The Chicago Bulls new front office made one thing clear at the trade deadline: They aren’t going backward.
In their first year at the helm of a Bulls team that won just 22 games the season before, it would have made plenty of sense to start from scratch.
However, from the beginning, both Karnisovas and Eversley were adamant that Bulls fans weren’t about to sit through another rebuild. The organization was committed to improving the current roster, and they hammered that point home on Thursday.
Two-time All-Star Nikola Vucevic – one of the best centers in the league – will be Zach LaVine’s right-hand man. Meanwhile, players like Al Farouq-Aminu, Daniel Theis, Troy Brown Jr., and Javonte Green will bolster the team’s depth. Each and every one of these additions made the Bulls better today, and it all came without having to get worse first.
Don’t get anybody wrong, player development is still a priority for this organization, but Karnisovas made it clear that winning falls right in line.
“Obviously, we want Chicago to be an attractive destination for free agents. For us, we evaluated at a sample size of more than 40 games, and we made a couple of decisions to select certain guys, to add a couple of guys, to this team that can help win games because we are serious here about winning. We’re serious about the culture of being very competitive, and any opportunity we get to make this team better we will.”
After years of being suffocated by the rebuilding process, this approach is a breath of fresh air. No, the organization isn’t trying to enter full win-now mode, but they do seem to understand that having something is better than nothing. Winning is better than losing.
AK: “Zach is an All Star. Nikola is an All Star. Any opportunities we get to make this team better – we took a chance today.” pic.twitter.com/ztJLc38Ju4
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) March 25, 2021
Karnisovas repeatedly mentioned in his post-trade-deadline press conference that opportunities to grab an All-Star player like Vucevic don’t come often.
Some franchises wait years and years for the chance to get their hands on a high-impact player – let alone two like the Bulls now have. As Bulls fans, I don’t think we can do anything but respect that approach, especially from a big-market team that we watched for years spend little for little. It was simply time for a change, and Karnisovas brought that change today.
Oh, and he’ll continue to bring it …
“Again, we’re not done. So we’re going to try to keep improving, keeping improving our quality of play, and keep adding pieces to what this team is going to look like in the future.”
Man, what an utterly awesome day to be a Bulls fan.
Watch Karnisovas full press conference below:
LIVE: Artūras Karnišovas following the NBA trade deadline. https://t.co/T5rd6MIQM1
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) March 25, 2021