Bryson Graham’s new Chicago Bulls office is sparsely furnished, the desk holding a family portrait, a new nameplate and an air purifier. Prominently displayed in a case is the May 10 envelope from the draft lottery — the paperwork that marked Chicago’s jump of five spots to secure the No. 4 pick and ultimately select North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson, whom draft evaluators view as having one of the class’s highest ceilings. Wilson scored 35 points in his summer-league debut, the second-highest rookie debut since the event began about two decades ago, according to ESPN reporting.
Graham, the club’s vice president of basketball operations for two months, spent weeks organizing staff and the analytics department, assembling scouting reports, hosting predraft workouts and hiring two front-office employees. He conducted about a dozen head-coaching interviews by video, held four in-person interviews and hired Tiago Splitter, who spent a season as Portland’s interim coach, according to ESPN.
The hiring of the 39-year-old — a former Atlanta Hawks executive and New Orleans Pelicans general manager — followed the April 6 dismissals of president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley after another disappointing season. The moves were framed as both a fresh start and a rebuke of previous leadership, according to ESPN.
The scale of the challenge Graham faces is large. The Bulls missed the playoffs in eight of the past nine seasons, including the last four; they have won a single playoff series in the past decade and reached the conference finals only once this century. The franchise has not appeared in an NBA Finals since 1998, ESPN reported.
Interviews with more than 20 current and former employees and others with knowledge of team operations described a franchise hampered by poor decision-making, misplaced loyalties and an insular culture, according to ESPN. CEO Michael Reinsdorf said at Graham’s introductory news conference that Graham understands what it will take to build a winning organization. Graham has spoken about establishing an identity and culture and said the club is building toward something special, while a rival executive told ESPN that success here could transform perceptions of Bulls basketball.
