CHICAGO (AP) — Arturas Karnisovas insisted he has a plan to lift the Chicago Bulls after years of mediocrity. The team's top basketball executive also had a request.
“I'm asking for fans' patience,” he said Thursday, a day after a season-ending loss to Miami. “Because we're in the first year of that transition. I thought the way we finished the year showed some promise. It's hard to win games in this league.”
The Bulls have just one playoff appearance in the five seasons since Karnisovas was hired as executive vice president of basketball operations. They went 39-43 for the second straight season and finished ninth in the Eastern Conference, then got knocked out of the play-in tournament by Miami for the third year in a row with a blowout loss on their own court.
The poor performance against the Heat came on the heels of a 15-5 finish to the regular season. Karnisovas pointed to those late wins, even though they came at a time when some opponents were tanking to try to boost their lottery odds and others were resting key players to get ready for the postseason.
“It's hard to win games in this league and to finish 15-5 — yeah, it's not a victory lap, but I think there's some positives,” Karnisovas said. “And I think we've got to keep on building on this group by adding another player in the lottery, by going to free agency and adding another piece.”
The Bulls have made some big changes in the past year, trading DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso in the offseason and Zach LaVine prior to the deadline in February. They also implemented a quicker tempo.
Coby White averaged a career-high 20.4 points and Josh Giddey came on strong down the stretch in his first season in Chicago, though both players have their limitations. White could be in for an extension with one more year left on his contract, and Giddey is due to become a restricted free agent.
Rookie Matas Buzelis' improvement throughout the season was another positive for the Bulls. Even so, the Bulls don't have that elite, cornerstone player. It's not clear how they'll get one, either. After all, Karnisovas has refused to go into full tank mode. Chicago will likely pick toward the back end of the lottery in June.
“I think there is a plan,” he said. “I think that we're always going to be looking at how to improve this roster by adding a player or a high caliber player. At the same time, I would not put any limitations on this roster or on the way Coby has been playing, or the way Josh has been playing.”
The Bulls have three straight losing seasons and one playoff appearance in the past seven years. They haven't advanced in the postseason since the 2014-15 team reached the Eastern Conference semifinals under former coach Tom Thibodeau.
Patience might be in short supply in Chicago, at least among fans. Whether ownership feels the same way is unclear.
Karnisovas said he has “a very good relationship” with chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and CEO Michael Reinsdorf. He also said he hasn't had any discussions with Denver, where he worked prior to being hired in Chicago. The Nuggets made two stunning moves last week when they fired coach Michael Malone and opted not to renew general manager Calvin Booth's contract just two years after winning the NBA championship.
“I do believe in the way we wanted to build this roster,” Karnisovas said. “Basically, having players that have experience to kind of shrink the timeline and continuously look for other ways to improve your roster. I think (coach Billy Donovan) spoke before and after every game about how important it is for this young group to focus on winning and what goes into winning instead of just rolling the ball out and telling them to go and develop. This is very important for us. That's the path we chose.”
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
Andrew Seligman, The Associated Press
