On Monday, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported the Chicago Bulls are eyeballing at least six names when it came to its new top front office position. A source informs Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times that three other, as-yet unnamed contenders are being circled, too.
During his press conference after canning AKME, Michael Reinsdorf unpacked the club’s relative treasure trove of assets. At the time, it wasn’t yet guaranteed that Chicago would get the rights to Portland’s first-round pick in the supposedly loaded 2026 NBA Draft. That has since changed.
“We have all our draft picks going forward,” Reinsdorf said. “We have [injured rookie forward] Noa [Essengue] coming back, which is basically having a second top 10 pick, and then we have $65 million in cap space. I just feel like now is the time. We’re in position to get this right, clean slate.”
During that presser, Reinsdorf also stressed that the new president had to be amenable to collaborating with current head coach Billy Donovan — despite ostensibly being Donovan’s boss. As Charania notes, Donovan himself pushed back on this notion. There’s no guarantee that Donovan, 60, will stick around for a full-tilt roster rebuild. Perhaps the next president will be able to hire his own coach, after all.
While Bulls fans are always wary of expedient hires with Chicago or Iowa State ties (paging Fred Hoiberg and Tim Floyd), one key former Bulls front office name being examined might actually be a quality fit.
© Matt Marton-Imagn ImagesMatt Lloyd, the Bulls’ Prodigal Son?
Bulls fans, understandably, may be a little pessimistic about Chicago hiring another top Tim Connelly colleague, since that’s what Karnisovas had been in Denver. But Matt Lloyd might be the rare combination of Chicago homer signing and actually talented team president prospect that could sate the Reinsdorfs and satisfy fans.
Lloyd got his start with the Bulls and spent 13 years with the organization, starting in the video room in 1994 and then moving to the media relations team in 1999. After John Paxson assumed the club’s GM role, he hired Lloyd to work on the basketball operations side. Lloyd eventually became the team’s director of scouting. He departed in 2012.
The Bensenville High alum next worked as an assistant general manager for the Orlando Magic under Rob Hennigan, even briefly functioning as the team’s interim GM after Hennigan’s midseason firing.
Currently the general manager of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Charania describes Lloyd as Connelly’s “top lieutenant.” The club has found plenty of success since Connelly joined them in 2022, fully retooling his roster around superstar shooting guard Anthony Edwards a few times. Lloyd was promoted to the GM role in Minnesota in the summer of 2024.
According to a glowing 2024 profile from Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic, Lloyd rejected an offer to work with the Charlotte Hornets in 2022 when he opted to instead join the Timberwolves.
© Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY SportsMatt Lloyd: The Hits and Misses
Lloyd might have been a key reason the John Paxson/Gar Forman-era Bulls were as successful as they proved to be, despite the team’s struggles to land top-tier free agents.
But his tenure in Orlando was marked by some strange moves. His run with the Timberwolves, meanwhile, has thrived thanks to great trades — but has been undercut by frustrating draft decisions.
Hits
Matt Marton-USA TODAY SportsSB Nation’s Ricky O’Donnell, an avowed skeptic when it comes to the Reinsdorfs, suggested that one of the Bulls’ all-time great draft picks, Jimmy Butler (at No. 30 out of Marquette in 2012), was largely inspired by Lloyd’s scouting and recommendation.
While Lloyd supplied an important voice in front office decision making, Chicago also selected such other draft hits as Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon, Luol Deng, Joakim Noah, Derrick Rose (although, yes, future Hall of Famers Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love were still on the board in that same draft), and Nikola Mirotic. Sure, they traded the draft rights to LaMarcus Aldridge for the draft rights to Tyrus Thomas in 2006 but hey, nobody’s perfect. Andres Nocioni was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2004, helping shore up a talented rookie Bulls class that also included Gordon, Deng and Chris Duhon.
