Chicago Bulls

[reignman]

[mixalisgate7]

Δυο άρθρα του The Athletic για την ανικανότητα του AK.

Four days after trading the team’s best player, Chicago Bulls chief basketball executive Artūras Karnišovas still couldn’t offer a clear vision for the direction of the franchise.

“We might get a high draft pick, or we might be in the Play-in (Tournament),” Karnišovas said following Thursday’s NBA trade deadline. “We might be in the playoffs.”

A team rarely has such a range of possibilities — and even more rarely doesn’t know the direction it’s going with 30 games remaining.

Karnišovas was asked if a third consecutive Play-In appearance was worth not securing a higher selection in this year’s draft.

“That’s worth it for me,” Karnišovas said.

On a day he could have re-energized his frustrated fan base with a strong show of leadership, Karnišovas essentially ceded control with one big, “We’ll see what happens.”

The Bulls did nothing on the trade front to follow through on their blockbuster, three-team deal that sent Zach LaVine to the Sacramento Kings. Instead, they signed Lonzo Ball to a two-year, $20 million extension with a team option for the second season. Ball’s feel-good comeback story will continue in Chicago, but his deal adds more complexity, if not confusion, to the Bulls’ building plans.

“Changes needed to be made,” Karnišovas said, “and we are taking the opportunity to learn, pivot and take necessary steps to reshape our team. I know fans want specific plans, and we’re charting that path now. We are not done yet. We’re in a transitional phase, and there’s more to come.”

If Thursday’s deadline was any indication, the Bulls are in for a slow, uninspiring rebuild.

“That’s where the plan stands,” Karnišovas said. “We are committing to building a sustainable, competitive team. We’re not OK with being in the middle. It can be a long process, and sometimes it requires taking a step back before moving forward. Our commitment to the (championship) goal has not changed.

“This will take some time to fully unfold, but we’ve already made a significant shift.”

Given the state of the Bulls, a franchise with just one playoff victory in the past seven seasons, it’s natural for observers to wonder if they could have achieved more.

Starting center Nikola Vučević, 34, is playing some of the best basketball of his career and has only one year remaining on his contract. The Bulls no longer need him — particularly after acquiring Zach Collins as part of the LaVine deal — and could have moved him to the highest bidder. Coby White also will be in the final year of his contract next season, and the Bulls must decide whether he’s worthy of a hefty raise. Ball and Ayo Dosunmu had trade value, as well.

“We obviously value draft compensation and young players and then flexibility, I think, in that order,” Karnišovas said. “But we have nine players who are between 20 and 25 (years old). I think you have to have a right mix of players in order to grow. You can’t just roll out young players and think they’re going to develop on their own. You need the right vets and experienced guys to be around, and I see in that Vooch and keeping Zo in that kind of role.”

Rather than fielding a team with multiple stars, Karnišovas said the Bulls now will be built to be a deep roster with nearly a dozen talented players who can contribute.

“More and more teams are doing that,” he said. “Three and a half years ago, we tried to put that team together that came out pretty well, but we skipped steps and tried to accelerate the process. I think right now, we have an opportunity here to play it slower and evaluate our young guys.”

Two days after Bulls coach Billy Donovan said he is open to coaching a rebuild, Karnišovas praised Donovan for what he’s done this season.

“I thought Billy did a great job this year of getting buy-in from our vets and our young guys for how we want to play,” Karnišovas said. “We were pretty consistent with pace, running the floor and shooting 3s. We made big adjustments to our style of play this year, and we will continue to adjust as necessary.

“Billy is a great coach to work with and is always receptive to feedback and conversation. Billy and I are constantly discussing things we need to improve, like turnovers, reducing second-chance points. Billy, like all coaches, is driven to win and recognizes the importance of developing our young players. He does a great job trying to balance that.”

Karnišovas also addressed long-suffering Bulls fans directly, as if he’s well aware of the arrows that are being directed at him.

“To our fans, I’m working tirelessly to put this team in position for long-term success,” he said. “I’m constantly evaluating opportunities, making tough decisions and staying proactive in shaping the roster. Every move is carefully considered with a goal of building a competitive and sustainable future.

“While the process takes time, and I know it’s frustrating to me at times, as well, my dedication to improving the team is of utmost importance. I know where responsibility lands, and I’m committed to making the right decisions to elevate this team.”

The Chicago Bulls of recent vintage are best explained as a team where the parts are greater than the sum.

