CHICAGO (AP) — Arturas Karnisovas finally decided he'd seen enough.
The Chicago Bulls' top basketball executive took a wrecking ball to the roster leading up to Thursday's trade deadline, dealing Nikola Vucevic to Boston, Kevin Huerter to Detroit, Coby White to Charlotte and Chicago product Ayo Dosunmu to Minnesota in an effort to shake up a franchise mired in mediocrity.
He made it clear the Bulls plan to build with Matas Buzelis and Josh Giddey. And with cap room to make some big moves, they expect to be players this offseason.
“Being in the middle is what we don't want to do,” Karnisovas said Thursday. “I think we’ve seen that for the past four years and we want to change that.”
The Bulls have mostly been in the middle since they hired Karnisovas out of Denver's front office in April 2020, with just one playoff appearance. He said the team traded good players who were unable to break the cycle in Chicago. The Bulls are 11th in the Eastern Conference with a 24-28 record after a 123-107 loss at Toronto on Thursday night.
“Those guys were really good for us, but we just couldn’t get over the hump,” Karnisovas said. “And I think those decisions have to be made and the timing was good for us to make those moves. We’ll see how those work out because ... we just couldn’t get consistency — consistently good and consistently healthy.”
Karnisovas was reluctant in the past to launch a rebuild and give the Bulls a better shot at winning the lottery, stressing patience and not skipping steps while frustrated fans called for a do-over. But he was busy in the days leading up to the deadline, making seven trades.
Among the players the Bulls acquired were Jaden Ivey from Detroit, hoping the former No. 5 pick in the 2022 NBA draft can regain the form he showed before knee surgery, and Anfernee Simons from Boston. They loaded up on second-round draft picks, but didn't get any first-rounders in these deals.
“Second-round picks are currency in our industry and you cannot operate and acquire players and trade players,” Karnisovas said. “I think we addressed it during the trade deadline and hopefully they’re going to contribute to ... the draft, during free agency and trying to build this team.”
As for the timing of the rebuild, Karnisovas insisted he has no regrets. He dismissed the idea that he should have dismantled the roster a year ago, when Giddey was in his first season in Chicago and Buzelis was a rookie.
“I do not,” Karnisovas said. “I think we were at that stage as well (where) we continue evaluating our young guys and, you know, Josh, it was Matas’ first year. So I think right now it’s good timing and we addressed it.”
Karnisovas said chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and president Michael Reinsdorf were “supportive” and “involved” leading up to the trade deadline. He also said the front office is in “lockstep” with coach Billy Donovan.
The Bulls were quiet last offseason after getting knocked out of the play-in tournament by Miami for the third year in a row. Their most recent All-Star was DeMar DeRozan in 2023, and their lack of a franchise cornerstone player is glaring.
Karnisovas said the Bulls will stick with an up-tempo style. He also expressed concern about cohesion down the stretch with so many new players. But he also acknowledged it was time to make big changes.
“We just stayed in the middle,” Karnisovas said. “You know, we’d get to 500, then we'd get two or three games under. I mean, look at our standings. We’re going to be again in the ninth, 10th spot. It’s not good enough.”
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