Chicago Bulls: Karnisovas ‘values’ relationship with John Paxson

The radical re-shifting of the Chicago Bulls front office and coaching staff should lead to fruitful results for the rebuild in its fourth year.

The 2020 offseason is a time of change for the Chicago Bulls from the top-down. At the outset of the Bulls offseason, ownership made significant changes to both the front office and then the coaching staff. It feels like the actual roster construction is soon to follow in this change of events within the organization.

The changes all started with the demotion of former vice president of basketball operations John Paxson to a senior advisor role. Paxson was the lead voice in the front office through the end of the 2019-20 season. Former Denver Nuggets general manager Arturas Karnisovas will take over in Paxson’s previous role.

And then, Karnisovas hired away former Philadelphia 76ers senior VP of player personnel Marc Eversley to replace Gar Forman as the Bulls next general manager. Karnisovas and Eversley also made the move back on Aug. 14 to part ways with now former head coach Jim Boylen after two seasons at the helm.

Although Karnisovas and Eversley are the future of this Bulls front office, and the leads on figuring out what the best direction for the rebuild will be heading into its fourth year, they aren’t apparently burning all bridges with the previous regime. According to a report from K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago on Aug. 31, Karnisovas still “values the relationship” with Paxson even though he was put into a senior advisor role this offseason.

Here’s more on what that piece from Johnson had to say on the matter.

"I’ve heard Karnišovas has valued his relationship with senior adviser John Paxson, who ceded complete autonomy but is willing to assist the new regime whenever they ask him for any input."

A lot of the pertinence of that mailbag from Johnson in regards to the Karnisovas-Paxson relationship was how they are planning on strategizing for the upcoming 2020 NBA Draft. The Bulls landed the fourth overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft Lottery, jumping up three spots from the order from the standings.

Paxson had a hand in the selection of each of the last three seventh overall picks for the Bulls in the draft. Those last three seventh overall picks were power forward Lauri Markkanen, center Wendell Carter Jr., and point guard Coby White. All of those fit into the same bucket as potential quality starters, but definitely not defined hits or misses yet.

The Bulls finished up the 2019-20 season with a record of 22-43. They have a lot on their plate heading into the thick of the 2020 offseason, and Karnisovas and Eversley are likely now to be focused on building for the NBA Draft and this coming cycle of free agency, along with the coaching search.