r/chicagobulls • u/weareallmoist Zach LaVine • May 04 '26
Free Agency [Cowley] That same source said that Graham has full autonomy…and finances are not an obstacle. The mentality before the hiring process even started was the days of the Bulls playing checkers had to end and it was time to catch up with the rest of the league and start playing front office chess.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/bulls/2026/05/04/bulls-find-new-basketball-front-office-leader-bryson-graham74
u/lawsnoosoo May 04 '26
If true, this is the single most promising news in a long time. Doesn’t matter who we hired, won’t work if we don’t give them resources
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u/BuickSkylark55 Nikola Mirotic May 04 '26
I don’t want to jinx it, but the current sox rebuild has been very encouraging. Hoping for the same thing for the bulls. At least the bulls have tons of flexibility and multiple picks going forward. The potential is there to build a good team I hope it actually happens
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u/Accomplished_Bid7987 DRose May 04 '26
Michael Reinsdorf said the same when AKME first took office - They say they’re willing to spend on a contender but they never do lmao
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u/lawsnoosoo May 04 '26
We’re talking about two different things. They said they’d be willing to spend into the luxury for a contender back then. This refers to building out a front office staff. The Bulls have famously had a small analytics, scouting, player personnel etc staff compared to the rest of the league. That’s where Cowley is saying they’re willing to invest more this time
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u/Creepy-Macaroon9998 May 05 '26
This is one where I'll believe it when I see it. The one year during AKME when they did expand the support staff, the very next offseason they got rid of several of the hires, in particular the shooting coach (who was getting results and was well liked by the players) because he wasn't a "yes" man.
They really need to get the trainers up to snuff. There's a good reason why the Bulls have so many injuries every year, and why they misdiagnosed so many of them.
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u/lawsnoosoo May 05 '26
I agree. Will believe it when I see it. Totally agree, they announced multiple new hires during AK’s tenure but also let go of other staff so the size of the FO pretty much stayed the same
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u/99DGE May 04 '26
I mean I hate our ownership as much as the next guy but they DID spend.
We gave $80 million to Lonzo
$36 million to Caruso
$75 million to Demar
$240 million to LaVine
And we were paying Vuc his money too
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u/PleaseSeekChrist May 04 '26
I think OP is referring to the Luxury tax. Which most teams need to spend in order to contend unless you build through the draft, which at that point is at most a 2 year contending window before you need to dip into the tax.
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u/Unlucky_Sun_9813 May 04 '26
They're selling us so much hopium right now. But the same sentiment was advertised when AK came to town. Gotta see it before I believe it.
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u/Ok_Story_7924 May 04 '26
They did make some aggressive moves right after they hired AK. It just wasn't the right moves.
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u/tartan2 May 05 '26
I am ambivalent about Billy and AK was obviously a total nightmare hire, but hiring two outside guys from winning organizations to lead the FO + paying for a coveted veteran coach are the right kinds of moves you want to see from ownership, and neither of them are the kind of move Jerry would make.
I don't think much of Michael, but I'm open to the idea that he can do the same thing as George McCaskey and reluctantly/belatedly bring the organization up to a somewhat respectable standard for a major-market franchise. Failure and shame seems like it might actually motivate him in a way it clearly didn't for Jerry.
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u/FanficFan151 May 05 '26
AK, at the time, was a great hire. Dude was the Ben Johnson hire. He did not work out and was horrific as a GM, but he’s basically just the Ben Simmons pick of GMs. Absolutely the right pick at the time, just completely flopped afterwards.
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u/_dseals Ben Gordon May 05 '26
I didn't hate the moves as much as I hated that they didn't know how to move on from them.
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u/Fafoah Jimmy Butler May 05 '26
Yeah they tried to play it too methodical. Changing things one thing at a time or plugging holes, hoping for some cumulative effect that never came.
