While at the Orlando Summer League, Chuck Swirsky was able to interview the Bulls Director of Player Personnel, Gar Forman, who assists John Paxson in the front office.

Gar Forman has coached for 17 years at the collegiate level. Before coming to the Bulls he was the recruiting coordinator at New Mexico State and Iowa State. He came to the Bulls with Tim Floyd from Iowa State in 1998.

He really enjoys evaluating players, finding their strengths and weaknesses, and seeing how they fit into a team.

By the time a guy enters the draft, his staff will have already have 20 to 30 live exposures to the player. His staff also watches a lot of film. They can usually tell from the first or second time of watching a guy whether that player is NBA material. After they determine whether a player is NBA material, they begin breaking down how they fit into the team’s system, the makeup and character of the player, and how they interact with other people.

Gar’s personal opinion of individual workouts is that it is interesting to see how a player works with your team’s coaches, but in the grand realm of things it really isn’t that important. He finds getting to know them off the court going to dinner with the player, the psychological testing, athletic testing, and checking out the physical structure of a player are far more important than the individual workout.

Since John Paxson came here five years ago, having quality character guys is the base of what the Bulls have been doing. They want players who love the game, who will work hard, and who will spend time in the game. Ben Gordon, Luol Deng, and Kirk Hinrich are examples of these types of players. They want to find out what makes these kids tick before drafting them.

Trades are very difficult to make in the NBA because of the money and tax implications on a lot of teams. Also, trades are restricted by having to make salaries match.

Gar thinks that more trades will happen this summer. He says that al ot of teams are out there talking. He thinks we will see some trades happen based on free agency after some of the surprise signings.

The interview can be listened to online at Bulls.com