BRYSON GRAHAM'S OFFICE is nearly empty. There's a family portrait of his wife and three children on the desk along with a new nameplate. An air purifier hums. He has been the Chicago Bulls' vice president of basketball operations for two months, but he hasn't had much time to decorate.
There is, however, one item he has made sure to prominently display. Anyone who walks by can see it in a display case.
It's the envelope that contains the Bulls' logo, from May 10 -- his first week in his new job -- when Chicago jumped five spots in the draft lottery to secure the No. 4 pick.
The Bulls used it to select Caleb Wilson, a North Carolina forward who draft experts say has as high of a ceiling as any prospect in the class. Wilson scored 35 points in his first summer league game last week, the second-highest-scoring game for a rookie debut since the event began two decades ago.
"To land that pick," Graham told ESPN, "it is a great foundational piece that's needed."
"It was a good day."
For six weeks, Graham stacked 10-hour days, organizing the staff and analytics department to create scouting reports for the draft and free agency, bringing in players for predraft workouts, and hiring two front office staffers. He did this all while interviewing 12 head coaching candidates over video calls and having four in-person interviews before hiring Tiago Splitter, who spent a season as interim coach with the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Bulls hired Graham, a 39-year-old former Atlanta Hawks executive and New Orleans Pelicans general manager, after firing their previous top front office decision-makers, president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley, on April 6 after another dismal season.
It was a signal of a new era as much as a condemnation of a past one.
The task -- turning around a franchise that for nearly 30 years has struggled to emerge out of the shadows of dynasties past -- is daunting.
The Bulls have missed the playoffs in eight of the past nine seasons, including the past four. They have won a single playoff series in the past decade and have made the conference finals only once this century. And they have not made an NBA Finals since 1998, when they capped a run led by Michael Jordan with six titles in eight years.
"We have a chance to come in and establish a team identity, establish a culture and try to make sound decisions that can bring this organization back to what it once was," Graham said. "We're going through the tough times right now, but we're building something. I think we're going to build something special."
If they do, and resurrect this dormant but still-iconic franchise, it could change the balance of power in the East.
"Everyone thinks you're handcuffed and have bad ownership," an executive with a rival team told ESPN. "But if you succeed, you've saved Bulls basketball and become a legend there."
UNDERSTANDING HOW STEEP the task is for Graham to do so, however, requires an understanding of the stasis of the past six years under Karnisovas and Eversley.
Interviews with more than 20 sources, current and former employees and others with intimate knowledge of the team's operations, describe the franchise as riddled with top-to-bottom poor decision-making, misguided loyalties and an insular culture that exacerbated both.
Bulls CEO Michael Reinsdorf believes Graham is the man to solve all of it.
"He understands what it's going to take to build a winning organization," Reinsdorf said at Graham's introductory news conference.
Still, for as promising as Graham's arrival might feel, and for all the early platitudes, it also feels eerily familiar.
Six years ago, the Bulls also hired a well-regarded front office. Six years ago, they also hired a new, respected coach. And six years ago, they also found lottery luck and moved up to No. 4 in the draft.
"One of the most important steps I had to take was to find the right person to lead our organization," Reinsdorf said in April 2020 while introducing Karnisovas.
Reinsdorf, the son of team chairman Jerry, was handed the keys to the organization in 2010 as the team's president, before gaining full control of the franchise in 2020. Karnisovas and Eversley were his first hires.
"Ownership is responsible for hiring the right person to lead the basketball team and then should step to the side and let the basketball people do their work," Reinsdorf said then.
"If we pick the wrong person," Reinsdorf said, "it could take years to recover."
Those words proved prescient almost immediately.
The 2020 draft took place in November, shortly after the playoffs in the Orlando, Florida, bubble, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most workouts happened virtually. Executives studied video, often filmed on iPhones, as players moved through empty gyms.
The Bulls jumped from the projected No. 7 pick -- where they selected Wendell Carter Jr. in 2018 and Coby White in 2019 -- to No. 4. They were in position to draft a potential franchise-changing player.
Karnisovas was seven months into his job and enamored with 18-year-old Florida State forward Patrick Williams.
Williams was the second-youngest player in the draft, with the type of raw talent that fit the bill of a 6-foot-6 wing a team could build around. The size of Williams' hands drew comparisons to two-time Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, whose exceptionally large hands helped him become one of best defenders in the league.
