The Chicago Bulls’ rebuild is still very much in motion, but the tone around the organization has changed fast since Bryson Graham took over as vice president of basketball operations.
That shift is already showing up in the results. Chicago landed Caleb Wilson with the No. 4 pick in the draft and brought in Tiago Splitter as its new head coach after he helped turn the Portland Trail Blazers into a playoff-worthy team.
More than the moves themselves, though, the biggest difference appears to be how the Bulls are operating behind the scenes. According to ESPN’s Jamal Collier, staffers inside the organization are describing Graham’s front office as a sharp break from the old Arturas Karnisovas setup, which they viewed as a “cloak of secrecy.”
One basketball operations staffer put it plainly: “There's a very, very, very different vibe,” a basketball operations staffer told ESPN. “Everybody feels it.
We're meeting. A group.
Beyond four people. Talking about the draft, free agency, hiring a coach.
It's not under a cloak of secrecy. We're not finding out from an [ESPN alert].”
Graham, for his part, says he’s not trying to swing the pendulum too far in the other direction. His goal is to set the tone, listen early, and then make the final call when the process gets serious.
“I'm not trying to come in and overcorrect. I'm just leading in the way that I believe is the proper way to lead,” Graham told ESPN.
“As you make decisions, you might convince your group when it gets down to the nitty-gritty. But earlier in the process, you just want to take in, and you want to hear from [everyone], and you want everyone focused on trying to give their absolute best to help make the right decision.
“And then ultimately I'll take that information, process it and do what I need to.”
Karnisovas was fired in April along with GM Marc Eversley.
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For Chicago, it is a reminder of how quickly a front-office career can change shape after a difficult run. Karniovasa spent six seasons running basketball operations for the Bulls, and now he is part of a project the NBA hopes to launch in October 2027. The leagues plan calls for a 16-team setup, and the early list of possible homes stretches across some of Europes biggest basketball cities, leaving plenty of intrigue around how the whole thing will ultimately come together. [Read more 🡒]