Chicago Bulls: 5 under-the-radar front office candidates

3. Eli Witus, Houston Rockets

One of the most interesting front offices to study over the course of the last two decades is that of the Houston Rockets. Not only did the Rockets do a lot to usher in this modern NBA “pace and space” style of play, they started a new trend by building an entire team around the specific skill set of one modern player.

Really no other NBA team has built around a player, at least somewhat successfully, in the same way that the Rockets did around superstar shooting guard and the 2017-18 MVP James Harden. That’s largely thanks to the efforts of general manager Daryl Morey, but there a few names that fly under-the-radar that deserve recognition too.

The name that should matter to the Bulls in their front office candidate search is the Rockets executive vice president of basketball operations and assistant general manager Eli Witus. The front office career of Witus has only known that of the Rockets. He started his front office journey in Houston as a basketball operations analyst in 2008.

Since that point, Witus also held the role of the vice president of basketball operations. He was promoted to the current role he’s in April 2019. Witus also played a prominent role in the configuration of the salary cap management department, which he worked in for a long time during his 11 year tenure with the Rockets organization.