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The Oklahoma City Thunder are striking fear in the hearts of fans around the league. The Thunder began to stockpile draft assets in 2019, which meant that they had a bright future ahead of them, but now, the reality of their impending multi-year dominance is setting in — with the Chicago Bulls, perhaps, giving the Thunder the last piece of their championship puzzle in Alex Caruso.
Over the past two seasons, the Bulls have been mediocre; they've gone 79-85 during that span, with nothing to show for it but two failed appearances in the play-in tournament. Suffice to say, a rebuild was long overdue. But the Bulls failed to recoup any good draft capital for both Caruso and DeMar DeRozan, settling instead for a total return of Josh Giddey, Chris Duarte, and two second-round picks.
The Bulls' decision to trade Caruso to the Thunder has sent some fans over the edge with regards to their front office's perceived incompetence. In fact, one went as far as to say that the Bulls are employing the only “dumb” general manager left in the entire NBA.
“[Karnisovas] is the only truly dumb GM we have left. He feels like a relic of the past. Cherish these moments,” Trill Bro Dude of the You Know Ball podcast wrote.
Just to correct the statement above, Arturas Karnisovas is actually the executive vice president for the Bulls organization, not the general manager. The Bulls' general manager at the moment is Marc Eversley, although that won't matter to fans who are clowning the Bulls franchise for their slew of poor decisions over the past few years.
The Bulls began employing Karnisovas in 2020, with the veteran front-office executive saying, upon his hiring, that his “ultimate goal is clearly to bring an NBA championship to the city of Chicago” and that he won't be “skipping steps”. But the Bulls appear to be in a worse situation as a franchise than they were back when Karnisovas took over, which is not something any NBA executive will want on their CV.
Bulls barely move the needle under Arturas Karnisovas' watch
It might be harsh to say that Arturas Karnisovas is the only “dumb” executive left in the NBA, as it's not quite fair to pin all the Bulls' poor decisions on him.
But overall, the Bulls, outside of a lone playoff berth in 2022, haven't been run too well over the past four years. As one would recall, they traded away the draft picks that became Franz Wagner and Jett Howard, along with Wendell Carter Jr., to the Orlando Magic in exchange for Nikola Vucevic. Wagner has blossomed into a star for the Magic, which is the most painful part of this lopsided trade. They also let Lauri Markkanen leave for basically nothing in free agency.
And when the Bulls began to fall off following their solid 2021-22 season, the front office lived in denial for far too long. They refused to trade Alex Caruso away when his contract still ran for longer, effectively reducing his trade value in the process. They also decided not to trade DeMar DeRozan away, and in the end, they had to settle for the scraps they picked up via a sign-and-trade.
At the very least, they are looking to build the “firm foundation” that Karnisovas was talking about when he was hired, with youngsters such as Josh Giddey, Coby White, Matas Buzelis, and Patrick Williams tasked to lead the team past mediocrity.
