Chicago Bulls: Is it Championship or bust for Arturas Karnisovas?

Expectations need to be in the right place for new lead Chicago Bulls executive Arturas Karnisovas as he takes the lead this year.

The standard for success for the Chicago Bulls used to be of the highest level in the NBA, but that was a while ago when they were regularly contending for titles from the late 1980’s all the way through the early 2010’s. There were patchy runs in the late 1980’s and the 2000’s, but the likes of shooting guard Michael Jordan, forward Scottie Pippen, and point guard Derrick Rose inspired a lot of hope over the years in the Windy City.

A regime up in the Bulls front office led by vice president of basketball operations John Paxson and general manager Gar Forman helped to diminish a lot of that hope in recent years. GarPax got the Bulls down a road to nowhere in the third year of the rebuild. The Bulls entered the novel coronavirus pandemic-induced NBA season hiatus with a record of 22-43, which was not where the expectation sat at the outset of the regular season.

The Bulls have yet to make a playoff run since the 2016-17 season. While the bar drops a bit when a franchise’s front office announces that it will be undertaking a full rebuild, the standard was not low enough for the results GarPax produced in the last three years to met any sort of tangible goal.

As a result, the Bulls made the move from the top last week to bring aboard former Denver Nuggets general manager Arturas Karnisovas to replace Paxson in the lead executive role. The title that Karnisovas will get in particular is the executive vice president of basketball operations. And while Paxson looks to be sticking around within the organization, he won’t hold as significant of a role anymore.

On April 13, Karnisovas penned an open letter to Bulls fans and the NBA in general. He outlined his goals for the organization under his watch and where expectations should lie over the long haul. There were two important paragraphs that Karnisovas detailed in this open letter.

"I will look to get to know our roster, have constant communication with players and staff, create roster balance and stay creative when making deals. I will lead by example by giving my best, each and every day, in everything I do. I will work persistently to build a foundation worthy of the Chicago Bulls and Bulls fans around the world."

The first part there tends to outline the plan for how Karnisovas will get up and running in the Windy City. The next is what he more or less expects for the franchise over the long haul.

"Let’s be clear: our ultimate goal is to bring an NBA championship to the city of Chicago. This is what every team in the NBA strives for, day in and day out. In the end, only one team wins each season, and there are countless factors out of one’s control that allow for this goal to be realized. What IS in our control, is our approach and processes behind each decision we make. We will adopt a habit of excellence and as a team, we will expect and demand a lot from each other, in order to rise to the expectations of our fans."

This part is the most significant take of the letter since he addresses the ultimate long-term goal, winning a title. He starts off that part with “let’s be clear: our ultimate goal is to bring an NBA championship to the city of Chicago”.

That is a bold statement, but one that needs to be heard by this fan base. Bulls fans have watched a lot of bad basketball in the last two or three years. If Karnisovas can at least construct a playoff contender out of the Bulls in the near future, that would be great.

Seeing the Bulls get back into the playoff picture with room left to grow is what the fans should expect out of the Karnisovas regime first and foremost. Once he’s able to reach that point, then maybe the NBA Championship expectations can start to come around.

Anticipating a roster that is currently starring shooting guard Zach LaVine, point guard Coby White, and power forward Lauri Markkanen, is not going to win a title anytime soon. But there are solid pieces in place to construct a slightly different picture for the direction of the rebuild.

LaVine and White showed a lot this season that they should be cornerstones of this rebuild. Markkanen still has a long way to go, but centers like rookie Daniel Gafford and Wendell Carter Jr. also offer a lot of value.

Moreover, there are no immediate game-changers it seems that the Bulls could land by way of the 2020 NBA Draft or this free agent cycle. Unless they could somehow pull off a miracle and convince Los Angeles Lakers superstar big man Anthony Davis to come to his hometown in free agency this coming offseason, then fixing the roster immediately in free agency just won’t happen.

A more realistic expectation of Karnisovas is to pull of something similar to what he was building with the Nuggets. He formed a solid young core around star center Nikola Jokic and combo guard Jamal Murray in the Mile High City. Denver was one of the three best teams in the Western Conference over the course of the last two years. And a lot of people skimmed over that fact.

Other solid pieces that Karnisovas put around Jokic and Murray included Will Barton, Gary Harris, Jerami Grant, Paul Millsap, and Monte Morris. The Nuggets are one of the deepest teams in the West too.

One of the characteristics that the Bulls are not known for of late is having a deep bench. The Bulls aren’t the thinnest team in the NBA on the bench, but they need help piecing together more depth throughout the entire 15-man roster.

Start getting the pieces in place to move this rebuild in the right direction finally, and Karnisovas could get the Bulls to where they need to go. But the “championship or bust” mentality right out of the gates is not the right one for Bulls fans as AK makes his way to the Windy City.