What's the well-traveled definition of insanity again? Doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results? Well, if that's what we're going by, the Chicago Bulls are an insane franchise. Although that statement won't surprise many.
Arturas Karnisovas took over as Chicago's Vice President of Basketball Operations before the 2020-21 season. He's completely altered the roster since then, taking bold swings to acquire stars like DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Lonzo Ball and Nikola Vucevic. For a brief period, those moves paid off and the Bulls sat atop the Eastern Conference standings in 2021.
But that success quickly faded and the team hasn't gotten back there since.
In the last few weeks, four different NBA franchises have shaken up their front offices because of a lack of sustainable success (or, in some cases, no success at all).
Most recently, Landry Fields was relieved of his duties as the Atlanta Hawks' General Manager after compiling a 117-129 record in three seasons. His team made the playoffs once in the 2022-23 season before losing in the Play-In Tournament the last two years.
Team ownership, meanwhile, has remained in Karnisovas's corner, whether due to loyalty, belief, cheapness or sheer stupidity. But if the Bulls are going to move forward as a franchise, that needs to change.
Chicago will stay stuck in mediocrity without front office revamp
The Bulls are 195-205 in the five years of Karnisovas's regime. They backed into the playoffs in 2021-22 after Ball injured his knee and proceeded to lose in the first round in five games to the Milwaukee Bucks. That's been the highlight of this front office's tenure.
Chicago has won 40, 39 and 39 games in the three seasons since. Karnisovas has built a roster good enough to make the Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament each of those years, but not good enough to advance to the playoffs, nor bad enough to land a top draft pick.
In short, he's driven the franchise into the one place where franchises don't—or at least shouldn't—want to be in the NBA. Purgatory.
But somehow, after those five seasons, he's still running the show and preaching patience to Bulls fans while executives across the league get canned despite having more successful runs.
The Nuggets fired general manager Calvin Booth and head coach Michael Malone despite the pair leading Denver to an NBA championship in 2023. Sacramento fired general manager Monte McNair, who helped the Kings end the longest playoff drought in NBA history.
The Pelicans let go of head of basketball operations David Griffin after six seasons. Griffin's record didn't reflect the team he built after the trades that sent Anthony Davis to the Lakers and Jrue Holiday to the Milwaukee Bucks. Those deals helped New Orleans accumulate a wealth of draft picks and young players, which Griffin used to select high-level young players such as Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones, Jose Alvarado, Jordan Hawkins and Zion Williamson.
Williamson couldn't stay healthy, and the Pelicans lost all the aforementioned players, plus Dejounte Murray and CJ McCollum, to injuries this season. Griffin may not have developed a winner in New Orleans, but it wasn't entirely due to a lack of successful moves.
Now Fields' firing can be added to the list despite his shrewd selection of Zaccharie Risacher with the No. 1 pick in last summer's draft and the Dejounte Murray trade that netted Atlanta Most Improved Player of the Year candidate Dyson Daniels.
The same can't be said about Karnisovas. He drafted Matas Buzelis, who had a promising rookie season once he entered the starting lineup for the final 31 games of the regular season. Giddey and Coby White both improved. He got his team's first-round pick back, one that he originally traded away to the San Antonio Spurs to acquire DeRozan in 2021. That's his highlight reel as the Bulls' top executive.
If Fields, Griffin, Booth and McNair all got fired for their failures, why does Karnisovas still have a job, and why does it seem like he's in zero danger of losing it? This is why Chicago is a mediocre franchise: It has a mediocre front office that's built a mediocre roster to mediocre results, and owner Jerry Reinsdorf and President Michael Reinsdorf seem completely content with all of it.