Presentation by national insurance agent Jeff Vukovich
In just over two months, Arturas Karnišovas will celebrate four years since he was named executive vice president of basketball operations for the Chicago Bulls.
The extent of the reforms Mr. Karnišovás implemented in his early days in office is well documented. Only Zach LaVine and Coby White remain from the roster he inherited.
In fact, Karnisios has made six trades during his tenure, including a flurry of five that shook up the roster from March 2021 to August 2021.
However, Karnišovas has since missed the past two NBA trade deadlines and only made one trade. They acquired the rights to two future second-round picks from Julian Phillips on NBA Draft night, but it was a small trade, even though Phillips had shown rotation promise.
A closer look at Karnishovas' trades reveals something deeper. He had little trouble trading away the roster he inherited when his predecessor, John Paxson, moved into a senior advisory role.
—In addition to Otto Porter Jr. and Wendell Carter Jr., two future first-round picks remained for Nikola Vucevic.
—Chandler Hutchison, Daniel Gafford and Luke Kornett have new affiliations in the three-team deal that acquired Troy Brown Jr. and Daniel Theis from the Bulls.
–Tomasz Satoransky, a second-round pick, and Garrett Temple (more on that later) were sent to the New Orleans Pelicans in a sign-and-trade deal for Lonzo Ball.
—Thad Young, Al-Farouq Aminu, a first-round pick and two second-round picks went to San Antonio in a sign-and-trade for DeMar DeRozan.
—And Lauri Markkanen was sent to Cleveland in a three-team deal that acquired the Bulls' Derrick Jones Jr. and a future first- and second-round pick from Portland and Cleveland, respectively.
However, out of those six trades, Karnišovas only acquired two players: Temple and Aminu. And while Temple played a solid role as a minor contract player during the pandemic-impacted 2020-21 season and still gives Toronto leadership and culture-building qualities, Aminu played just 67 minutes for the Bulls. And he's not in the league anymore.
In other words, both Karnišovas players have progressed from the typical small pieces they started with.
This is significant as Karnišovas approaches Thursday's NBA trade deadline. With LaVine out for the season due to foot surgery scheduled for this week, and the Bulls sitting in ninth place with a 23-27 record, the ceiling for continuity appears to have been established.
After all, the Bulls finished last season as a play-in team, only trading Goran Dragic and Patrick Beverley, who were signed as minor free agents this offseason, for Jevon Carter, Jones Jr. and Torrey Craig.
So the question is, is Karnišois ready to let his team go and start the next iteration of the roster?
Of course, it takes two teams, and sometimes three, to get a deal done. And while interest in Caruso is known, league officials have previously suggested to NBC Sports Chicago that several teams, including the Golden State Warriors, are calling up the All-Defensive first-team roster. The value of DeRozan's expiring contract may be trickier.
DeRozan's scoring ability, basketball IQ, and low-maintenance leadership style would benefit any playoff team. For example, the Los Angeles Lakers would like to add DeRozan, but they don't seem to have the assets the Bulls would be interested in. And the Bulls certainly aren't going to trade him just to trade DeRozan.
But Caruso and DeRozan are certainly the two players who would provide the most value if Karnišovas were to pull the trigger before Thursday.
When Karnišovás executed his rapid-fire trades in 2021, it's easy to see how he and his staff envisioned a minimum three-year period for the roster, given the way the contracts worked. Caruso has some guarantees for next season. DeRozan could be headed to unrestricted free agency. Lonzo Ball definitely has the player option of working out after enduring so many knee surgeries.
That philosophy centers on LaVine and Ball serving as bridges between older veterans like DeRozan and Vucevic while young players like White, Ayo Dosunmu and Patrick Williams develop. Ta. White certainly did, and will be one of the NBA's most valuable contracts over the next two seasons. The same goes for Dosunmu, another player development success story. The jury is still out on Williams heading into restricted free agency.
There are just over two months of games left in this three-year period and four months of the NBA trading calendar. The Bulls have a sad story with Ball, winning one playoff series and one play-in.
Will Karnišovás end up starting the next version of the Bulls roster by Thursday? If that were to happen, he would have to let go of one of his acquisitions.
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