Luol Deng Is Already Pushing A Karnisovas Replacement On The Bulls
Arturas Karnisovas is out as Chicago Bulls VP of Basketball Operations. Celebrations are happening in the streets for fans. They’ve been pushing for this for years, realizing some time ago that Karnisovas was ill-equipped for the job. Now with an abundance of cap space and maybe two 1st round picks, there is a golden opportunity for the Reinsdorfs to remake their franchise. All they have to do is hire the right person to lead the way. Former Bulls legend Luol Deng is already working hard to push one name to the front of that line.
Former Golden State president Bob Myers is the hottest name on the circuit this year. The architect of the Warriors dynasty seems like such an easy sell for the Bulls. However, Deng believes another name should be the priority. Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times had more.
If Donovan leaves and the front office has to be attended to first, a name to pay attention to is former Raptors executive Masai Ujiri. A source said that former Bulls forward Luol Deng has suggested Masai several times this season. Hiring Ujiri would mean Deng becoming general manager.
Ujiri was the architect of the 2019 Toronto Raptors NBA championship team. He and the franchise parted ways in June of last year, and the former exec has been busy helping establish the new Toronto Temp in the WNBA. He’s still only 55 years old and certain to get an opportunity soon. Deng believes it should be in Chicago.
Luol Deng isn’t wrong to push this idea.
After all, Ujiri built a champion where nobody thought it was possible, and he did it with a series of sharp scouting moves and two bold trades. He drafted four-time All-Star Pascal Siakam and defensive stalwart OG Anunoby while also landing All-Star Fred VanVleet as an undrafted free agent. Then came the big swing. He sent highly popular DeMar DeRozan to San Antonio for Spurs star Kawhi Leonard, despite knowing there was a probability he could leave for free agency after one season. The finishing touch came later that 2018-2019 season when Ujiri acquired center Marc Gasol from Memphis.
Every step of the process demonstrated a man who understood where and when to make moves while doing a good job of finding talent in the draft. This shouldn’t have been a surprise. After all, he’d already done it before in Denver before going to Toronto. He was the architect of the Carmelo Anthony trade to New York that netted Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, Raymond Felton, Timofey Mozgov, and a 1st round pick that became Jamal Murray. It’s crazy to think the foundation for that organization’s eventual championship in 2022-2023 was started by Ujiri.
The Bulls seem intent on casting a wide net.
Michael Reinsdorf said they will hire a search firm to assist with the search. This was something they didn’t do back in 2020, and it led to Karnisovas. It is highly possible that Ujiri will be one of the candidates they look at. What isn’t known is how much influence Luol Deng still has with the organization. The two-time All-Star was brilliant for several years in Chicago, earning strong admiration from ownership and the rest of the organization for his dedicated, relentless style of play. Even so, that admiration might not be enough to accept his input on such an important hire.
It’s obvious he has a personal stake in this since he and Ujiri share a close bond from their work in expanding basketball in Africa. This would be his ticket out of South Sudan and back to the NBA. It is worth noting that the Reinsdorfs have never put an African-American man in charge of all basketball operations in their entire history of owning the franchise. So Ujiri would be a significant departure. A justifiable one, of course, but something worth noting as the process unfolds.