About time Arturas Karnisovas operates Bulls like exec not a 'meškėnas'
TORONTO – Acknowledgement of failure would have been a good starting point.
Then again, Arturas Karnisovas doesn’t do the responsibility game very well.
He’ll dance around it like he did on Thursday, dip his toe in it, but never fully commit.
“It’s my responsibility to make this better and move this organization into something sustainable at the highest level,” Karnisovas said in his post-trade deadline presser.
Well Arturas, it’s been your responsibility for six-plus seasons now, and all the organization has to show for it is one playoff win. Not a series win, just one playoff game won.
That’s malpractice for most NBA franchises, punishable by termination. No questions asked.
And his blind spot in all of this has been a complete lack of understanding on how to try and land an elite player.
It’s not through free agency. Those days are over, and before they ended, Chicago was never a destination place for elite free agents in the first place.
It’s definitely not rifling through other team’s trash, hoping to turn their disappointment into your prize. Oklahoma City landing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander from the Clippers back in 2019 is the exception, not the rule. And while Josh Giddey has been freed of the underwhelming player he was with the Thunder, he is a very good piece on the chessboard, not the king.
Yet, this has been the process that Karnisovas has been stuck on, playing the role of a raccoon.
The last week was the latest evidence of that. Karnisovas was back to the formula of taking off the lid and flipping through other rosters, hoping to stumble on his Shai. Rob Dillingham, former No. 8 overall pick in 2024. Jaden Ivey, former No. 5 overall pick in 2022.
Both once shiny nickels that had lost a bit of their luster. Both rolling by the raccoon and capturing his attention.
Not a bad swing to take, but not every time at the plate.
Living in the land of “if,” however, is wasted energy. Karnisovas has the backing of ownership for now. Maybe not as strong as he once did but take his immediate departure out of the equation.
The other “if” to move beyond is the idea that Karnisovas is finally understanding it’s time to tank. A top priority for a middle-tier team is to understand the currency of a draft class. The 2025 class and this upcoming class are full of seismic organizational game-changers. If only he understood that better.
Karnisovas has shown an inability to draft, so why not give him as many lottery balls as possible to make the process easier?
Pivoting to chasing lottery luck at this point in the season after already putting up 24 wins and still having at least nine teams tanking harder than the Bulls? Bad business.
His immediate game plan, however, should be to hope for some lottery luck and bully cash-strapped franchises with the muscle of financial flexibility. There will only be 8-10 teams that will have the cash to bid on restricted free agents this summer, so Karnisovas can target the likes of Jalen Duren, Walker Kessler or Tari Eason.
The ideal way the next five months play out is Karnisovas lands in the top seven of the draft and lands a key restricted free agent. If not, fasten the garbage lids tightly.
Interestingly, raccoon in Karnisovas’ Lithuanian language is meškėnas.
It translates to "kind-of-a-bear-but-not-really.”
Fitting, since to this point Karnisovas has been kind of an executive but not really.