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New Chicago Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas is tasked with forming a new front office to help rebuild a team that has not finished better than 42-40 since the 2014-15 season.
One of the pieces of the puzzle may be former New Orleans Pelicans general manager Dell Demps, for Mike McGraw of the Daily herald:
Demps, 49, was the general manager of the New Orleans Hornets / Pelicans from 2010 to 2019.
Arguably his best work came during the 2017-18 season, when the Pelicans went 48-34 and reached the Western Conference Semifinals despite losing DeMarcus Cousins to a torn Achilles in January.
A midseason trade for Nikola Mirotic helped fill the scoring gap left by Cousins, allowing the team to upset the Portland Trail Blazers in a 4-0 first-round series sweep. Mirotic dominated Portland in that series, scoring 18.1 points on 57.3 percent shooting.
The future looked bright in New Orleans in 2018-19 after a successful career the year before, but injuries wreaked havoc on the team, with Elfrid Payton, Anthony Davis, Julius Randle, and Jrue Holiday all missing time periods.
Ultimately, the Pels imploded mid-season: Davis requested an exchange, but didn’t get one before the deadline, and Demps was fired amid that fiasco.
The Pels under Demps made the playoffs three times in nine seasons.
Outside of Demps, other candidates have recently emerged for office positions.
Adrian Wojnarowski ESPN reported that a quartet of assistant GMs at Calvin Booth of the Denver Nuggets, Marc Eversley of the Philadelphia 76ers, Mark Hughes of the Los Angeles Clippers and Matt Lloyd of the Orlando Magic are in the mix.
K.C. NBC Sports Chicago’s Johnson wrote that former NBA center Nazr Mohammed had spoken to the Bulls about a role, though it would not be for a GM job.
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