The running joke around the Chicago Bulls the last several seasons is that Arturas Karnisovas has been asleep at the wheel.
The Bulls’ front office leader has done next to nothing over the last three seasons to improve the team and hasn’t made a significant trade since 2021.
He has made some great moves in his tenure, so credit must be given for drafting Ayo Dosunmu, signing Alex Caruso and trades that brought in DeMar DeRozan and Lonzo Ball. While Ball hasn’t worked out for the Bulls and did have a history of injuries, it was a gamble worth taking, as they gave up next to nothing to get him.
He’s made some nice moves along the fringes, like signing Andre Drummond, but has also whiffed on several later draft picks and let guys like Derrick Jones Jr go for nothing.
But any good has been undone by five moves that led the Chicago Bulls to where they are now, which is an aging, mediocre team with few ways to improve. Let’s look at them in order of damage caused to the team.
5 Most disastrous moves Arturas Karnisovas has made for the Chicago Bulls
#5: Drafting Patrick Williams 4th in the 2020 NBA Draft
This one wasn’t a franchise killer by any means, but the Bulls did miss a chance to add elite talent to their roster in 2020, instead taking Patrick Williams with the 4th pick in a move that many felt was a reach at the time.
The Bulls hadn’t picked in the top four since 2008, when they took Derrick Rose #1, and Karnisovas blew it with this pick. You can’t kill him for it too much, as the 2020 Draft was garbage, with certified busts and middling players littering the top-10.
But there were very good players to be had, including Tyrese Haliburton and Tyrese Maxey, who went 12th and 21st. Hell, even Isaiah Stewart, who isn’t much more than a role player, has been better than Williams so far, so there was talent that could have helped the Bulls.
Now Williams is in a position to walk for nothing if the Bulls don’t meet his absurd contract demands. Missing on a top-4 pick is one way to stunt a franchise and the Bulls whiffed on a huge opportunity here.
#4: Trading good role players for nothing
The Bulls have given away a staggering number of decent role players under Karnisovas, including the aforementioned Derrick Jones Jr, who is now starting for the Dallas Mavericks in the playoffs.
In March of 2021 the Bulls made a three-way deal that sent out Daniel Gafford, Luke Kornet and Chandler Hutchinson and brought back Daniel Thies (who was traded), Jevonte Green (sucks) and Troy Brown Jr, who was allowed to walk in free agency.
Meanwhile, Gafford is now a key part of the Mavericks and was a big reason for their defensive improvement and late-season surge. Kornet is playing a role for the best team in the Eastern Conference.
At the time, the trade made sense, as it cleared the way for Nikola Vucevic (we’ll be hearing from him later), but in retrospect, the Bulls would have been better off just keeping Gafford, as he’s turned into a beast around the rim who shoots over 72 percent from the floor and blocks a ton of shots, pretty much exactly what they are missing right now.
#3: Signing Zach LaVine to a 5 year/$215 million extension
This is a tough one, as LaVine was very good for the Bulls and was the biggest piece of the Jimmy Butler trade, so it made sense for the Bulls to keep him around.
What didn’t make sense was offering him the full max. Even though LaVine was already an All-Star and theoretically in his prime, he already had a troubling injury history that should have been a red flag.
Even the full financial amount would have been more palatable had the Bulls had a team option on LaVine’s last year instead of a player option, but as it stands, LaVine is going to make just under $49 million in the final year of his deal, when he’ll be on the wrong side of 30.
Now it’s a contract the Bulls would love to shed and may have to practically give him away for nothing to do it. It’s hard to fault Karnisovas for extending LaVine, but he could have done a better job of negotiating the deal in the team’s favor.
#2: Trading Lauri Markkanen
The Bulls lucked out when the pick they got back in the Butler trade turned into Lauri Markkanen, who is now a 26-year-old All-Star for the Jazz on one of the best value contracts in the entire NBA.
They elected to move Markkanen when his value was at its lowest, as he was a pending free agent and had to be moved in a sign-and-trade, which never works out for the team doing the signing. They got back a poo poo platter of Derrick Jones Jr and two garbage picks for a guy who is now averaging 23 points, eight rebounds and has been deemed untouchable by the Jazz.
Trading Markkanen was not one of Karnisovas’ finest moments, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as his worst move.
#1: Trading for Nikola Vucevic
The Bulls have three players in Zach LaVine, Lonzo Ball and Nikola Vucevic who they would love to trade this summer, but good luck finding any takers.
Here’s a hypothetical for you: Would you rather have Franz Wagner, Jett Howard, Wendell Carter Jr and Otto Porter or Nikola Vucevic?
The answer is obvious, but that’s essentially the choice the Bulls made when they traded for the All-Star center Vucevic. Look, Vucevic is good, but the Bulls had a chance to add elite young talent to their roster in a very good draft and instead elected to try and “go for it” with the “it” in this case being building a team that will never win more than 40 games.
Meanwhile, Orlando was a playoff team this season, is brimming with young talent, Wagner is a stud, and they are only going to get better, while the Bulls are in the same spot as they were, with no young talent other than Coby White, and two more years of Vucevic that they would love to trade.
Gafford, Derrick Jones Jr, Lauri Markkanen and Franz Wagner are all better fits for the modern NBA and guys the Bulls could have gone to war with around LaVine and DeRozan.
Possibly the worst part of the Karnisovas era is that he has done next to nothing since these moves, allowing his team to get in a spot where they could lose their best player for nothing in free agency or have to overpay to keep him on a roster that has few ways of getting better without just tearing it down and starting over.