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

2. Dave Dean, Milwaukee Bucks

The Bucks are one of the models for building success in the Eastern Conference right now, and more specifically the Central Division. This is one that the Bulls could learn from easily. General manager Jon Horst doesn’t get as much credit as he deserves from the job he did building this winner in Milwaukee, and sticking with as much patience with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton as he did.

Horst was the director of basketball operations when he was initially hired with the Bucks and served as general manager since the lead up to the 2017-18 season.

The Bulls seemingly liked what they saw from the Pacers front office, which is why they wanted to interview Buchanan as a candidate. And while the Pacers did build a consistent winner in the Central Division over the course of the last 25 years, they haven’t won any NBA Championships, and they aren’t finding as much success as the Bucks at the moment.

However, the candidate that flies under-the-radar that could be a good target in the Bulls search is the Bucks vice president of basketball operations Dave Dean. Promoted from within along with Horst in 2017, Dean is a rising name in the NBA executive ranks too. Dean started his run with the Bucks organization back in 2001, when he was hired as a public relations intern.

His last role that he held prior to landing his current job was with the G-League Wisconsin Herd, as their general manager. He was promoted to that job after about a decade-long stint as the Bucks director of basketball administration.