Shams: The Bulls are hiring Pelicans executive JJ Polk as assistant general manager

[Friend_Of_Haley]

This hire does absolutely nothing for me. For Bulls we will see. He is not from Iowa and he is not Gar's friend so that's plus I guess.

Do you understand what Polk does and why he was hired? Why it's important to have a sharp mind for the salary cap/contracts?

Have you seen this dude's resume and credentials? He's a beast.

I seriously wonder if people actually research **** before they speak. Because it makes you look uninformed when you don't.

He definitely checks a box, but how many of us honestly heard of Polk before today? I can understand people not getting too pumped about a guy they just learned about.

[bennjuiced34]

Analytics, Pro Scouting, Pro Personnel, College Scouting, International Scouting, Salary cap/contracts, player development, basketball operations, basketball strategy.

Those are some of the departments in the Nuggets org, each of which are robust.

The Bulls are going to have a massive operation filled with a **** ton of versatile, smart minds.

[GimmeDat]

Karnisovas knows the cap isn't one of his specialities, so he brought in a specialist. I like it.

I know we're all pumped for change and a new face, but this seems a low bar to clear to get exited over

lol, maybe excited is an overstatement. But one of the issues with GarPax is there were very few cooks in the kitchen. It was a very limited brains-trust. Bringing in what appears to be the start of a wide range of people that compliment the skill-set of existing personnel is a great change of pace.

[bennjuiced34]

This hire does absolutely nothing for me. For Bulls we will see. He is not from Iowa and he is not Gar's friend so that's plus I guess.

Do you understand what Polk does and why he was hired? Why it's important to have a sharp mind for the salary cap/contracts?

Have you seen this dude's resume and credentials? He's a beast.

I seriously wonder if people actually research **** before they speak. Because it makes you look uninformed when you don't.

He definitely checks a box, but how many of us honestly heard of Polk before today? I can understand people not getting too pumped about a guy they just learned about.

He does more than check a box. Weinman was actually one of the strong points of GarPax's operation but you rarely heard of him because his job wasn't in the spotlight that much.

Also, if you haven't heard of a guy, why are you forming an opinion about him? Why not research his credentials and his responsibilities?

[P.C.]

How does he go from working real estate transactions at a big law firm to NBA executive role? Hopefully someone writes a good article on his background.

He played pro ball in China and Europe. U of I law school and Bryan Cave is not a joke in terms of a law background. That's a first tier law school and a high profile big law firm. I hope everybody getting offended in that hire-a-black gm thread takes note. Here's a dude with a freakish combination of talents in law/business and basketball. Meanwhile, Memphis and Minnesota have previously hired white directors of basketball who were literally journalists with no law, business or basketball background.

[Trm3]

It’s my understanding he’s a cap guru.

So he's a Mickey Loomis. The New Orleans Saints GM. The Saints always get FA's every year despite not having much in cap space EVERY year.

I think we're just happy that were seeing changes. Finally! Can't wait till Boylen gone!

[Red8911]

This is funny they are even reporting about the salary cap guy they got lol.Whats next Woj reports bulls signed the new water boy that previously worked for the bucks? This is actually the best time for bulls to be making these moves, they are getting a lot of publicity since there’s no NBA news at all right now.

[bledredwine]

Hiring a legitimate executive and multiple qualified assistants?

Is it me or are the Bulls about you become a relevant, modern franchise? We are about to become a seeked out organization if we keep up this restructure.

[Southpaw]

How many AGMs do we have now and how many did we have before? Haha. The more smart people getting hired in the FO, the better. This is good news.

[Peelboy]

This is funny they are even reporting about the salary cap guy they got lol.Whats next Woj reports bulls signed the new water boy that previously worked for the bucks? This is actually the best time for bulls to be making these moves, they are getting a lot of publicity since there’s no NBA news at all right now.

Hey the Bucks have gone from worst to first in HORWB (hydration over replacement water boy) under his watch!

[Friend_Of_Haley]

How many AGMs do we have now and how many did we have before? Haha. The more smart people getting hired in the FO, the better. This is good news.

Currently we had an associate GM and an assistant GM, and associate seems to be higher than assistant.

I'd imagine three, but maybe 4 if reports are true that each AGM heads a department is true.

AGM/Cap and contracts
AGM/Analytics and amatuer scouting (I've seen these two lumped in other orgs, but seem like you could easily split them too)
AGM/Pro personnel and pro scouting

Before our AGM cap/contract guy was also our analytics head

[Southpaw]

How many AGMs do we have now and how many did we have before? Haha. The more smart people getting hired in the FO, the better. This is good news.

