It was the hire that few in the league expected.
That’s because it was so un-Bulls-like.
Passing on the obvious by staying in the family and hiring one-time Bulls employee Matt Lloyd, team president Michael Reinsdorf went sleight of hand, instead landing on Hawks executive Bryson Graham to take over the executive vice president of basketball operations for his franchise.
Not that Reinsdorf hasn’t done that before, especially since Arturas Karnisovas did not grow on the Bulls family tree, but the narrative was Bulls hire Bulls.
A source very familiar with the situation reiterated that all of the candidates that made face-to-face presentations to the Bulls last week were impressive, and that included Lloyd. Graham just stood out with his plan to build out the front office from the ground up.
Lloyd was notified by Billy King – who was a part of the hiring firm that Bulls used – that he didn’t get the job and was said to be thankful for the opportunity but somewhat in shock. So was his entire Timberwolves organization, who thought for sure that their general manager had the momentum in the interview process and was headed back home.
“It’s only a matter of time until he gets his chance, I’m convinced of it,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch told a Minnesota reporter after the news broke. “These are really hard jobs to get, highly coveted.”
So what’s next for Graham after he is introduced to the media on Wednesday? Everything.
First things first, and that will be doing what he did for the Hawks in not only building out departments that exist and don’t exist within the Bulls, but having unlimited funds to do so.
There is a false narrative that the Reinsdorfs don’t spend on the front office, and multiple sources have said that was not the case in the Arturas Karnisovas regime at all. Karnisovas got every hire he wanted with no pushback on money.
The problem? The former front office of John Paxson and Gar Forman was old school and worked for many years as a mostly two-man operation. The league just outgrew that mentality. When Karnisovas took over more than six years ago, he did build out the front office without constraints, but it never caught up to what the rest of the Association was doing.
Graham will change that.
“We’ve been playing checkers and now it’s time to play chess,” a source said.
A person that could help Graham and that process along? Well, the Bulls already interviewed him as well. While Boston Celtics assistant GM Dave Lewin did not get the Bulls’ EVP job, that doesn’t mean the Bulls are done pursuing him. There will be a push to get him in the front office, and if not him, “we need to find someone very much like Dave Lewin.”
That’s how impressive his presentation was from an analytics and strategy standpoint.
As well as building out his front office and finding that Lewin type, Graham has a coaching search to conduct as well as an NBA Draft to prepare for. The lottery is on Sunday, and the Bulls currently sit at Nos. 9 and 15 in the first round.
Talent evaluation has been a strength for Graham, credited for the likes of Herb Jones and Trey Murphy III while he was in New Orleans, but also showing an ability to get off of players from a cap standpoint, moving Trae Young while Graham was in Atlanta last season.
The good news for the 39-year-old? Besides multiple first-round picks in a loaded 2026 class, he’ll have a league-high $58 million in cap space this summer.
The cupboard is far from bare.