Arturas Karnisovas Responds To Tanking Accusations

During an interview with Chicago's local radio station 670 The Score, Bulls' front office leader Arturas Karnisovas was asked questions regarding the recent growing notion that the Chicago Bulls have pivoted their franchise's direction toward a rebuild. Not all rebuild levels are built equally, and this certainly isn't a clear enough overhaul of roster pieces to qualify for a full-blown rebuild, but it has many signs that the team won't be competing for at least the 2024-25 campaign. Good luck convincing all of Chicago that sending away their top-scoring option over the past three seasons, who represented the most recent All-Star selection and was a finalist for the league's Clutch Player of the Year award in each of the last two seasons, was a move that'll produce more wins. Not to mention also sending a back-to-back All-NBA Defensive Team member away for a much younger and raw asset. This team will be lucky to reach the Play-In Tournament, but Karnisovas argues otherwise.

"We're Going To Try To Win Every Game"

Clearly, no member of any tanking organization would answer differently, and Chicago's leadership group was no exception. Karnisovas and head coach Billy Donovan were in unison talking about the group's potential this season and how the projection is to still compete for an NBA Championship. This is no surprise, but would the Bulls consider tanking behind closed doors to obtain future assets?

Tanking this season may be easier than anticipated for the Chicago Bulls. The last two seasons have ended in Play-In Tournament losses, and now they're without their leading scorer over the past three years and their best defensive player, needing to replace two of the starting five. The mixture of new and returning talent is an intriguing product, but it'll take a fair amount of experimentation before it succeeds.

Winning Games Over Youth Development

In last week's interview, Billy Donovan did not mince his words when speaking on the influx of youth talent and several new faces in the organization. Whether the developing players were drafted by Chicago, acquired via trade, or signed in free agency, everyone's got something to prove to Donovan before seeing the floor. With two starters wearing new threads, there are plenty of minutes to fill.

This reinforces Karnisovas' comments that the Bulls will not be focused on anything but winning basketball games, even if it's at the expense of getting young players more exposure at the NBA level. This leads to the partial source of these theories via the sports media world, Matas Buzelis. The 19-year-old was drafted 11th overall by the Chicago Bulls and put the NBA world on notice with his stellar Vegas Summer League performances. Bulls Nation wants to see him at the professional level, and since this roster isn't built for championship contention, would prefer to see him gain experience this season.

Chicago's leadership has rejected the rebuild, but will Zach LaVine or Nikola Vucevic still be around following the trade deadline? The movement of either player would indicate that Chicago is eyeing the retention of its protected top-ten selection in the 2025 NBA Draft.