Non-Committal Arturas Karnisovas Delivers 2024-25 Bulls End-of-Season Remarks

Karnisovas' oratory habits of abstract, non-committal responses to media questions, grounded in clear context, were rampant at a time when the Bulls franchise is bankrupt from clear executive direction on the organization's near-term and long-term future. Regardless of Karnisovas' words to the media, a handful of themes did emerge from the Basketball Ops EVP's statements to the Bulls beat.

Karnisovas' 2024-25 Bulls Goals

Arturas Karnisovas' opening remarks in his press conference highlighted and recapped four organizational goals:

• Define a team style of play and change the team's shooting profile

• Retain the Bulls' 2025 first-round draft pick

• Identify a roster (re)building approach

• Focus on the internal development of Bulls players

Karnisovas' nominal goals look fine on paper, but outside of play style and shot profile change, what is the real, tangible impact of Karnisovas' feathery goals? The Bulls had ample to opportunity to retain their 2025 first-round pick by simply focusing on a single-season targeted tank (read: not a Philadelphia 76ers 'Trust The Process' tank).

Roster-building or rebuilding decisions are what the OFFSEASON is for, not during the 82-game regular season where the organizational focus should be on-court performance, not ad-hoc executive deliberations that should have been wrapped up by August 2024.

Internal player development is great. How are you measuring that and holding players accountable to development goals?

AK Pleads for Patience

In response to The Athletic's Darnell Mayberry (4:52 mark in the Chicago Bulls official YouTube video), Karnisovas asked for patience from Bulls Fans: "I'm asking fans for patience because we're in the first year of that transition".  

However, Karnisovas, now five seasons into his tenure as head of Bulls basketball operations, cannot define a desired timeline for his rebuild: "I cannot define the actual timeline, but what we need to do is build on the positives this year." (8:55 mark in the Chicago Bulls official YouTube video).  

Furthermore, many Bulls fans will argue that AK started his "transition" two years too late. Karnisovas has not earned the trust of Bulls fans to be patient with his Bulls leadership actions.

Job Security Within the Bulls Basketball Operations Department

Chicago Sun-Times reporter Joe Cowley asked Karnisovas if he had any contact with the Denver Nuggets about their front office executive opening or if the Nuggets contacted Karnisovas about the opening, to which Karnisovas answered "no". (5:48 mark in the Chicago Bulls official YouTube video).

Karnisovas did not explicitly address whether Bulls Governor Michael Reinsdorf or Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf delivered mandates for change to Karnisovas on the condition of his job security.

Additionally, when asked by the Chicago Tribune's Julia Poe if Bulls head coach Billy Donovan is the correct fit for a head coach with the Bulls, Karnisovas remarked, "I have full confidence moving forward with Billy" (15:18 mark in the Chicago Bulls official YouTube video).

Karnisovas' Outlook on Offseason Roster Moves

When asked to confirm how he would handle Josh Giddey's restricted free agency and Coby White's 2026 unrestricted free agency by multiple media members: K.C. Johnson of CHSN, Drew Stevens of The Bigs, Karnisovas did not offer any insight on his process for working out contract negotiations with his primary backcourt players (9:27 mark in the Chicago Bulls official YouTube video).

Even beyond free agency, Karnisovas also didn't rule out the possibility of re-purposing his re-acquired first-round draft picks into a "win-now" style trade similar to his 2021 NBA Trade Deadline acquisition of center Nikola Vucevic, when responding to 670 The Score's Cody Westerlund: “We’re gonna look at everything, everything is on the table”(17:34 mark in the Chicago Bulls official YouTube video).