After six seasons in charge — and seemingly that many re-inventions of the roster — the Chicago Bulls have fired executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas as well as general manager Marc Eversley.
“Arturas and Marc have led with a deep commitment to the Chicago Bulls. These decisions are never easy, especially when they involve people we respect both personally and professionally,” Bulls CEO and president Michael Reinsdorf said in a statement. “We are grateful for their dedication and the work they’ve put in over the past six years. At the same time, we have not had the success our fans deserve, and it’s my responsibility to go in a new direction. This move is about positioning our team for sustained success moving ahead. I want our fans to know that I hear you and understand the frustration. I feel it as well. I know this will take time, and I am fully committed to getting this right. At the Chicago Bulls, our focus remains on building a team that can compete at the highest level and ultimately contend for championships. We are committed to taking the necessary steps to move the Bulls forward in a way that makes our fans proud.”
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Former Bulls sharpshooter Kyle Korver, currently an assistant general manager with the Hawks, is one of the names league sources told NBC Sports is connected to the job. Other names that sources said were connected to the job early on include former Atlanta Hawks GM Landry Fields, current Warriors GM Mike Dunleavy (this may be more of a wish list play by the Bulls, it is highly unlikely Dunleavy leaves Golden State), current Minnesota GM Matt Lloyd (a Chicago native who worked for the Bulls for 13 years), and CAA agent Austin Brown (this would be following in the footsteps of the Lakers and Knicks, who hired former agents as GMs and had some success with them).
Whoever gets the title of next basketball head of operations can be aggressive this summer: The Bulls will have up to $65 million in cap space as well as a lottery pick. However, what they need more than anything is a direction, a clear plan — that is what has been lacking for the Bulls for years.
Regardless of who gets the job, the Bulls reportedly want to retain coach Billy Donovan, reports Marc Stein of the Stein Line.
The Bulls have been stuck on the treadmill of mediocrity under Karnisovas, making the playoffs just once in the past six years but finishing with at least 39 wins each of the four seasons previous to this one, meaning their draft picks were late in the lottery. Karnisovas built a team with potential early on, one that started 38-21 in the 2021-22 season, led by Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Nikola Vucevic and Lonzo Ball. However, a serious injury to Ball, who was the glue of that team, left them floundering. It’s also a roster that aged quickly and was never the same again.
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This season, the Bulls pivoted and started to semi-embrace tanking — as it stands today, the Bulls at 29-49 have the ninth-worst record and a better than 50% chance of drafting in that slot — but they have floor-raising young players on the roster in Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis. Part of Karnisovas’ challenge, and the challenge for whoever is the next GM, is that ownership is rumored not to want to fully tank but also not pay the luxury tax for anything less than a contender.
The Bulls will want to move fairly quickly to get a new head of basketball operations in place, as we are just more than a month away from the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago.
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