Memo to the free-agent class of 2020 and ‘21: There’s now a new Bull mentality in town that finally might capture your attention.
Gone are the days of former general manager Jerry Krause actually believing that organizations win championships.
Pushed to the side is the outdated philosophy that having five good players is better than having one or two elite ones.
This Bulls front office restructure is not only about new nameplates on office doors, but having butts in the leather office chairs that actually understand how to chase a seventh Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy.
“One of my mottos is ‘players first,’ ‘’ new GM Marc Eversley said on Friday, when he was officially introduced to the media via Zoom. “I think you have to create a players-first mentality. And I agree with you – we were the second-youngest team in the NBA last year, and I really believe it starts with a foundation of player development. True player development, that’s really when we can see what kind of players we have on our roster.’’
Develop the players to their fullest potential and then actually have a real selling point to a superstar?
Sure, former GM Gar Forman and vice president of basketball operations John Paxson spoke about that often, but had very little idea on how to execute it.
The best player developer Forman and Paxson had was one-time coach Tom Thibodeau, who was so adept at bringing the best out of players, he covered up a lot of the mistakes his bosses made both in the draft and free agency.
Since Thibodeau was wrongfully shown the exit stage left?
An organization that was so far behind the times, it caught Eversley off-guard.
“I was surprised to find that there was one player development coach on the staff as I was doing my research for this job,’’ Eversley said. “That’s a helluva job for one person to take on. It’s going to be one of my tenants to try and figure out our player development system.
“There’s a lot of key areas within it – skill development, physical development, mental enhancement. But with that, you need to hire people to help support that. We’re going to do a pretty diligent job in terms of looking for the proper staff to bring in here to work with our young guys. But player development is going to be a tremendous focus for this organization moving forward.’’
And when it is time to sit across that table from an All-Star caliber free agent? That’s where Eversley feels he will be at his best.
Going back to his days with Nike, Eversley was a relationship builder. Need proof?
“At the time when I was working with Nike and working with the Toronto Raptors, that’s when I got to meet Vince [Carter], and he and I became very close,’’ Eversley said. “I stood up for him at his wedding, godfather to his daughter, and those are the types of things that relationships can do for you, can help move the needle.’’
Just what the Bulls need. That needle finally moving, and not backwards.
