The Chicago Bulls are hiring Atlanta Hawks senior vice president Bryson Graham as their new executive vice president of basketball operations, the team announced Monday.
Graham spent 15 years in New Orleans (2010-15), rising from an intern in 2010-11 to general manager in 2024-25 with the Pelicans. Hawks general manager Onsi Saleh recruited Graham as his top executive last summer out of New Orleans, and Graham now becomes the Bulls’ top decision-maker.
Graham, 39, is known across the NBA for having a tremendous scouting eye. His drafting track record includes finds such as Trey Murphy III (drafted 17th), Herbert Jones (35th), Dyson Daniels (eighth) and Nickeil Alexander-Walker (17th), with the latter two going on to win Most Improved Player awards in back-to-back years.
Graham also helped facilitate negotiations between the Pelicans and the Hawks during the draft last year that saw Atlanta gain New Orleans’ 2026 first-round pick, one of the more coveted draft assets in the league this year.
Team sources told ESPN the Bulls valued Graham’s player evaluation record, especially ahead of a deep 2026 draft class where the Bulls will have multiple first-round selections.
“He has worked his way up through basketball operations from the ground level, and that experience has given him a deep understanding of how to build and sustain a successful organization,” Bulls CEO Michael Resindorf said in the team’s statement Monday. “He is an effective communicator, a disciplined and thoughtful decision-maker, and someone who truly connects with players and people. He understands today’s league, today’s players, and what it takes to develop talent and build a winning culture.”
Reinsdorf had cast a wider net during his search to lead the team, hiring a search firm and interviewing candidates from across the league, including Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Mike Gansey, San Antonio Spurs assistant GM Dave Telep and Boston Celtics assistant GM Dave Lewin.
The Bulls conducted in-person interviews with candidates last week and mulled over three finalists — Graham, Detroit Pistons senior vice president Dennis Lindsey and Minnesota Timberwolves general manager Matt Lloyd — over the weekend before deciding on Graham on Monday.
Lloyd had been seen as the frontrunner for the job across the league because of his connections to the Bulls organization. Lloyd spent 17 seasons with the franchise across multiple roles from 1995-2012.
However, team sources said Graham stood out throughout the process because, even at 39 years old, he’s had so many different roles throughout his career, which could help connect a front office many in the organization felt had become disjointed under the previous regime. Chicago is also expected to give Graham autonomy in how he wants to build the rest of the front office, sources told ESPN.
Graham becomes just the third head of basketball operations hired by Chicago since the turn of the century. John Paxson served as president of basketball operations from 2009 to 2020 before Arturas Karnisovas took over. Karnisovas lasted six years before he was fired before the final week of the 2025-26 regular season.
Graham will get started on a job that has been highly coveted around the league, both for its market (Chicago is the third-largest city in the NBA) and for the flexibility of its roster. The Bulls have their own 2026 lottery pick, the Portland Trail Blazers’ 2026 first-round pick (which was conveyed as a part of a 2021 trade involving Lauri Markkanen) and nearly $60 million in cap space available.
Still, Graham has a lot of work to do building a roster that includes Josh Giddey, Matas Buzelis, Tre Jones and Noa Essengue, who was drafted in the lottery last season but played only two games before needing season-ending left shoulder surgery. The Bulls also will be searching for a new coach to replace Billy Donovan, who stepped down from the role last month after six seasons at the helm.
Chicago finished the this season 31-51 and missed the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year.
