Want to know Arturas Karnišovas' plan for the Bulls? Good luck

The Chicago Bulls of recent vintage are best explained as a team where the parts are greater than the sum.

Theyve employed a potential Hall of Fame-bound coach in Billy Donovan, All-Stars, past and present, like Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic, in-demand role players like Alex Caruso and even a sprinkling of young talent like Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu, Josh Giddey and rookie Matas Buzelis.

Advertisement Theres also Patrick Williams, a young big man who hasnt developed as much as hes gotten paid, and Lonzo Ball, whose knee injury three years started a slow-moving domino effect that led us to where we are today.

And despite that collection of talent not enough to compete for championships, sure we know theyve achieved essentially nothing: just one playoff appearance built on success early in a season before Balls knee gave out.

GO DEEPER Lonzo Ball, Bulls agree to 2-year extension: Sources Calling the Bulls mediocre, which Ive done, is an insult to mediocrity.

The Bulls are less than that.

Everyone knows the Bulls have played in the last two Play-In Tournaments and are in position to beg Pat Riley for the rights to use three-peat if they stay in the 10th spot in the East.

But if they werent in the Eastern Conference, they wouldnt even be a Play-In dynasty.

Theyd just be another losing team on the outside looking in.

You might have read the Bulls won just 42 percent of their games with (and without) LaVine , who was just traded to Sacramento, but theres a lot more to unpack.

For instance, did you know the Bulls record has only been at or above .500 13 times over the last three seasons (including this one)? And the latest date the Bulls have been at .500 in that span was Nov.

7, 2022, when they beat the Raptors to improve to 6-6.

Its true.

They never sniffed .500 in the 2023-24 season and this year, they were last at the break-even mark on Nov.

1, when they lost to the Brooklyn Nets to fall to 3-3.

Given that theyre 22-30 right now, Im guessing youll have to wait for next fall for it to happen again.

Did you also know the most games the Bulls have been over .500 in that span is one, which theyve done four times, including once this season when they were 3-2? And Im sure youre not aware the Bulls have had just 11 winning streaks (defined by at least three wins in a row) in the three seasons and only one was longer than three games.

That was last season when they won four straight from Nov.

30-Dec.

8.

Advertisement If youre reading this, what you do know is that everything is about to change.

Bulls president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas spoke to the media Thursday after the trade deadline passed.

His only deadline move was the LaVine trade, which also landed the Bulls three new players to match his salary, and more importantly, allowed them to have full control of their first-round draft pick this year.

(San Antonio couldve acquired the pick if it fell out of the top 10 this year or the top eight in the next two years.) This was Karnisovas first deadline trade since his first season on the job, back in 2021.

LIVE: Trade Deadline Media Availability Arturas Karnisovas https://t.co/u7mCi1M9uT Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) February 6, 2025 The LaVine deal cemented the breakup of the teams previous attempt at respectability, which fell woefully short.

Karnisovas needed to do more to hasten this rebuild, but as usual, he didnt.

(Instead of being traded, Ball was signed to a team-friendly extension, though I actually think that was fairly smart.) Karnisovas summer trade of Alex Caruso netted only Giddey, and DeRozan, who was a free agent, got the Bulls a second-rounder in a sign-and-trade.

So three good players gone and all the Bulls got back is the draft pick they offered up to sign DeRozan back in 2021.

Im starting to think Karnisovas is just not very good at his job.

Not surprisingly, Karnisovas, like all sports executives would do in his position, preached patience as he prepares to lead the Bulls into another uncertain rebuild.

I know fans want a specific plan and were charting that path now, he said.

Were not done yet.

Were in a transitional phase and theres more to come.

GO DEEPER Following Zach LaVine trade, Bulls moving forward, looking to 'make a shift' Heres how it works in the NBA: A team bottoms out, loses a bunch of games, tries to get high draft picks and hopes to get lucky with one or two while acquiring enough assets to make a big trade.

Thats the plan.

Unless youre located in a warm-weather city, trades and the draft are generally how you get your stars, which is how you win in the NBA.

Karnisovas trade history doesnt bode well for the Bulls and he cant just say hes hoping for draft luck (via the lottery or landing Nikola Jokic in the second round like the Nuggets did when he was there), but he did let us in on the general direction of the path hes charting.

Advertisement In terms of moving forward, I think theres different structures that you can try to get to your championship, he said.

Theres (having) two, three star players and a lot of role players or you can build a (team) of 9 or 10 very good players.

I think now were leaning towards having a lot of solid good players, 9 or 10, that can last through the season because theres going to be injuries.

I think more and more teams are doing that.

So, in summation, he wants to build a team of good players.

When do season tickets go on sale? With his flat, accented delivery, Karnisovas, a native of Lithuania, sounds disinterested or unemotional when he deigns to speak to the public through the media.

I dont think thats the case.

Theres no need for insults or ad hominem attacks; he seems like a nice guy with a dry sense of humor.

Free, daily sports updates direct to your inbox.

document.querySelectorAll(".in-content-module[data-module-id='the-pulse-newsletter'] .in-content-module-img img ").forEach((el) => { el.setAttribute("style", "pointer-events: none;");}) Free, daily sports updates direct to your inbox.

If youre going to be mad at Karnisovas who is now making fans pine for the days of John Paxson and Gar Forman it should just be because hes just not very good at his job.

Three years ago, he had a nice summer of free agency and since then, hes accomplished very little to make the Bulls better.

Of course, that will all change now.

Its just going to take some more time.

Hes earned it, right? I would like to kind of say that 3 1/2 years ago when we put that team together, it came out pretty well, he said.

But we skipped steps and tried to accelerate the process.

I think right now we have an opportunity here to (go) slower and evaluate our young guys.

What happened was he loaded up on in-demand free agents (a relative first for the Bulls) and he wasnt able to pivot when Ball got hurt, failing to acquire a veteran point guard to run the team and optimize the time he had with LaVine, DeRozan and Vucevic.

The Bulls went from first to sixth in the East after Balls injury and were bounced quickly in the playoffs.

They havent returned to the real postseason since.

Advertisement I think the reason why is because Karnisovas is not very good at his job.

Its not that complicated.

He also somehow has the rep of both driving a hard bargain in trades while also getting fleeced in the ones he actually makes.

So hes tough to deal with and also bad at dealing.

Not the combination you want if youre the Bulls.

When asked by a dogged reporter if he got any offers for LaVine that included someone elses first-round pick, Karnisovas said, Im not going to talk about hypotheticals, sir.

I dont think thats a hypothetical, but whatever.

When it comes to the facts, I cant really come up with anything this front office, led by Karnisovas and his GM Marc Eversley, has done well in terms of the actual results.

Why would team president Michael Reinsdorf entrust them to try again? If he does, its clear the Bulls best hope moving forward isnt Karnisovas plan.

Its just luck.

Anyone have a four-leaf clover or a rabbits foot? (Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.