Oh, so the Bulls are moving THAT fast?
Yesterday, it became official that the Bulls are looking – specifically – for a new Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations, and the first two people to meet with Michael Reinsdorf would be Jazz General Manager Justin Zanik and Nuggets GM Arturas Karnisovas. Solid start. Let’s slowly get this process started, right? Wrong. The Bulls are moving fast. Very fast.
According to multiple reports, the Bulls have already conducted Zanik’s first interview yesterday, and Karnisovas is scheduled for his first sometime later this week. And while I wouldn’t be surprised if the Bulls added more interviews to schedule – as it was announced yesterday that Orlando Magic Assistant GM (and former Bulls exec) Matt Lloyd and Los Angeles Clippers Assistant GM Trent Redden have also been on the Bulls radar – NBC Sports Chicago’s K.C. Johnson has insinuated that the Bulls are much closer to making a decision than we initially thought:
“This is something I can see moving pretty quickly here now that they have these interviews lined up because, as I’ve said, Michael has spent a lot of time on it, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the Bulls have a new head of basketball operations some point this week or by next week.”
As soon as this week!?
Johnson seems eager to hammer home that this process has – at least, behind-the-scenes – been ongoing for quite some time. And with that in mind, it’s certainly possible the Bulls are ready to make up their mind as soon as possible. As we’ve discussed, the sooner the Bulls hire this new face-of-the-franchise, the sooner they can start reconstructing the rest of their front office.
At the end of the day, the names on the Bulls list are well-suited to take control of this organization, so it doesn’t hurt to hire the best person for the job before quickly moving on to the process that could take even longer. Johnson reiterated during the podcast that whoever gets this opening will then be tasked with the rest of the overhaul – fixing things like the scouting, player development, and analytics department. And in addition (hopefully) hiring a new coaching staff. Whatever this new person wants to do, he’ll supposedly get to do (including, perhaps most importantly, potentially hiring a new GM to work beneath him).
Fine by me.
Listen to the entire Bulls Talk Podcast through one of the links below:
https://twitter.com/NBCSBulls/status/1247527577515782145?s=20
And in the meantime, buckle up. This ride is moving quickly.