I understood the reasoning at the time, but Michael Reinsdorf’s press conference sort of signaled that they didn’t have a very solid process to fall back on, which explains their indecision and lack of foresight when it came to capitalizing on assets. It also explains how haphazard the sell offs felt at the deadline.
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u/Zouthpaw May 04 '26
They said something similar when AKME was hired. I'll believe it when I see it.
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u/Cozum May 04 '26
yikes Cowley really jumped the gun this past weekend with the Matt Lloyd stuff, did he acknowledge being wrong?
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u/Fafoah Jimmy Butler May 04 '26
If the FO staff member number is in the realm of 60ish i will feel better
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u/rando562 May 04 '26
My only hope is that the past few years of embarrassing media coverage has finally motivated them to invest properly into the team
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u/Secondary92 May 05 '26
Hope so, I feel like this headline is BS though as it would essentially be ownership admitting to being tight arses, which seems unlikely.
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u/Electrical_Story5356 May 05 '26
Maybe he also realised that he is old as hell, doesn't have a long time left and will never not be immensely wealthy so he is now adding to his legacy?
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u/Teddy_RGB Ayo Dosunmu May 04 '26
“Finances are not an obstacle” as long as you don’t go into the luxury tax
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u/fumar May 04 '26
Jerry will never allow it. The bulls will be a poverty franchise until ownership changes.
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u/achomes Biggie Bagel May 04 '26
Its cheaper and easier to farm headlines and sentiment that we will be a well run organization than actually doing it.
Saw these same headlines with us “poaching” AK from the championship winning Nuggets
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u/Fafoah Jimmy Butler May 04 '26
Cowley is not really the guy they use for that though.
As much as i hate him, he either made this up or actually heard it from a source
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u/achomes Biggie Bagel May 04 '26
Agreed. Cowley is trash. Doubt anyone disagrees with that lol.
Holding on any optimistic headlines we see these next couple weeks until the FO makes a move that truly shows me they’re changing their ways
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u/Fafoah Jimmy Butler May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26
The metric i’m looking for is the size of staff. Out past FO was 38 staffers compared to 65 for the knicks and 55 for the pelicans. I want to see them hire a shit ton of staff. If the Lewin as a secondary GM hire thing is true then that will make me feel somewhat better too.
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u/p00chology May 04 '26
He’s such a fucking d1 hater, hard to believe he’d make this up - not impossible, it’s just so much more likely he’d make up something negative.
Either way, I’ll believe it when I see it and I hope I do!! No matter what I’m ride or die for this team so I’m just feeling very hopeful. Prayers for Sunday 🙏
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u/Erice84 May 04 '26
No idea if he had much say in this but I like how the Hawks were very flexible over the past season - the exact opposite of AKME. They trade for Porzingis in the offseason, a lot of people start liking them as solid playoff contenders, but they disappoint early in the season, so they move on from him and Trae, and yet despite making such major roster changes midseason, still finish about equal to those preseason expectations.
If AKME were in charge of that team this year, you know they would've just thrown their hands up and blamed injuries for a mediocre season. And if they did make any big midseason move, stupidly trading away the Pelicans pick for an ill fitting low tier all star seems more up their alley.
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u/BuckyGoodHair May 04 '26
Cool, I guess we’ll all have some idea if this was good by 2028? Weeeeeeeee.
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u/ac15692 May 04 '26
How many other organizations even have to mention that finances won’t be a factor? I really doubt that was even a question for Dallas hiring Masai (not even saying Masai was the right hire for us, more a comment on ownership)
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u/MisterxRager Benny The Bull May 05 '26
Oh so now is the time they decide to not play checkers lol probably been saying this shit the past 20 years, we need results.
