Bulls EVP/Basketball Operations Artūras Karnišovas said he is “asking fans for patience” after the team failed to make the playoffs for a third straight season, according to Julia Poe of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Karnišovas said the team is “in the first year of that transition,” and the season’s ending showed “some promise.” Karnišovas “repeatedly emphasized” that the team is “following a plan to ‘minimize the timeline’ of a rebuild.” But he “shared only a few short-term goals for that project: draft a player with a lottery pick, add a piece in free agency, retain Josh Giddey with a new contract and develop young talent.” Beyond that, Karnišovas “refused to give any clarity” about what the team believe is necessary to become competitive again. His final news conference of the season -- only the third time he spoke publicly -- “left only a handful of scattered clues about the franchise’s future trajectory.” Karnišovas did not “estimate a length of this new timeline” for rebuilding. While they recorded the same regular-season record (39-43) as in 2023-24, they won one fewer play-in game. It is a “small metric that reflects a larger truth: Even in an Eastern Conference with five teams actively tanking to protect their draft picks, the Bulls are incapable of keeping up.” How Karnišovas begins to “amend those failures -- and how long that process takes -- will define the Bulls’ next era” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 4/17).
SAFE BET? In Chicago, Joe Cowley wrote there is “a plan,” but it is “completely flawed with a shortcut mentality and goes against the history of almost every NBA championship team from the last three-plus decades. But Karnišovas is ”sold on it and spent more than 20 minutes trying to sell it to the masses.” The other piece of important business he addressed came when he “reiterated that his job was safe.” He said that the Bulls’ plan to “escape from mediocrity is shared by the entire organization, including” owners Jerry and Michael Reinsdorf (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 4/17).
THERE’S HOPE: In Chicago, Mike McGraw wrote despite all the front office blunders of the past 10 years, the Bulls have “put themselves in a position of potential improvement” after finishing the regular season with a 15-5 stretch. The players “seem to agree.” Giddey said, “Our back half of the year was phenomenal and going into the summer, those are really positive things you can take” (Chicago DAILY HERALD, 4/17).
