0Bulls lead decisionmaker Arturas Karnisovas went on a state media podcast late last week. I truly do not to make every post about the front office’s slow (so slow) descent into eventual firing, but:
- the team on the court is boring, and – despite AK’s protestations – not informing us of anything
- they so rarely speak that it’s notable when they do
It was another round of buffoonery from AK, despite having a safe space that can be described as “when KC Johnson is too tough a questioner”
There wasn’t much, certainly not much different than what he said at the deadline, but as fans we are so starved for any kind of communicated plan that several jumped on the fact that Karnisovas…merely mentioned future transaction periods and their cap sheet.
AK simply saying “2025 draft…2026 draft, we get good player” does not mean they are valuing the draft again, nor does a mention of 2026 free agency mean they actually plan on doing a major acquisition.
None of this was particularly confusing before (just insipid), and this wasn’t clarifying even if it was necessary. I think it helps me to comprehend AK’s talking points when you strip out his profession:
He is simply an over-promoted executive who knows he is in over his head, and saying anything to buy himself more time on the job.There’s no consistent (let alone thoughtful) roster-building philosophy at work here, Karnisovas is simply saying this is part of a plan because it is the corner he has painted himself into.
That’s the reason why there’s touting acquisitions of ‘young players with experience’ and Josh Giddey’s progress (huh?), not because it is correct or even validated in this case, but because that’s what you are stuck with. Keep insisting you don’t need to tank, because it’s far too late. Keep talking like a roster teardown needs to take years, because it kicks the can down the road to where you can be expected to actually build again. And mention a 20XX free agency plan with cap space, a classic GarPax play, not because you have a situation a free agent would want to be in, but because you have so few good players under contract.
Karnisovas is doomed, and he knows it. His only personal path forward is to delay and obfuscate how bad and hopeless things are, while not so bad to where he can’t be the one to fix it, and quickly.
There’s been reporting over the past year-plus that Karnisovas has ownership’s faith in ability to clean up his own mess in any way he sees fit. I think that’s only partially true. I think it’s possible that ownership would support a swift completion of this teardown and then a multi-year wallowing in the league basement. They don’t think it should be necessary, and as a general philosophy I agree (though not for the reasons they do).
But I don’t think it’s possible they’d support Arturas Karnisovas doing this: for one thing, AK doesn’t have the desire or aptitude to do it correctly. And while it’s never too late to do the right thing, doing so now just means a longer time at the bottom due to prior missteps.
That’s why Karnisovas said that his goal in this “transition” is not to be the best team possible in the future, but to “limit the period” of downturn. It’s a much easier sell to ownership that not only are they not embarrassments like other franchises at the true bottom of the league, but they won’t be this bad for even another year longer.
Karnisovas has correctly given up on reaching the fans. He is just talking to one dumbass family.
We know they are even slower to react than the executives they employ, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they express concern over the relative lack of fan interest (and more importantly, patronage). Ideally for everyone, that would be fixed with lottery luck. But if that fails, then – again, to stay employed – AK will target a “young player with experience” and some star power. LaMelo Ball? Trae Young? Zion?
I am not opposed to such a plan if looking at it objectively. But Karnisovas can’t be the one to do it. Like nearly everything he’s done in his tenure, he would screw up the execution and it’ll backfire long-term, and in the short-term he will say anything to buy himself even more time.