They’ve employed a potential Hall of Fame-bound coach in Billy Donovan, All-Stars, past and present, like Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vučević, in-demand role players like Alex Caruso and even a sprinkling of young talent like Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu, Josh Giddey and rookie Matas Buzelis.

There’s also Patrick Williams, a young big man who hasn’t developed as much as he’s gotten paid, and Lonzo Ball, whose knee injury three years started a slow-moving domino effect that led us to where we are today.

And despite that collection of talent — not enough to compete for championships, sure — we know they’ve achieved essentially nothing: just one playoff appearance built on success early in a season before Ball’s knee gave out.

Calling the Bulls mediocre, which I’ve done, is an insult to mediocrity. The Bulls are less than that.

Everyone knows the Bulls have played in the last two Play-In Tournaments and are in position to beg Pat Riley for the rights to use “three-peat” if they stay in the 10th spot in the East. But if they weren’t in the Eastern Conference, they wouldn’t even be a Play-In dynasty. They’d just be another losing team on the outside looking in.

You might have read the Bulls won just 42 percent of their games with (and without) LaVine, who was just traded to Sacramento, but there’s a lot more to unpack.

For instance, did you know the Bulls’ record has only been at or above .500 13 times over the last three seasons (including this one)? And the latest date the Bulls have been at .500 in that span was Nov. 7, 2022, when they beat the Raptors to improve to 6-6.
It’s true. They never sniffed .500 in the 2023-24 season and this year, they were last at the break-even mark on Nov. 1, when they lost to the Brooklyn Nets to fall to 3-3. Given that they’re 22-30 right now, I’m guessing you’ll have to wait for next fall for it to happen again.

Did you also know the most games the Bulls have been over .500 in that span is one, which they’ve done four times, including once this season when they were 3-2?

And I’m sure you’re not aware the Bulls have had just 11 winning streaks (defined by at least three wins in a row) in the three seasons and only one was longer than three games. That was last season when they won four straight from Nov. 30-Dec. 8.
If you’re reading this, what you do know is that everything is about to change.

Bulls executive vice-president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas spoke to the media Thursday after the trade deadline passed. His only deadline move was the LaVine trade, which also landed the Bulls three new players to match his salary, and more importantly, allowed them to have full control of their first-round draft pick this year. (San Antonio could’ve acquired the pick if it fell out of the top 10 this year or the top eight in the next two years.) This was Karnišovas’ first deadline trade since his first season on the job, back in 2021.

The LaVine deal cemented the breakup of the team’s previous attempt at respectability, which fell woefully short. Karnišovas needed to do more to hasten this rebuild, but as usual, he didn’t. (Instead of being traded, Ball was signed to a team-friendly extension, though I actually think that was fairly smart.)

Karnišovas’ summer trade of Alex Caruso netted only Giddey, and DeRozan, who was a free agent, got the Bulls a second-rounder in a sign-and-trade. So three good players gone and all the Bulls got back is the draft pick they offered up to sign DeRozan back in 2021.

I’m starting to think Karnišovas is just not very good at his job.
Not surprisingly, Karnišovas, like all sports executives would do in his position, preached patience as he prepares to lead the Bulls into another uncertain rebuild.

“I know fans want a specific plan and we’re charting that path now,” he said. “We’re not done yet. We’re in a transitional phase and there’s more to come.”

Here’s how it works in the NBA: A team bottoms out, loses a bunch of games, tries to get high draft picks and hopes to get lucky with one or two while acquiring enough assets to make a big trade. That’s the plan. Unless you’re located in a warm-weather city, trades and the draft are generally how you get your stars, which is how you win in the NBA. Karnišovas’ trade history doesn’t bode well for the Bulls and he can’t just say he’s hoping for draft luck (via the lottery or landing Nikola Jokić in the second round like the Nuggets did when he was there), but he did let us in on the general direction of the path he’s charting.

“In terms of moving forward, I think there’s different structures that you can try to get to your championship,” he said. “There’s (having) two, three star players and a lot of role players or you can build a (team) of 9 or 10 very good players. I think now we’re leaning towards having a lot of solid good players, 9 or 10, that can last through the season because there’s going to be injuries. I think more and more teams are doing that.”

So, in summation, he wants to build a team of good players. When do season tickets go on sale?
With his flat, accented delivery, Karnišovas, a native of Lithuania, sounds disinterested or unemotional when he deigns to speak to the public through the media. I don’t think that’s the case. There’s no need for insults or ad hominem attacks; he seems like a nice guy with a dry sense of humor.

