The Chicago Bulls will retain John Paxson and Gar Forman in their front office roles next season.

"Absolutely," said Michael Reinsdorf when asked the question about Paxson and Forman. "We believe they’ve done a great job. I know that in this market, with some of our fans and some in the media, they look at it differently. That perplexes me. Let’s talk about them individually because that’s another thing I don’t understand — why they’re referred to as “GarPax” when they have different job responsibilities.

"John, as our vice president of basketball operations, he took over in 2003 and orchestrated our first rebuild. He inherited a team and made a lot of different trades. He drafted Kirk Hinrich. We spent $3 million in a trade with Phoenix so we could draft Ben Gordon and Luol Deng in the same draft. He added Joakim Noah. We signed a top free agent in Ben Wallace in 2006. A lot of people forget he was the No. 1 free agent that year. And we ended up sweeping the defending NBA champion Miami Heat in the first round and played Detroit in a tight, six-game series. We were on our way.

"The next year, we tripped and didn’t make the playoffs. That was the year we got extremely lucky and we won the draft lottery and the right to draft Derrick Rose. John and I will be the first to tell you we were lucky. That’s part of what sports are about. The Lakers were lucky the year they won the coin flip to draft Magic Johnson. The Cavaliers won the lottery the year LeBron James came out. That’s luck. After we drafted Derrick, we brought Tom Thibodeau in a couple years later and we had the best record in the league two years in a row. One year we went to the conference finals. The next year, we were poised I think to go all the way. And that’s when Derrick blew out his knee.

"We’ll never know what that team could’ve accomplished. But as Pat Riley said when LeBron James left the Heat, he saw a championship window close. Well, when Derrick blew out his knee, we had a window that closed on us. The problem was Derrick’s contract had just been extended. So we were very limited as far as what big moves we could make. But John and Gar did a great job bringing players in during that time.

"Right now, we’re going through our second rebuild. That also mystifies me. I listen to some people who reach out to me asking how many rebuilds can we do. This is our second rebuild. And given where we are today, I think for Year 2 of our rebuild to have two potential All-Stars in Lauri Markkanen and Zach LaVine and a great draft pick in Wendell Carter Jr., we’re in good shape. Wendell injured himself, but I think we have a good enough sample size to know he’s going to be a solid NBA player. I think he’ll bring a lot to the defensive end and he’s very skilled. And then the trade for Otto Porter Jr., I know it’s only eight games, but the numbers speak for themselves. The offensive output has increased dramatically.

"I look at rebuilds and what some other teams have gone through, and I have confidence in where we are. I try to look beyond the standings and what the potential is. I look at the Sacramento Kings. They’re a team that last year wasn’t very good and they’ve made a tremendous jump this year. We’re poised to make a similar jump."