Don't call it a 'rebuild,' as Bulls' Arturas Karnisovas changes roster
TORONTO — Arturas Karnisovas has a history of rarely winning the news conference, so why start now?
But there the Bulls’ executive vice president of basketball operations was on Thursday, hours after the trade deadline came and went, trying to justify a rebuild that he won’t call a rebuild — it’s a “stage” in Karnisovas talk — and doing so a year later than it should have happened.
A “B” for effort in the presser, and an “F” for execution.
“The play-in is not our goal. A championship is,” Karnisovas said. “We know where we are in the standings and we are not satisfied with being in the middle as an organization or for our fans. At the same time, we are committed to building the right way without skipping steps. This process takes time, but we already made a meaningful shift in how we approach roster building and development.
“It’s my responsibility to make this better and move this organization into something sustainable at the highest level.”
That may be the most truthful thing Karnisovas said, because it has been his responsibility for six-plus seasons and he has failed miserably. Now he wants more time and patience for a teardown that should have started taking place last year at this time with a loaded 2025 draft class.
That’s why he was asked if he regretted not jump-starting it last February.
“I do not,” he replied. “We were at that stage as well. We continued evaluating our young guys, Josh [Giddey], it was Matas [Buzelis’] first year, so right now is good timing and we addressed it.”
They addressed something, that was for sure.
After moving mainstays Kevin Huerter, Nikola Vucevic and Coby White in the 24 hours leading into the deadline, the demolition continued as hometown kid Ayo Dosunmu was sent to Minnesota with Julian Phillips a few hours after Dalen Terry was on the move to New York and then New Orleans for forward Guerschon Yabusele.
More of a bookkeeping move with Terry? Absolutely, considering he was a free agent this summer and the Bulls had no interest in re-signing him, and Yabusele agreed to lose his player option for next season. But it was also a reminder of the failures of the front office, considering Terry was a former first-round pick (18th overall in the 2022 draft) that never turned into what they wanted from the 6-6 guard. Center Walker Kessler was picked after Terry at No. 22 and could be a target for the Bulls this summer as a restricted free agent.
As for Dosunmu, he had turned into a really solid two-way player since being selected in the second round out of Illinois but was also an expiring contract. In return for Dosunmu and Phillips, the Bulls landed former No. 8 overall pick Rob Dillingham, along with forward Leonard Miller and four second-round picks. That was the other head-scratcher, considering just last week Karnisovas reiterated his disdain for second-round picks through the years.
When reminded of that he said, “Second round-picks are now currency in our industry and you cannot operate and acquire players, trade players, and we addressed it during the trade deadline. Hopefully they are going to contribute during the draft, during free agency and trying to build this team.”
It won’t be for the lack of adding second-round draft capital as he acquired nine picks in the last week and has 14 total.
So what was left after the carnage?
Patrick Williams is the longest-tenured Bull, Dillingham, Jaden Ivey, Anfernee Simons and Yabusele are on tryouts for the remainder of the season, the Reinsdorfs back the play, according to Karnisovas, and Bulls fans are left being asked to remain patient.
“Being in the middle is what we don’t want to do,” Karnisovas said. “We’ve seen that the last four years and we want to change that.”