After Lloyd left, Chicago arguably didn’t make another good draft pick until 2017, when the team acquired the No. 7 pick and used it on future All-Star Lauri Markkanen. Granted, that pick was only obtained when GarPax traded away Butler, a superstar in his prime at age 28.
The Magic selected such future standouts as Victor Oladipo and Aaron Gordon with Lloyd on board. Lloyd’s Magic also fleeced Karnisovas’ Bulls at the 2021 trade deadline, offloading former two-time All-Star center Nikola Vucevic (ugh) in exchange for center Wendell Carter Jr. and a whopping two unprotected first-round draft picks.
Those eventual lottery selections became Franz Wagner in 2021 and Jett Howard in 2023. Orlando also drafted future All-Defensive Team guard Jalen Suggs with its own pick in that ’21 draft. Vucevic led the Bulls to exactly one playoff appearance during his six years in town.
After Lloyd was brought aboard by Connelly in May 2022, their Timberwolves front office pulled off blockbuster deals for Rudy Gobert in 2022 and Mike Conley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker in 2023, helping fast-track a contender as Edwards exploded. Along with incumbents Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Karl-Anthony Towns, and sixth man Naz Reid, the reconstituted Timberwolves advanced all the way to the Western Conference Finals in 2024, for the first time in 20 years.
With Minnesota concerned about cap space, Connelly and Lloyd shipped Towns — arguably the club’s second-best player — to the New York Knicks that summer, in exchange for Donte DiVincenzo and three-time All-Stat power forward Julius Randle. The changes made little difference, and the No. 6-seeded Timberwolves made the West Finals for a second straight season.
Can Minnesota, which once again occupies the sixth seed in the conference and currently trails the Nuggets 0-1 in the first round, make a third consecutive West Finals? Time will tell.
© Brad Rempel-Imagn ImagesMisses
Connelly and Lloyd’s draft history in Minnesota has been somewhat, uh, checkered.
They already gave up on 2024 lottery pick Rob Dillingham — now with the Bulls — ahead of Zach Edey, Matas Buzelis, Kel’el Ware, Jared McCain, and Kyshawn George. Second-year Lincoln High School alum Terrence Shannon Jr., also selected in 2204, has shown intriguing flashes, although he’s on the fringes of the club’s rotation in the playoffs.
This is a Bulls team that’s looking to build in the draft. Is Lloyd up to that particular challenge?
Chicago’s draft record while he was around, albeit in a more junior capacity, was pretty good. He did have some serious hits in Orlando.
But there were also a few severe misses during that Magic stint.
Pretty egregiously, Orlando burned the No. 5 selection in 2015 on Mario Hezonja — ahead of Devin Booker, Myles Turner, Kelly Oubre Jr., Terry Rozier, and Bulls legend Bobby Portis.
In the very next draft, the Magic traded Oladipo, forward Ersan Ilyasova, and the draft rights to No. 11 pick Domantas Sabonis, a future three-time All-Star center, to the Oklahoma City Thunder for an aging Serge Ibaka. Oops.
Orlando also blew its lottery pick in 2017, drafting perpetually-hurt big man Jonathan Isaac (still a per-minutes beast defensively, though) over Markkanen, Malik Monk, Luke Kennard, Donovan Mitchell, Bam Adebayo, Jarrett Allen, OG Anunoby, Kyle Kuzma, Derrick White and Josh Hart.
What Matt Lloyd Could Bring to the Bulls
Draft whiffs aside, Lloyd has proven he at least has the goods when it comes to team-building via trade.
The Bulls have struggled to attract top-tier free agents since the infamous Ron Mercer snafu of 2000, and like the rest of the NBA will most likely need to create a winner through a combination of draft picks and trades. And Lloyd’s Timberwolves have done an incredible job of trading their way into perennial-contender status.
Chicago’s success with prospects during that first Paxson decade, with Lloyd allegedly playing a big role behind the scenes, suggests that he at least has been able to suss out quality young pieces. Those Orlando lottery decisions are a bit ominous, however.
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