Multiple people in the scouting and analytics departments pushed, instead, for the Bulls to draft Tyrese Haliburton, the 6-foot-5 point guard out of Iowa State, sources with knowledge of those discussions told ESPN.
They liked Williams but implored Karnisovas and Eversley to look past Haliburton's funky jump shot and consider how often the ball actually went in.
Their efforts were not only futile but served as an early warning sign of what they say was a leadership team that often developed "tunnel vision" when they liked a player, multiple staffers told ESPN, and a disregard of their staffers.
Haliburton fell to No. 12 in the draft and has since been named to two All-Star Games, made the NBA Finals and won an Olympic gold medal. Williams has averaged 9.0 points and 3.9 rebounds over six seasons.
The late Stacey King, the legendary Bulls announcer, eventually dubbed Williams "The Paw" as a comparison to Leonard's moniker, "The Claw."
The comp stuck within the organization for years.
"Being the first draft that those guys ran and having [the pandemic] circumstances I think was a recipe for disaster," one ex-staffer told ESPN. "That being said, they way over-indexed on Pat's potential. It was just a really bad misevaluation."
Draft day mistakes happen, even in the best organizations, but staffers were more concerned by how long it took for Karnisovas and Eversley to come to terms with this misfire.
In June 2024, after his fourth season, Williams was a restricted free agent. He had averaged just 10 points and 3.9 rebounds in 43 games that season, and, before he hit free agency, the team signed him to a five-year, $90 million contract.
Several staffers said they were blindsided by the terms.
"It took probably three or four years for them to come off of the, 'Well, he could be Kawhi,' statements," the ex-staffer told ESPN. "Those things continued to linger even after Patrick pretty demonstrably proved that he was not going to be Kawhi.
"That was an unfortunate way to kick things off."
STRUCTURALLY, THE TEAM was no better. Several members of the Bulls' front office described the same frustration for years: They routinely made decisions that left them stuck in the worst position in the NBA -- the middle.
They clearly weren't good enough to compete with the top contenders in the Eastern Conference, yet they didn't make moves to position themselves near the top of the lottery. The result was NBA stasis, a consistent streak of competing for a spot in the NBA's play-in tournament -- where their season ended in three straight years from 2023 to 2025.
It was never clear to staffers where the desire to remain competitive originated from, multiple team sources said, especially because they often felt they were minimally involved in the ultimate decision-making process.
"It was always communicated that we had to compete and that tanking was not an option," one current front office exec told ESPN. "Even the word 'tanking' or the word 'rebuild' -- that word was never uttered.
"There was always some sort of ownership pressure in terms of competing and winning games. That was always a thing. So while they can talk about how][ it's been the VP or GM's decision, that hasn't really been the vibe."
Reinsdorf was known not to be a fan of tanking and explained why even after he dismissed Karnisovas and Eversley this spring.
"That's just not who we are as an organization," Reinsdorf said during his news conference in April.
"Sure, there are some fans, many fans who might say, lose games on purpose, tank, do whatever you can to hopefully win the lottery. But there are a lot of fans that go to the games who aren't there to see us get blown out every game and who want to see us compete."
Then-Bulls coach Billy Donovan previously left his coaching job with the Oklahoma City Thunder because the franchise was set for a full rebuild, and the idea of tanking in Chicago never appealed to him, either. He stepped down after six seasons with the franchise when it was clear the roster was headed for a reset.
The desire to push for short-term competitiveness made some staffers question what the team truly defined as success. One ex-staffer explained it bluntly: "All of their actions have indicated that they're more comfortable with being good at the cost of great."
However, several team sources said that Karnisovas was given freedom and resources to run the front office as he saw fit. Despite the Bulls paying the luxury tax only twice in their history, in 2013 and 2016 for a combined $8.1 million, Reinsdorf insisted that would change if the team became a contender.
"If we're competing for championships, we expect that we'll probably be in the luxury tax," Reinsdorf said. "Totally OK with that. I don't want to be in the luxury tax for a team that's not in the playoffs."
Others within the organization vehemently disagree with the notion that ownership prevented the Bulls from rebuilding the past few seasons, pointing out how that kind of meddling was not the Reinsdorf way.
"The reality is, the best thing about working for the Reinsdorfs is that they are going to hire somebody and they're going to let that person do the job," another ex-exec said.
