late seconds should get you something of value, even something so miniscule as a future 2nd round pick swap. Kick the can down the road, get anything tangible that you could potentially use later as a final throw in, something we see happen all the time and most glaringly this very night with Isaiah (aka “beef”) (aka “better than Nic Claxton”) Stewart being dumped by the Pistons to the Grizzlies.

Seeing the Cash Considerations trade felt simply unbelievable. Or extremely believable, if you’re cynical to the point where you were assuming at some point soon Bulls ownership would flex their cheapness no matter who was nominally in charge.

Even I was not that cynical! Sure, the last two administrations would always do moves that, as John Paxson³ once said, “build equity with ownership”. But that’s still a small sample size, right?

Alas, Graham’s brazenly-early homage to Bulls empty suits past confirms that he was hired by the Bulls for many reasons, but in part because he doesn’t have the stature to push back on this. An executive with any cachet would have been able to convince ownership that they know how to win more than they do, and 1) these relatively meager savings are counter - no matter in how relatively meager of degree - to the opportunity to make ungodly sums of money with a contending Chicago Bulls team and 2) not only should The Freaking Chicago Bulls not need to get back cash in a trade they should be using their inherent advantages to spend outgoing cash on trades (and uncapped cash on front office and player development and computer monitors…).

This was our concern, dude, and for me that concern was raised a bit in his otherwise-completely-fine press conferences when his "The Reinsdorfs will financially support my vision” T-shirt has me asking a lot of questions already answered by his shirt.

Like I said, literally indefensible⁴. But not unforgiveable. The past two regimes had way way more, and more important, deficiencies than this cheap move. If Graham is good at a lot of other, and more important, aspects of the job then he can succeed even with these Reinsdorfian limitations.

Perhaps that’s not cynical enough, but like I said I think all Bulls fans want this to go well, to have a team and organization worth rooting for again. While the Cash Considerations meme makes me laugh, it comes with a sigh.

1. acquired in the Vucevic trade to Boston at the deadline, but not really ‘for Vucevic’ as much as for getting Boston out of the luxury tax. Coincidentally the same selection in 2017 that GarPax sold to the Warriors becuase their “board dried up”

2. acquired as one of 3 seconds in the Ayo trade. I just looked that up and didn’t recall that the Bulls gave up a 2nd round pick swap (2031). Kind of indicative of how unmemorable that level of asset is, though to be fair to AK (?!?!) it was given up before the aforementioned lottery changes.

3. you remember: he used to have Graham’s job, now merely was part of ‘advising’ the hire of Graham plus reportedly sits in on the coaching search too.

4. In fact, any fan should be immediately wary of anyone - unless they’re a Reinsdorf or paid by the Reinsdorfs - attempting to defend, or even rationalize, this cheap move