Chicago Bulls: New general manager search could finally be on

After nearly three hard years of watching the Chicago Bulls possibly botch an attempt at a rebuild, front office shakeups could be on the horizon.

John Paxson and Gar Forman simply just weren’t able to get it done for the Chicago Bulls over the course of the last five years. Since the departure of former Bulls stars like point guard Derrick Rose and small forward Jimmy Butler, this team floundered in the Central Division and Eastern Conference standings. GarPax and their inability to rejuvenate this franchise in the third year of the rebuild is a large reason why the fans are so passionate about change in the front office during All-Star Weekend.

Hosting the 2020 NBA All-Star festivities at the United Center in Chicago really put the Bulls front office under an intense microscope with a national spotlight. All the negative publicity for the Bulls organization cannot be how the Reinsdorfs envisioned All-Star Weekend transpiring on their home court in Chicago.

According to a report from Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, the Bulls are in the “early stages” of looking for a new voice to be the next general manager. Apparently this process is beginning during All-Star Weekend and could continue on into the offseason.

The plan looks to be reassigning Forman into a different role that is more geared toward the scouting department. And the new general manager could take over more of the media duties while Paxson could work in the background and fade out of the national media spotlight cast upon him recently.

Here’s more on what this piece from the Chicago Sun-Times had to say on this potential general manager search.

"According to several NBA executives, the Bulls have started the early stages of adding a new face to the front office, with the position defined as a general manager “with a louder voice.’’ One executive did say that the talks the Bulls have had with candidates have been through back channels, with no formal interviews taking place, but the search is believed to be wide-spread.This would be in-line with a Sun-Times report back in November, in which the newspaper wrote that general manager Gar Forman’s job security was taking on water, with the organization’s senior advisor Doug Collins the loudest voice in a needed change.Collins has never been a big fan of Foreman’s, starting with questioning Forman for the hiring of Fred Hoiberg."

If this all pans out like it’s mentioned in the piece from the Chicago Sun-Times, then keeping Paxson around wouldn’t be the most popular move with Bulls fans. He’s been around in this front office for a long time, and his track record of late is pretty bad.

The Bulls went into All-Star Weekend with a poor record of 19-36, good for 10th place in the standings in the East. This is the same amount of wins that the Bulls had heading into the All-Star Break two years back, in the first year of the rebuild.

All-Star Weekend was mostly sat in the midst of a season to forget for the Bulls organization. Hosting the All-Star Game in Chicago for the first time in 32 years should mean more that just having shooting guard Zach LaVine participating in the 3-Point Contest. But the way GarPax built this team up made it so that they’re still sitting outside the realm of playoff contention, thus not having any All-Star selections in the East.