Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas has stayed the course with this core the last few seasons, and if the year ends like he hopes there’s a good chance he will bring it back yet again.
Charles Rex Arbogast/AP
Arturas Karnisovas has attempted to sell worse than this.
Just smash the rewind button to last April when the Bulls’ executive vice president of basketball operations was meeting with the media to put a bow on the 2022-23 campaign, and proudly threw around the 14-9 record to close out the regular season and the fact that they had eventual Eastern Conference Champion Miami down with just under three minutes to go in the final play-in game.
That in itself was enough for Karnisovas to bring the band back together again and sprinkle in a Javon Carter and Torrey Craig in free agency.
Imagine what he’ll push in late April if this current Bulls team can overcome a 5-14 start, numerous key injuries, and finish .500?
That’s why these final three-plus weeks are huge for Karnisovas, starting Thursday in Houston.
The current model that kept this Bulls front office idle at the February trade deadline was “competitiveness.” There’s no arguing that this team is definitely that evident by the 38 clutch games played so far this season and league-leading 24 wins (tied with Denver) in those games.
Sure, he’ll leave out the fact that the Bulls make every game hard and are still an ugly 14-29 against teams .500 or better, but why get too caught up in the details?
That’s why this Rockets game is significant.
A win and it will be the first time since Oct. 30 that the Bulls were a .500 team this season.
“It is frustrating whenever you get close,” center Nikola Vucevic said last week when discussing .500 eluding this team. “We’ve never been able to win that one game to get there, but at the same time we’re not going to stop fighting to get there.”
Especially with some easy fights lined up.
Of the 13 remaining games, at least seven are very winnable. If the Bulls can finish 41-41 – one game better than last season – and did so with Zach LaVine and Patrick Williams in walking boots after both had season-ending foot surgeries, that’s all Karnisovas would need.
The rub, however, is Karnisovas has no choice but to push the current product because he also knows it will be almost impossible to get off of it this summer.
The Sun-Times, as well as other media publications, have reported that the Bulls have been trying to trade the LaVine max contract going back to the 2023 trade deadline. That won’t ease up in the offseason, but the Bulls are also operating from a position of weakness now.
Not only because LaVine last played a game on Jan. 18 and wasn’t very good this season before he went down, but is still owed $138 million through the 2026-27 season. They would give LaVine away for nothing at this point, but even that will be difficult.
As bad as the LaVine injury was for the franchise, they may get very lucky with Williams, who was set for the restricted free agency market in July.
Williams showed flashes again this year, playing in just 43 games. The Bulls can let the market set a price on him that they may match, but what if there are no bids on the power forward? Then the Bulls can set the market and keep Williams in the fold, hoping he has a fifth-year breakout like Coby White has done.
Getting Williams on the cheap will also allow them to make a serious pitch to extend DeMar DeRozan. Keeping both Williams and DeRozan seemed like a fairytale at the start of the season, but the price tags have changed.
And the dark horse in all of this? What becomes of injured point guard Lonzo Ball? Could he be ready for the start of next year?
Karnisovas will try to sell it either way.
He always does.
NOTE: White (right hip) practiced in full on Wednesday and was expected to return to the lineup against the Rockets after missing three games.