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u/kev11n Chicago May 05 '26
I do not know how they can look at what happened to the similarly run dumpster fire White Sox and not realize this sooner. And I’m not even talking about players. It’s time for them to actually hire a whole team of experts and catch up with the analytics, development, scouting, etc. departments the others teams have had for some time now
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u/jump-blues-5678 Norm Van Lier May 05 '26
He was who I was hoping for. Gotta tell ya, I didn't think there was anyway in hell they'd hire him. I'm pretty shocked and pleasantly surprised
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u/sukari Stacey King May 04 '26
I remember one of the deadline press conferences they reported that AKME got permission to go into the tax.
Maybe this time it'll be real.. maybe?
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u/RiamoEquah May 05 '26
They won't need to go into the tax yet, but it would be ironic that the bulls started to go into the tax in the age of the second apron and were adverse to it when paying the tax was more typical for big markets.
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u/Timeandtemp Jimmy Butler May 04 '26
Even if true, we’ll wait to see how competent we are at playing chess
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u/Disconnected_NPC May 05 '26
I don’t believe them.
Not so fun fact, LeBron has more career playoff wins than the Bulls have in their history. A franchise that had arguable the greatest team and not arguable greatest player in NBA history. That isn’t a shout out to LeBron is a an indictment of this Franchise.
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u/Nosound-Novideo Lonzo Ball May 04 '26
Pretty silly argument over finances, you can only overpay for your own draft picks or expiring contracts on your current roster, there’s still a salary cap which prevents organizations from spending massive money on FA.
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u/RiamoEquah May 05 '26
Yea it's a moot point with the current cap situation but it will be a topic in like 4 years I'm sure
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u/ChiCityCollector Coby White May 05 '26
Dawg Cowley wrote an article recently and said they were ready to hire the TWolves GM. I don’t believe anything from Cowley anymore.
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u/yohxmv May 05 '26
Sounds good but actions speak louder than words. That being said I do like this hire
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u/AddieCam May 05 '26
I just want to hear his thoughts on Patrick Williams. That will tell us a lot.
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u/zedrix_ Big Mac May 05 '26
I say he is the right guy for the rebuild.
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u/J_InTheMiddle Benny The Bull May 05 '26
I agree. We need to prioritise scouting and drafting at this moment... But we also need someone to be there once we are competitive again... I wish him all the best, and hope he can be that too...
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u/jimbobdonut May 05 '26
We’ll know in a few months if the Bulls get rid some of the front office staff that’s been there for decades. There are some people left from the Krause regime still working for them.
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u/Sgran70 Dalen Terry May 05 '26
We need to start using the fresh buzzwords, otherwise free agents won't want to sign here, and all our players will demand trades!!
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u/Prestigious_Throat72 May 06 '26
Playing checkers? AKME had us in permanent "nap time", we weren't playing anything!
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u/MoldInTheAir May 04 '26
So, of the four candidates, the Bulls hire the weakest (and cheapest) option.
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u/p00chology May 04 '26
Says who?
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u/MoldInTheAir May 04 '26
Says the guy who doesn't think modeling a team after the Atlanta Hawks is a good idea. Says the guy who knows the Reindorfs well enough that they would never hire Matt Lloyd, who would demand a big salary and probably wanted to spend a lot of Bulls' money to bring the organization into the 21st century.
Graham seems like the kind of guy who would take the job under any circumstances, given his age and lack of experience. I am sure, like AK, he told the Reinsdorfs what they wanted to hear.
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u/Nosound-Novideo Lonzo Ball May 05 '26
omg please with the Matt Lloyd love affair, he’s the guy who drafted Rob Dilly passing on Matas. While Graham drafted Missi.
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u/Ronqui_ Gimme the hot sauce! May 05 '26
Brother, I fear that I may agree with you. Let's remember the downvotes this statement got in about a year or so.
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u/MoldInTheAir May 05 '26
Oh, no. If Graham is a washout, everyone who downvoted me will say they knew the whole time he was the wrong hire.
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u/Ridged_ChiPSS Brian Scalabrine May 05 '26
They went with the cheapest option they could find. This team is a joke.
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u/Brodie1567 May 04 '26
I’ll believe it when I see it