Executive Arturas Karnisovas hoping to have a Bullish market to sell

Arturas Karnisovas tries to be a master salesman.

Just push the rewind button to last April when the Bulls’ executive vice president of basketball operations was meeting with the media to put a bow on the 2022-23 campaign and proudly spoke about the 14-9 record to close out the regular season and the fact that they had eventual Eastern Conference champ Miami down with just under three minutes to go in the final play-in game.

That in itself was enough for Karnisovas to bring the band back together again and sprinkle in Jevon Carter and Torrey Craig in free agency.

Imagine what he’ll push in late April if this Bulls team can overcome a 5-14 start, numerous key injuries and finish .500?

That’s why these final three-plus weeks are huge for Karnisovas, starting Thursday in Houston.

Karnisovas cited the Bulls’ “competitiveness’’ as the reason for being idle at the February trade deadline. There’s no arguing that this team is competitive, as demonstrated by its 38 clutch games played and league-leading 24 wins (tied with Denver) in those games.

Sure, he’ll leave out the fact that the Bulls make every game hard and are still an ugly 14-29 against teams .500 or better, but why get too caught up in the details?

That’s why this Rockets game is significant.

A win and it will be the first time since Oct. 30 that the Bulls are a .500 team.

“It is frustrating whenever you get close,” center Nikola Vucevic said last week. “We’ve never been able to win that one game to get there, but at the same time we’re not going to stop fighting to get there.”

Especially with some easy fights lined up.

Of the 13 remaining games, at least seven are very winnable. If the Bulls can finish 41-41 — one game better than last season — and do so with Zach LaVine and Patrick Williams in walking boots after having season-ending foot surgeries, that’s all Karnisovas would need.

The rub, however, is Karnisovas has no choice but to push the current product because he also knows it will be almost impossible to change it this summer.

The Sun-Times, as well as other media outlets, have reported that the Bulls have been trying to trade the LaVine max contract going back to the 2023 trade deadline. That won’t ease up in the offseason, but the Bulls are also now operating from a position of weakness.

Not only because LaVine last played a game on Jan. 18 and wasn’t very good this season before he went down, but also because he still is owed $138 million through 2026-27. They would give LaVine away for nothing at this point, but even that would be difficult.

As bad as the LaVine injury was for the franchise, it may get very lucky with Williams, who was set for the restricted freeagent market in July.

Williams showed flashes again this year in his 43 games. The Bulls can let the market set a price that they may match, but what if there are no bids for the power forward? Then the Bulls can set the market and keep Williams in the fold, hoping he has a fifth-year breakout à la Coby White.

Getting Williams on the cheap also will allow them to make a serious pitch to extend DeMar DeRozan. Keeping both Williams and DeRozan seemed like a fairy tale at the start of the season, but the price tags have changed.

And the dark horse in all of this? What becomes of injured point guard Lonzo Ball? Could he be ready for the start of next year?

Karnisovas will try to sell it either way.

He always does.

NOTE: White (right hip) practiced in full Wednesday and is expected to return to the lineup against the Rockets after missing three games.