ESPN is reportedly looking beyond its NBA roster to fill the vacancy on its lead team.

TNT NBA analyst Grant Hill and ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas are among the contenders to join the returning Mike Breen and Doris Burke on ESPN’s lead NBA broadcast team, Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reported Friday. ESPN could also go in-house with Richard Jefferson or Tim Legler or stay with a two-person booth.

Breen and Burke started last season alongside Doc Rivers, but he left in January to become head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. Rivers’ replacement, J.J. Redick, finished out the season but then left to become coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. Prior to last season, ESPN’s “A” team had consisted of Breen and Jeff Van Gundy and/or Mark Jackson for 18-straight seasons from 2006-23.

While still an active player, Hill served as a guest studio analyst on ABC’s coverage of the 2007 NBA Finals. He joined what was then known as Turner Sports following his 2013 retirement and has served as both an NBA analyst and a lead analyst on CBS/Turner coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

With TNT left out of the new NBA media rights deal that begins after this season, the network is already beginning to lose talent. Reporter Chris Haynes is reportedly exiting and analyst Jamal Crawford said on social media recently that he is a free agent. While Hill’s NCAA Tournament duties would give him an obvious post-NBA role at TNT, it would be limited compared to a full season of NBA games for ESPN/ABC.

Hill, it should be noted, is a co-owner of the Atlanta Hawks and skipped his scheduled assignment on the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals when the team advanced to the round. Though it is unlikely the Hawks will make the NBA Finals in the near future, or even another conference final, that is worth considering.

Bilas is said to be a dark horse, no surprise given he has rarely contributed to ESPN NBA coverage despite being with the network for its entire 22-year tenure with the league. He served as an NBA Draft analyst from 2003-23 and has called a game or two on special occasions, but has otherwise not worked on the NBA side.