If Karnisovas had presented a plan for a hard reset, pointing out the strength of the then-upcoming draft classes in 2025 and 2026, ownership would have listened, multiple team sources said.
"Anybody that's in that position, you're managing up," a different team source told ESPN. "You're explaining to your owner, 'This is why we need to do this, and this is what's going to help us.'"
Sources close to Karnisovas and Eversley said the executives were skeptical about tanking as a real strategy.
They said Karnisovas and Eversley repeatedly pointed to their longtime rival as a reason.
The Detroit Pistons endured five straight losing seasons from 2019 to 2024, averaging 18.8 wins per season. There were no guarantees in the draft, they said. No guarantees the years of misery would pay off.
Instead, the front office targeted young players with experience, onetime high picks with something left to prove.
That thinking led to acquiring point guard Josh Giddey for Alex Caruso in 2024, instead of trading Caruso for prior offers of multiple first-round picks, sources said, and more recently, acquiring players such as Rob Dillingham and Jaden Ivey. The goal was to turn a five- or six-year rebuild into two or three.
"We knew exactly where we were," said one source with knowledge of their thinking. "Everybody knew it. We were constantly explaining that we're getting young players on rookie scales and we're trying to minimize the timeline. There was clear direction."
BUT SOME STAFFERS who spoke to ESPN never felt that clarity. They said they often learned of moves their own front office made when the public did.
Even when all members of the front office settled a question together, it was common for Karnisovas, Eversley and assistant general managers J.J. Polk and Pat Connelly to host a smaller meeting, where some staffers believed the real calls were made.
"We would come in for these supposed group meetings, and it was very obvious that the choices had already been made," one ex-front office staffer told ESPN. "You're not doing me any favors by having me sit in the passenger seat with my own fake steering wheel."
Some team sources disputed this characterization.
"It's just a fundamental structure of the company," one team source told ESPN. "People were obviously encouraged to voice their opinion and ideas, but there's a smaller group that can make a decision."
But those outside the circle describe the process more harshly. Multiple current and former staffers told ESPN they routinely didn't even know the terms of the deals their bosses were making.
The signs of the disconnect were clear as early as 2021.
The team had discussed signing guard DeMar DeRozan, and there was general alignment around the idea, but multiple team staffers said they learned from an ESPN mobile alert that the team was also sending a future first-round pick to San Antonio in a sign-and-trade deal.
Two years later, the Bulls handed Nikola Vucevic a three-year, $60 million extension that again surprised some people in the building. The top decision-makers believed the deal would be easy to move when the time came. At the 2025 trade deadline, there were no suitors.
"It was hard to get a feel for the process," one basketball operations staffer told ESPN. "Even working there, you just did not know."
No one quite understood the vision for the team, and staffers weren't sure how to properly execute it.
"These organizations have gotten so big now that it's hard as a leader, just getting everybody pointed in the same direction," one basketball operations staff member told ESPN. "That's one of the jobs that those guys didn't do.
"On a daily basis, the people in the building knowing what the goal is, where you're heading and what every decision is daily, what is driving it, is really of the utmost importance."
EARLY RETURNS ON Graham are promising, multiple team sources said. When he landed in Chicago, he outlined his plan: He wanted to build through the draft and make front office decision-making more collaborative.
Those qualities were points of emphasis when Reinsdorf introduced the new vice president of basketball operations. Graham emphasized them, too, reiterating the importance of leaning on his entire staff, repeating that he doesn't want to be "the smartest guy in the room."
After the Bulls brought in prospects for predraft workouts, Graham hosted meetings to solicit opinions from his staff, from the player development staff who worked out the players individually to basketball operations staffers across departments who watched from the sidelines.
"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."
The Bulls were armed with two first-round picks at Nos. 4 and 15 in the 2026 draft, a chance to select two building blocks for their future. Several team sources described this year's draft process as reinvigorating compared to years past, when some staffers told ESPN they never even saw the team's draft board.
Graham had built a reputation of high-level draft evaluation during his years with Atlanta and New Orleans -- where he helped land talented players later in the draft such as Trey Murphy III (No. 17), Herbert Jones (No. 35) and Nickeil Alexander-Walker (No. 17).
"I felt good about where we were at the top of the draft, and I felt good about 15," Graham said. "But there were some nerves because you never know."