If you’re going to be mad at Karnišovas — who is now making fans pine for the days of John Paxson and Gar Forman — it should just be because he’s just not very good at his job. Three years ago, he had a nice summer of free agency and since then, he’s accomplished very little to make the Bulls better.

Of course, that will all change now. It’s just going to take some more time. He’s earned it, right?
“I would like to kind of say that 3 1/2 years ago when we put that team together, it came out pretty well,” he said. “But we skipped steps and tried to accelerate the process. I think right now we have an opportunity here to (go) slower and evaluate our young guys.”

What happened was he loaded up on in-demand free agents (a relative first for the Bulls) and he wasn’t able to pivot when Ball got hurt, failing to acquire a veteran point guard to run the team and optimize the time he had with LaVine, DeRozan and Vučević. The Bulls went from first to sixth in the East after Ball’s injury and were bounced quickly in the playoffs. They haven’t returned to the real postseason since.

I think the reason why is because Karnišovas is not very good at his job. It’s not that complicated.

He also somehow has the rep of both driving a hard bargain in trades while also getting fleeced in the ones he actually makes. So he’s tough to deal with and also bad at dealing. Not the combination you want if you’re the Bulls.

When asked by a dogged reporter if he got any offers for LaVine that included someone else’s first-round pick, Karnišovas said, “I’m not going to talk about hypotheticals, sir.”

I don’t think that’s a hypothetical, but whatever. When it comes to the facts, I can’t really come up with anything this front office, led by Karnišovas and his GM Marc Eversley, has done well in terms of the actual results. Why would team president Michael Reinsdorf entrust them to try again?

If he does, it’s clear the Bulls’ best hope moving forward isn’t Karnišovas’ plan. It’s just luck.
Anyone have a four-leaf clover or a rabbit’s foot?

[ggr]

Τραγική η εικόνα των Bulls στο ματς με το Ντιτρόιτ. Υγιεινό περίπατο έκαναν οι Pistons.

[mixalisgate7]

Τραγική η εικόνα των Bulls στο ματς με το Ντιτρόιτ. Υγιεινό περίπατο έκαναν οι Pistons.

Δεν έχω δει το ματς αλλά όταν ανοίγεις το box score και βλέπεις πως έχανες 29-71 στο ημίχρονο, προπονητής και FO έπρεπε να είχαν ήδη πάρει πόδι. Αλλά σιγά που θα βάλει το χέρι στην τσέπη ο Κύριος Καβούρης του NBA aka Jerry Reinsdorf.

[ggr]

Τραγική η εικόνα των Bulls στο ματς με το Ντιτρόιτ. Υγιεινό περίπατο έκαναν οι Pistons.

Δεν έχω δει το ματς αλλά όταν ανοίγεις το box score και βλέπεις πως έχανες 29-71 στο ημίχρονο, προπονητής και FO έπρεπε να είχαν ήδη πάρει πόδι. Αλλά σιγά που θα βάλει το χέρι στην τσέπη ο Κύριος Καβούρης του NBA aka Jerry Reinsdorf.

Κι εγώ το recap είδα το πρωί και νόμιζα στο 71-29 ότι δεν είχα ξυπνήσει καλά...
Όχι τίποτα άλλο αλλά πέρσι μου έκανε δώρο η γυναίκα μου ένα φουσκωτό μπουφάν Jordan και ανάμεσα στις δύο ομάδες που το έβγαζε (Lakers, Bulls), επέλεξα το Σικάγο.

[nikolas_asteri]

Δεν έχω δει το ματς αλλά όταν ανοίγεις το box score και βλέπεις πως έχανες 29-71 στο ημίχρονο, προπονητής και FO έπρεπε να είχαν ήδη πάρει πόδι. Αλλά σιγά που θα βάλει το χέρι στην τσέπη ο Κύριος Καβούρης του NBA aka Jerry Reinsdorf.

Κι εγώ το recap είδα το πρωί και νόμιζα στο 71-29 ότι δεν είχα ξυπνήσει καλά...
Όχι τίποτα άλλο αλλά πέρσι μου έκανε δώρο η γυναίκα μου ένα φουσκωτό μπουφάν Jordan και ανάμεσα στις δύο ομάδες που το έβγαζε (Lakers, Bulls), επέλεξα το Σικάγο.

