Artūras Karnišovas smiling all the way to Play-In Tournament
- Drew Stevens (@Drew_H_Stevens)
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
As they get set for their Play-In matchup vs the Miami Heat — Karnišovas' Bulls are exactly where he wants them to be.
Somewhere, Artūras Karnišovas is grinning from ear to ear.
The executive vice president of basketball operations of the Chicago Bulls didn’t need to see his team spoil LeBron James’s and Luka Dončić’s first trip to the United Center as teammates, let alone secure a home game in the Play-In Tournament, to revel in his handiwork.
For Karnišovas, the beauty of his second-ever in-season trade, which sent Zach LaVine to Sacramento in exchange for Tre Jones, Zach Collins, Kevin Huerter and control of his future first-round picks, was the cover it gave him from whatever came next.
If you listened closely to his post-trade deadline comments, you could hear his shoulder pop as he patted himself on the back.
“If we're in the play-in or playoffs and your young guys are playing and contributing to winning, that's a win in terms of their development. And if you're picking high, that's also good.”
With expectations like those, what good is a bar?
The Bulls are set to face the Miami Heat in a do-or-die game for the third year in a row on Wednesday. But no matter what, Karnišovas, by virtue of his own lack of ambition, already won.
It was an uptempo style of play he wanted to see, and it was an uptempo style of play he saw.
It was competitive integrity he wanted to see and, except for a recent experiment with strategic rest in Cleveland, it was competitive integrity he saw — sometimes at the expense of his own players’ health.
It was player development he wanted to see, and, due in part to injury and the deal he cut to keep from losing his third lottery pick in five draft cycles, it was player development he eventually saw.
Now, he didn’t see the highest average attendance in the league put to good use, as the Bulls finished with a losing record at home for the second time in as many seasons. But he did watch them go 8-7 as hosts down the stretch.
As a known proponent of small-sample-size theater, Karnišovas has likely eaten up the last 30 games like a tub of overpriced popcorn.
How could someone who, some three years after the fact, continues to pin his lack of success on the knee injury Lonzo Ball suffered, be expected to suddenly see the forest through the trees? The circumstances surrounding the Bulls finishing with the sixth-best record in the Eastern Conference since Huerter, Jones and Collins suited up? The absences of Tyrese Haliburton, Nikola Jokić and Aaron Gordon in two of their four victories over teams with winning records in 14 tries? James returning after a seven-game absence and the Los Angeles Lakers coming to town on the second night of a back-to-back in the other two?
It’s one thing for fans, who’ve seen just three winning teams and one second-round finalist in the last decade, to wrap their arms around the last nine weeks — although some have squeezed tight enough to give credence to the way the franchise, and by extension the front office, operates.
Karnišovas, on the other hand, should be instructed to maintain a 30,000-foot view at all times. But his supervisors can’t be bothered to meddle, so long as the turnstiles turnstile.
From Josh Giddey going viral for his 47-foot prayer, to Matas Buzelis staring down the Heat bench after a clutch shot, to Coby White dunking past San Antonio Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama, this Bulls season has had its fair share of moments. All of which were objectively fun to watch.
Until you remember Kanišovas saw them too.
Commenti