You'd be forgiven if a quick image of Scooby Doo floated to the front of your mind when contemplating the Chicago Bulls. Just like the mystery-solving dog when he dashes away from a ghost, the Bulls' legs spin in place for a while before they gain traction and go in any direction.
The organization could stop running in place if only it would fire Arturas Karnisovas.
Chicago's Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations has turned somewhat of a corner in the last year. While trading Alex Caruso to the Oklahoma City Thunder straight up for Josh Giddey seemed disappointing at the time, it's worked out for both teams.
Karnisovas grabbed Matas Buzelis with the No. 11 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, and he looks like a franchise pillar.
But there's too much bad history for him to overcome, and he still has yet to make the most logical choice for the long-term future of the franchise.
It's time to start over.
The Chicago Bulls are stuck without a major front office shakeup
Karnisovas built a contender (sort of) in 2021-22 with a core of DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Lonzo Ball, Caruso and Nikola Vucevic. For a brief period, that team sat atop the Eastern Conference standings.
Then Ball got hurt, the Bulls limped to the playoffs, and they were eliminated in five games by the Milwaukee Bucks. Pretty much every decision made in the Windy City since has been at best questionable, at worst downright stupid.
Karnisovas sent out Luke Kornet and Daniel Gafford, both of whom have developed into key contributors on playoff teams, for Troy Brown Jr., Daniel Theis and Jevonte Green. Oops.
He handed LaVine a five-year, $215 million deal that aged horribly. LaVine struggled to stay healthy, and when he was on the floor, he didn't contribute much to winning basketball. To boot, Karnisovas waited too long to trade the former UCLA star.
When he finally did, he got an underwhelming return package of Zach Collins, Tre Jones, Kevin Huerter and a first-round pick he had previously sent to San Antonio for DeRozan.
He traded Lauri Markkanen, who has since blossomed into a superstar, for Derrick Jones Jr., a lottery-protected first-round pick (that still hasn't conveyed) and a second-rounder.
Perhaps most damning of all was his decision to extend draft bust Patrick Williams on a $90 million contract that runs through the 2027-28 season with a player option for $18 million in 2028-29.
Karnisovas finally relented and carried one of the league's youngest rosters into this season, but the Bulls are still stuck squarely in no-man's land. They have no true superstar. Two of the team's best players, Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu, are free agents this summer, and while Chicago has gobs of cap space, paying big money to either one is risky.
There's no clear path out of mediocrity. A 9-14 record -- which comes on the heels of three straight Play-In Tournament exits -- doesn't inspire confidence. Neither does an unattractive, star-less team that can't acquire any high draft picks.
Karnisovas has done enough to set the Bulls back, and he's clearly not shrewd enough to fix it. It's time to say goodbye.