In addition to Wilson, Chicago drafted Texas guard Dailyn Swain at No. 15 -- a pick the previous administration acquired in 2021 as part of a three-team trade with Portland. (Graham also had approximately $60 million in cap space for free agency, after moves made by Karnisovas and Eversley at the trade deadline months prior, which gave him flexibility in building out the rest of the roster.)
Still, the draft was not without its drama. The Bulls made a pair of trades during the second round -- moves that gave fans flashbacks of the past era.
First, they traded the No. 38 pick to the Indiana Pacers in exchange for guard Kam Jones, who was selected with the same pick in the 2025 draft; second-round pick swaps in 2028 and 2030; and cash.
Days later, Jones was waived.
Then, the Bulls didn't use their No. 56 selection, sending it to the Los Angeles Lakers for cash considerations.
The moves seemed antithetical for a rebuilding team in need of young talent -- and a new administration that had admitted it.
During the 2017 draft, John Paxson, who was the team's head of basketball operations, traded Jimmy Butler in the first round to officially launch a rebuild. But the Bulls also had the 38th pick, which they used to trade Jordan Bell to the Golden State Warriors for ... cash considerations.
"I just think that there's a certain way that they operate," one league source told ESPN, "and I don't see the fundamental core of that changing."
In response, Graham said he made the moves because he didn't have any players he was specifically targeting. The Bulls signed two players, guard Jaylin Sellers and forward Tobe Awaka, to two-way contracts after the draft.
Graham said he was surprised to hear such backlash to flipping the pick for cash; he did multiple radio interviews and fielded a question during his postdraft news conference about the decision.
"If you feel good about the guys that you're going to be looking at postdraft for two-ways and you don't feel good about rostering guys that are in the earlier part of the second round, then you need to find a way to move off, maybe move a pick," Graham told ESPN. "Maybe add value in other ways. Yeah, that's completely on me."
It was, perhaps, a lesson -- for both the new leader of the organization and the fans who've lost trust in it.
Still, inside the organization, there was more clarity about the process than there'd been in years, multiple team sources said.
Current Bulls staffers said they saw a clear vision after the draft, when the team rounded out the roster with veterans such as center Nic Claxton, acquired in a trade from the Brooklyn Nets, and used its cap space to sign forward Norman Powell to a two-year, $45 million deal and re-sign center Zach Collins for two years, $17 million.
That vision, team sources said, is developing the younger players on the roster while remaining conscious of the team's record as the league's new lottery odds punish teams in the bottom three of the standings.
And doing so without sacrificing the future: Powell and Collins have team options in the second year of their deals.
"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]."
THE BULLS HIRED a search firm to help find Graham, and although Reinsdorf and others vetted and interviewed candidates, they were hands off in their approach, sources told ESPN, allowing the firm to produce a list of candidates.
It's a much different process compared to the one six years ago, when Reinsdorf hired Karnisovas and Eversley.
"The most important thing you can do as the owner of an NBA team is hire the right person to make the basketball decisions. And that just obviously has been a weak point of the Reinsdorfs," an ex-Bulls staffer told ESPN.
"That would be the main difference this time around. They have seen their flaws in the past and were willing to get some external help to hopefully remedy that."
Some longtime Bulls executives, sidelined under Karnisovas, have been more active in internal team operations, sources told ESPN. That includes Paxson, who is now a senior advisor, and Brian Hagen, who has been with the organization since 2012 and was an assistant GM under Paxson and former general manager Gar Forman.
Graham knows the task ahead of him: to restore an iconic, historic franchise that has for years lacked cohesion and direction. He's also well aware of the opportunity.
"I do believe an organization can change with good leadership," Graham said.
That effort began in May, when the new vice president of basketball operations wasn't afraid to utter a word that Chicago fans have been clamoring for over the better part of the past decade.
"A real rebuild," Graham said at his introductory news conference. "Most rebuild situations are when you don't have star-caliber players.
"We're extremely young, too. So that's how I'll define what the rebuilding phase is, what a rebuilding team looks like. And I think that's where we are right now. And I hope that as fans, we kind of understand where we're at. We're going to get there."
Inside Graham's still-barren office, that envelope sits behind his desk. It's a daily reminder of the opportunity at hand.
But the Bulls have had luck in the past. All that's left now is finally capitalizing on it.
