Bulls set to begin front office restructuring
With the NBA season on hiatus, the Bulls are planning to get to work on restructuring the front office.
This has been reported locally for months. After a long series of missteps by the Bulls management, chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and president Michael Reinsdorf decided to hire someone from outside the organization to run the basketball operations. John Paxson is expected to move into an advisory role, while current general manager Gar Forman's future is to be determined.
ESPN reported Friday that interviews may start next week and be conducted electronically. Two names mentioned as targets are Denver Nuggets GM Arturas Karnisovas and Toronto GM Bobby Webster.
The Nuggets have done a nice job of building a contender through the draft without many top-10 picks. Karnisovas has been with Denver since 2013 and became general manager in 2017. He played in college at Seton Hall and with the Lithuanian national team.
Webster, a native of Hawaii, first joined the Raptors as a salary-cap specialist and climbed the ladder to general manager. Toronto has an impressive track record for developing late draft picks or free agents like Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, Norman Powell and Chris Boucher. Another candidate that could interest the Bulls is Raptors assistant GM Dan Tolzman.
Some other candidates that have been mentioned are Pacers GM Chad Buchanan, Warriors assistant GM Mike Dunleavy Jr., Heat assistant GM Adam Simon and Heat basketball development director Shane Battier.
Sources have suggested the Bulls aren't likely to spend the money required to make a big-splash hire like Oklahoma City's longtime GM Sam Presti, or hire a player agent like the Knicks, Lakers and Warriors have done.