Ρώτα αν μπορείς να το αλλάξεις. Μπορεί να καταλάβουν

[ggr]

Κι εγώ το recap είδα το πρωί και νόμιζα στο 71-29 ότι δεν είχα ξυπνήσει καλά...
Όχι τίποτα άλλο αλλά πέρσι μου έκανε δώρο η γυναίκα μου ένα φουσκωτό μπουφάν Jordan και ανάμεσα στις δύο ομάδες που το έβγαζε (Lakers, Bulls), επέλεξα το Σικάγο.

Ρώτα αν μπορείς να το αλλάξεις. Μπορεί να καταλάβουν

Μετά από έναν χρόνο δύσκολα. Εκτός αν με λυπηθούν

[mixalisgate7]

Είδα το ματς με τους Σανς, ευχάριστη έκπληξη που παίξαμε καλά για 1.5 περίοδο. Τραγική η διαχείριση του Donovan που έβαλε μόνο για 23 λεπτά τον Buzelis, ο οποίος ειδικά στο πρώτο ημίχρονο ήταν καλός. Στο δεύτερο πήρε μόλις τρία σουτ και το ένα ήταν προς το τέλος του αγώνα. Αν δεν έχει κάποιο τραυματισμό ή πρόβλημα με τα φάουλ βρέξει-χιονίσει ο χρόνος συμμετοχής του μίνιμουμ πρέπει να είναι 30 λεπτά. Όσο περισσότερο παίζει τόσο θα βελτιώνεται.

[reignman]

Είδα το ματς με τους Σανς, ευχάριστη έκπληξη που παίξαμε καλά για 1.5 περίοδο. Τραγική η διαχείριση του Donovan που έβαλε μόνο για 23 λεπτά τον Buzelis, ο οποίος ειδικά στο πρώτο ημίχρονο ήταν καλός. Στο δεύτερο πήρε μόλις τρία σουτ και το ένα ήταν προς το τέλος του αγώνα. Αν δεν έχει κάποιο τραυματισμό ή πρόβλημα με τα φάουλ βρέξει-χιονίσει ο χρόνος συμμετοχής του μίνιμουμ πρέπει να είναι 30 λεπτά. Όσο περισσότερο παίζει τόσο θα βελτιώνεται.

δεν πειραζει, δινει 30λεπτα στον αμπαλοhuerter.

[SteveNashidis]

Είδα το ματς με τους Σανς, ευχάριστη έκπληξη που παίξαμε καλά για 1.5 περίοδο. Τραγική η διαχείριση του Donovan που έβαλε μόνο για 23 λεπτά τον Buzelis, ο οποίος ειδικά στο πρώτο ημίχρονο ήταν καλός. Στο δεύτερο πήρε μόλις τρία σουτ και το ένα ήταν προς το τέλος του αγώνα. Αν δεν έχει κάποιο τραυματισμό ή πρόβλημα με τα φάουλ βρέξει-χιονίσει ο χρόνος συμμετοχής του μίνιμουμ πρέπει να είναι 30 λεπτά. Όσο περισσότερο παίζει τόσο θα βελτιώνεται.

Mας αναστήσατε γιατί μια ήττα θα ήταν καταδικαστική.

[mixalisgate7]

Ο Ayo Dosunmu θα χάσει το υπόλοιπο της σεζόν καθώς θα κάνει εγχείρηση στον αριστερό ώμο.

[Andre_Miller]

Δεν είναι κακός, το Σικάγο καλά έκανε και τον αντάλλαξε με τον Καρούζο.

[nikolas_asteri]

Δεν είναι κακός, το Σικάγο καλά έκανε και τον αντάλλαξε με τον Καρούζο.

ωχ ωχ, έκανες summon τον reignman τώρα

[Andre_Miller]

Δεν είναι κακός, το Σικάγο καλά έκανε και τον αντάλλαξε με τον Καρούζο.

ωχ ωχ, έκανες summon τον reignman τώρα

Ο Αυστραλός έχει potential, αρκεί να μην αποδειχτεί νέος Σίμμονς. Και οι δύο ομάδες ωφελήθηκαν από το trade, ο Γκίντει δεν μπορεί να παίξει off ball, οπότε δεν κόλλαγε στο Okc. Ο Καρούσο θα πήγαινε χαράμι σε ομάδα που κάνει rebuild, είναι ρολίστας κορυφής.

[reignman]