Currently we had an associate GM and an assistant GM, and associate seems to be higher than assistant.

I'd imagine three, but maybe 4 if reports are true that each AGM heads a department is true.

AGM/Cap and contracts
AGM/Analytics and amatuer scouting (I've seen these two lumped in other orgs, but seem like you could easily split them too)
AGM/Pro personnel and pro scouting

Before our AGM cap/contract guy was also our analytics head

Thanks! Nice, we're starting to look like a modern NBA FO.

[dougthonus]

How many AGMs do we have now and how many did we have before? Haha. The more smart people getting hired in the FO, the better. This is good news.

As far as I can tell, the Bulls have had people working in the org that manage various areas, but they didn't heavily use the title assistant GM or really have departments around these areas which looks like they are building out now.

They've always had a cap guy, as an example, and he's actually pretty good. The Bulls were the first team to make heavy use of non guaranteed extra years to create tradeable contracts that could be instant salary relief, a practice which then became copied around the league and eventually banned.

They've been smart playing in the margins around the salary cap and with their knowledge of it.

[Friend_Of_Haley]

How many AGMs do we have now and how many did we have before? Haha. The more smart people getting hired in the FO, the better. This is good news.

As far as I can tell, the Bulls have had people working in the org that manage various areas, but they didn't heavily use the title assistant GM or really have departments around these areas which looks like they are building out now.

They've always had a cap guy, as an example, and he's actually pretty good. The Bulls were the first team to make heavy use of non guaranteed extra years to create tradeable contracts that could be instant salary relief, a practice which then became copied around the league and eventually banned.

They've been smart playing in the margins around the salary cap and with their knowledge of it.

Yea. Cap creativity has always been a strong suit of theirs. Cap management vis a vis handing out contracts, perhaps less so, but every team is gonna have its share of bad misses on big contracts.

[dougthonus]

Yea. Cap creativity has always been a strong suit of theirs. Cap management vis a vis handing out contracts, perhaps less so, but every team is gonna have its share of bad misses on big contracts.

Yeah, I was speaking more to structure than decisions. If you compare to the Warriors whom got caught off guard and needed to trade Andre Iguodala into cap space and give up an unprotected pick to do so, or when the Lakers made their trade for Anthony Davis in an order that screwed things up for them, the Bulls aren't making these types of mistakes due to structure.

I do think their style of negotiation of "here's a fair but final offer" to RFAs and extension worthy players hasn't worked out well for them though, so from a contract negotiation standpoint, I hope the new FO improves.

[Southpaw]

How many AGMs do we have now and how many did we have before? Haha. The more smart people getting hired in the FO, the better. This is good news.

As far as I can tell, the Bulls have had people working in the org that manage various areas, but they didn't heavily use the title assistant GM or really have departments around these areas which looks like they are building out now.

They've always had a cap guy, as an example, and he's actually pretty good. The Bulls were the first team to make heavy use of non guaranteed extra years to create tradeable contracts that could be instant salary relief, a practice which then became copied around the league and eventually banned.

They've been smart playing in the margins around the salary cap and with their knowledge of it.

Thanks! Yeah they've always been excellent with how they structure the contracts and they've always valued flexibility. But I think having dedicated departments would be better so that people working there can focus/specialize on a few things.

[chicago paxsons]

How many AGMs do we have now and how many did we have before? Haha. The more smart people getting hired in the FO, the better. This is good news.

As far as I can tell, the Bulls have had people working in the org that manage various areas, but they didn't heavily use the title assistant GM or really have departments around these areas which looks like they are building out now.

They've always had a cap guy, as an example, and he's actually pretty good. The Bulls were the first team to make heavy use of non guaranteed extra years to create tradeable contracts that could be instant salary relief, a practice which then became copied around the league and eventually banned.

They've been smart playing in the margins around the salary cap and with their knowledge of it.

Thanks! Yeah they've always been excellent with how they structure the contracts and they've always valued flexibility. But I think having dedicated departments would be better so that people working there can focus/specialize on a few things.

Also guys focus on a particular task allows for better evaluation of those people in those specific tasks. Before they would have some people doing multiple things and i bet when evaluating they though, “well, they’re only ok when it comes to this, not so good at this, but very good at this. Even if they struggle elsewhere, we might as well keep them even though they’ll stull be doing all those jobs.”

So they keep guys that might be good at one thing but are not so good at many others, but still have them do the same job. That sounds to me exactly like gar and i don’t doubt there are more guys like him doing things they’re not so good at because they’re good at one thing, all because the bulls never wanted to expand the fo.