3. Michael Finley, Dallas Mavericks Vice President of Basketball Operations
The name most often mentioned for the Bulls general manager role among former NBA players that retired from the league within the last 10-15 years is the former Mavericks star shooting guard/wing Finley. Spending his playing days in the NBA mostly with teams out of the state of Texas, Finley would be getting quite the change of scenery with the Bulls front office.
Since the lead up to the 2017-18 regular season, Finley served either as the assistant vice president of basketball operations or the outright VP of basketball operations with the Mavericks. He was the assistant VP for his first year in the Mavericks front office, and then received a promotion to become the full VP of basketball ops in 2018-19.
Finley seems to be one of the rising stars among former players in NBA front offices. He was a well-liked player among his peers in the league, and pretty popular among the fans too. Finley would bring a much-improved image to the Bulls if he was able to win some bigger name free agents and trade targets over to the Windy City.
Sources: Mavericks vice president of basketball operations Michael Finley interviewed for the Bulls' general manager job. Finley, a Chicago native who was twice an All-Star in his 15-year career, has spent the last seven seasons in the Dallas front office.
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) April 18, 2020
A report from ESPN’s Tim McMahon on his Twitter timeline on April 17 showed that the Bulls interviewed Finley for this role already. We’ll see where this goes moving forward, and the Bulls could have a very solid former player in sight if they hire Finley.
As one of the younger general manager targets that the Bulls could pursue (at 47 years old), Finley could have a lot of longevity in this role in Chicago.