Bulls have the worst track record in this area under Arturas Karnisovas

Over the last three seasons, Arturas Karnisovas has mostly been known for what he hasn’t done for the Chicago Bulls. 

The Bulls haven’t made a significant trade since 2021, when Karnisovas made a flurry of moves trying to reset their roster around Zach LaVine. 

Most of the trades Karnisovas made were unmitigated disasters for the Bulls and are the primary reason they are stuck in NBA purgatory with no easy way out. 

Arturas Karnisovas’ trades for the Chicago Bulls 

Karnisovas has made just six trades since taking over as president of the Chicago Bulls and four of them have blown up in his face with one pending. 

The Vucevic disaster 

Karnisovas started things off by trading Wendell Carter Jr, Otto Porter Jr and two first-round picks to the Orlando Magic in a move that pushed the Magic to the next level and pushed the Bulls into irrelevancy. 

This trade looked like a horrible, win-now overpay for the Bulls at the time that just kept getting worse. One of those picks turned into Franz Wagner, a likely future All-Star and one of the best young players in the game. Even Wendell Carter Jr is arguably better than Vucevic at this point, so the Bulls could have more depth and talent from guys making way less than Vucevic. 

GMs have lost their jobs over trades that were better than this one, especially considering it has not led to any winning for the Bulls. 

The Gafford Gaff 

The Bulls traded Chandler Hutchison, Daniel Gafford and Luke Kornet in a move that brought them Troy Brown Jr and Daniel Thies. 

You might be able to defend this one if either Troy Brown Jr or Daniel Thies were still on the Bulls (they’re not) or if Gafford hadn’t gone onto be a key part of a Finals team (he did), providing the exact rim protection and high efficiency the Bulls are missing. 

This looked like a marginal trade at the time, but the Bulls once again gave up the best player and got burned for it.