Pistons give division rival permission to interview front office exec for opening

A Central Division rival of the Detroit Pistons is starting the search for their new head of basketball operations and a member of Detroit’s front office is in the mix. Dennis Lindsey, senior vice president of basketball operations for the Pistons, has been given permission by Detroit to interview for the Chicago Bulls’ top front office job after the franchise cleaned house earlier this month, per ESPN’s Shams Charania. The Bulls fired executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley, eventually finishing 31-51 this season and the team going 224-254 across six seasons under the duo. Lindsey, 57, joined the Pistons’ front office alongside president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon in 2024 with nearly 30 years of scouting and front office experience under his belt. An 11-season stint with the Utah Jazz, including seven seasons as general manager, included a run of six straight postseason appearances for the Jazz. Making trades to acquire Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert were the highlight decisions under his tenure. In 2021, Lindsey faced scrutiny after ex-Jazz player Elijah Millsap accused him of making a racist remark during a 2015 exit interview. Millsap claimed Lindsey said, “If you say one more word, I’ll cut your Black a** and send you back to Louisiana.” The NBA investigated the claim but couldn’t corroborate the allegation, with Lindsey denying the statement. After stepping down from his role as executive vice president of basketball operations in 2021 and serving as an advisor for a time, Lindsey eventually joined the Dallas Mavericks in 2023 for one season as a senior advisor, where the organization made the NBA Finals. He’s been rumored as a potential target to fill the Mavericks’ open general manager job, as well. The Pistons’ front office has become one of the more acclaimed in the NBA over the past few years as Langdon and his staff masterminded a two-year turnaround from the worst record in the NBA to the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference for this year’s playoffs. After bringing in coach J.B. Bickerstaff, the Pistons built up around the margins of a young core, helping to make the postseason in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2008-09. While Detroit hasn’t made any big swings over these past two years, the front office has built a team that could compete at a high level for years to come after locking up Cade Cunningham through 2030, developing more young stars in Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson and continuing to add unexpected impact players to their roster every year.