Chicago Bulls fans will just have to wait.
The morning after another demoralizing ending to a losing season, executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas wanted to talk about time.
The Bulls aren’t competitive — not in the play-in tournament, not in the Eastern Conference and certainly not in the NBA at large. They ended the season without a postseason win or an All-Star on the roster. And while the team is used to losing, this season offered few glimpses into what a successful version might look like in upcoming years.
So how is Karnišovas charting a path for the Bulls to return to relevance?
“I’m asking fans for patience,” he said Thursday. “Because we’re in the first year of that transition. I thought that the way we finished the year shows some promise.
“It’s hard to win games in this league, and to finish 15-5 — yeah, it’s not a victory lap, but there’s some positives and I think we’ve got to keep on building on this group.”
Karnišovas repeatedly emphasized that the Bulls are following a plan to “minimize the timeline” of a rebuild. But he shared only a few short-term goals for that project: draft a player with a lottery pick, add a piece in free agency, retain Josh Giddey with a new contract and develop young talent.
Beyond that, Karnišovas refused to give any clarity about what the Bulls believe is necessary to become competitive again. His final news conference of the season — only the third time he spoke publicly — left only a handful of scattered clues about the franchise’s future trajectory.
Karnišovas didn’t estimate a length of this new timeline for rebuilding. He wouldn’t commit to whether the front office will prioritize acquiring talent through the draft — versus making trades — when utilizing future first-round picks.
“We’ve done trades, we’ve signed free agents,” Karnišovas said. “We’re going to look at everything. Everything is on a table. I’m not going to talk about speculations.”
This season brought only a few marginal victories for the Bulls. They finally traded former star Zach LaVine, creating more salary flexibility by offloading his maximum contract. Rookie Matas Buzelis showed promise as a building block for the future. Coby White adapted well to a new central role.
Photos: Chicago Bulls lose to the Miami Heat in play-in tournament game
Karnišovas wanted to extrapolate those minor wins into big-picture positivity. He repeatedly pointed to the 15-5 finish to the regular season as evidence of the current roster’s promise. (This ignores the reality that the Bulls beat a large handful of tanking teams while also benefiting from back-to-back scheduling for several key road upsets.)
And despite a third straight season under .500, Karnišovas defended the idea that the Bulls outperformed expectations.
“You projected before the year that we were going to have 28 wins,” Karnišovas said to one reporter. “And, you know, we had 39.”
Protecting the team’s first-round pick was a stated goal for Karnišovas this season — even though he wouldn’t allow the team to tank. Instead of achieving that ambition through losing, the Bulls regained outright control of the pick in the LaVine trade. But refusing to play the draft lottery game heavily devalued the pick the Bulls retained.
In a best-case scenario — the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat winning their play-in games Friday — the Bulls would have a 2% chance of landing the No. 1 pick and a 9.4% chance of landing in the top four. If both the Mavericks and Heat lose, the Bulls’ odds would be 1.2% for the No. 1 pick and 5.7% for a top-four.
The likeliest outcome will be the Bulls picking at the bottom of the lottery (between No. 11 and 13) again — a prospect Karnišovas shrugged off.
“I have full confidence in our staff,” he said. “Regardless of where we’re picking, I think we can always find value. Watching what Matas has done and his progression during the year, that gives you hope.”
Karnišovas also reiterated his belief in the roster’s young core — specifically White and Giddey.
Both guards took major steps forward on the offensive end, collaborating most prolifically after the All-Star break. But the season also revealed a variety of weaknesses in both of their games, which were most ruthlessly exposed in Wednesday’s 109-90 loss to the Heat.
Karnišovas said he believes the Bulls might already have two All-Star-level talents on their roster if White and Giddey develop to their full potential.
“We’re always going to be looking at how to improve this roster by adding a high-caliber player,” he said. “At the same time, I would not put any limitations on this roster or the way Coby has been playing or the way Josh has been playing. Those players have a chance of playing on a very high level. There’s a lot to like about this young roster.”
For the previous two seasons, the Bulls treaded water. This was the first year they took a quantifiable step backward.
While they recorded the same regular-season record (39-43) as in 2023-24, they won one fewer play-in game. It’s a small metric that reflects a larger truth: Even in an Eastern Conference with five teams actively tanking to protect their draft picks, the Bulls are incapable of keeping up.
That’s not good enough. Karnišovas said so himself. How he begins to amend those failures — and how long that process takes — will define the Bulls’ next era.
