Bulls executive VP of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas defended his team’s limited moves leading up to the trade deadline in an interview with K.C. Johnson of Chicago Sports Network (Twitter link).
In a three-team deal with San Antonio and Sacramento, the Bulls traded former two-time All-Star wing Zach LaVine to reacquire control of their own top-10 protected first-round 2025 pick, along with three fringe role players.
Headed nowhere fast with a 22-30 pre-deadline record, Karnisovas opted to otherwise stay quiet and not move on from former two-time All-Star center Nikola Vucevic, despite there being trade overtures for his services.
During his conversation with Johnson, Karnisovas cited system continuity as part of the reason he didn’t want to move more key rotation players from what’s looking to be barely a play-in team.
“I think I’m happy where we are,” Karnisovas told Johnson. “I remember [the] trade deadline four years ago, when we acquired Vuc and we had, like, [five new] players. And it was tough for the 30 games remaining in season… to keep the same group and learning how to play with each other and all that stuff.”
After trading for Vucevic at the 2020/21 season deadline, Chicago went 12-17 across its final 29 contests and finished as the No. 11 seed. In the intervening seasons, the team had made zero trade deadline moves until this year. Although they’ve qualified for the play-in tournament several times, the Bulls have only made the actual playoffs once since adding Vucevic, with or without in-season trades.
A more talented Philadelphia team is breathing down the Bulls’ necks, just one game behind 10th-seeded Chicago as of this writing. Karnisovas’ argument for system continuity to effectively preserve an underwhelming team performance rings hollow.
Jon Greenberg of The Athletic also calls out Karnisovas for not having or explaining a clear vision for Chicago after dealing LaVine, while his colleague Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic is similarly baffled.
There’s more out of Chicago:
- Karnisovas looked into flipping the three new Bulls — guards Tre Jones and Kevin Huerter and center Zach Collins — after trading for them on Tuesday, writes Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune. The players were with Chicago but sat out its game on Wednesday, while awaiting possible trades away from the team. “It was definitely crazy,” Collins said of the uncertainty. “You’re sitting there, you don’t know what’s going on, then you see a tweet or you see an Instagram post and you call your agent three times. You’re just like, ‘Somebody tell me something.’” Poe notes that Huerter and Collins are both under team control through the 2025/26 season, while Jones reaches free agency this year.
- Jones, Huerter and Collins since made their debuts for the Bulls in a 132-111 blowout defeat to Golden State on Friday, writes Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. The players may all have tenuous long-term futures with Chicago, however, with Jones on an expiring deal and Huerter and Collins potential offseason trade candidates. Head coach Billy Donovan acknowledged that the new Bulls are essentially auditioning to stick around beyond this season. “These guys fitting in stylistically on how we want to play, you want to give them a chance and see how they can help our group more or less,” Donovan said. “For those guys, and we had discussed this, and it’s this way around the league, there are always these pins and needles, ‘Am I going to be here? I just got here. Am I going somewhere else?’”
- That Warriors loss marked an uncomfortable moment for Bulls fans. The return of Jimmy Butler — playing his first game ever for Golden State — to the United Center served as a reminder to fans that not much has changed for the team since its last half-hearted rebuild, opines Paul Sullivan of The Chicago Tribune. The last time the Bulls traded away a multi-time All-Star was in 2017 when it was Butler who was sent to Minnesota for LaVine and others.
Rumors are GSW offered GP2, Looney and 2 2nd round picks for Vu and he said no. Lmao I can’t even.
With looney they could have flipped him for a 2nd rounder to a team needing a back up Center. From what i have seen of Vu he is not even worth that much. Post is a better 3 pt shooter and Vu defense is just a big body.
That would have been the logical thing to do yes, but my front office doesnt think logical. Even simple addition is an issue with this team. Lmao
The Bulls better not sign Giddey to a long term deal. Let him become a free agent and see what other teams are willing to pay before matching it. White is by far their best player on the floor.
100%, but unf don’t have faith that they’ll do that given what they did w Pat
They’re going to let the market dictate him and if it goes above $20M AAV, they’ll let him walk.
raz427,
1) As a Warriors fan, watching Vuch get outplayed by Post for the 2nd time in 2 weeks, I’m relieved the trade didn’t happen. $20M/yr for Vuch is way too much.
2) As any out-of-town sports fan, I have to ask “does the Bulls’ owner care about the tens of millions of $ that AK is burning?!” What owner lets their GM repeatedly and publicly waste money like this?
Jerry doesnt care, they’re making play in and will get that playoff sharted revenue. lol
Garbage organization, every executive is inept, roster is pathetic, every move is a fleecing, may this team fail perpetually
AK has Reinsdorf Delusional Disorder. Even any concept of a plan does not exist. Seems happy that trading Lavine let him keep his own draft pick that he could have had for free just by losing a little more. That is the one thing his teams are pretty great at.
For the record, I agree that they’re directionless rn and should’ve gotten more for Lavine , but ppl are underrating getting that pick back.
They likely would’ve kept it this year, but if so it would’ve deferred as top-8 protected for 2 more szns. Likely would’ve lost it one of those 2 years.
At this point Flagg is the only thing that can save them. Buzelis is looking nice tho I am
Happy abt that
Could the plan be to keep costs down and keep cashin dem media rights checks?
After last night, I’m fully on board with those posters who said “Jimmy only plays bad when there’s a contract issue, once he is locked in on a contract, he becomes Playoffs Jimmy” – sure looked like that last night!
“I think I’m happy where we are” really says it all. Delusional and asinine.
The fact the Bulls feel the NEED to keep defending their pitiful lack of understanding of Basketball is freakin hilarious. By the way as a footnote, Was I the only person who noticed that the ONLY player they got in that deal that might be of help didn’t even get into the game or even make the stat sheet as a reserve? Zach Collins. He’s the only guy who could even be better than anything they have now. Actually he can’t be any worse than what they have now because they don’t have any PF on the team. Just curious.
how did we go from garpax to this
Is “system continuity” for the Bulls really a good thing, when the system absolutely sucks?
Looks like the Bulls are going to be bad for a long time, because the Front Office is content with being poor.
Agreed. ‘system continuity’?
Now the Bulls have 15 role players on their roster. White Dosumnu Giddey Ball Huerter Jones Carter THT Terry Williams Phillips Buzelis Vucebic Smith and Collins. White and Vucevic are only slightly better than average. So of course the Bulls are a below average team.
“The return of Jimmy Butler — playing his first game ever for Golden State — to the United Center served as a reminder to fans that not much has changed for the team since its last half-hearted rebuild, opines Paul Sullivan of The Chicago Tribune. The last time the Bulls traded away a multi-time All-Star was in 2017 when it was Butler who was sent to Minnesota for LaVine and others.“
You know whats changed. You coach and FO. Still useless
Jerry is the problem here…
Ownership want the mediocre cheap team to promote and use as a cash cow…
Winning aint as important as making profits…
You can blame Reinsdorf for a lot but you can’t blame him when the team is Capped out and still can’t make the play in game. Sorry, But you just can’t do that. It’s hideously wrong.
Who signs those checks again?