MEMPHIS, Tenn. — “Continuity” has been the drumbeat coming from the Bulls and executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas for several years.
There’s a difference between continuity and flat-out roster neglect, however, and Karnisovas is guilty of the latter — on several counts, at that.
The NBA trade deadline came and went Thursday, and the Bulls were busy taking and making phone calls in the days leading up to it, but when it came time to pull the trigger on several possible deals, Karnisovas opted to remain passive until at least the offseason.
That meant no DeMar DeRozan trade, which was understandable. The Sun-Times had been reporting that the Bulls wanted to keep DeRozan, who has an expiring contract, and try to negotiate an extension with him this summer.
There also was no Alex Caruso deal, which wasn’t a shock, considering the defensive-minded guard was deemed all but untouchable going back to last season’s trade deadline and the Bulls were asking for too much in return for him.
But Andre Drummond staying put? This one was a slight surprise. Why would the Bulls, a ninth-place team, hold on to a backup center who could’ve brought in draft assets.
Even more confusing, this is the third consecutive trade deadline in which the once-aggressive Karnisovas decided to sit on his hands while teams in the Eastern Conference continued to get better immediately and for the future.
And to add even more layers to that confusion, he actually dressed it all up as remaining “competitive.”
Reminder: This group has one playoff win in two-plus seasons and was three games under .500 at the deadline.
“If you look at every option that was out there to improve your team, we didn’t see anything that was going to make us better,” Karnisovas said. “We would take a step back, which we don’t want. We want to stay competitive. We have an obligation to this organization, this fan base and this city to stay competitive and compete for the playoffs, and that’s what we’re doing.”
When called out on his view of what “competitive” is, especially when asked to compare that to mediocre, Karnisovas responded, “I think we can comment on that in 30 games, right? It’s a results-driven business, and I get it, and I’ll take responsibility for failures. At this point, it’s very early to say what is success, what is not success. So we have 30 games to go; we’ll see what this team can do.”
The one player the Bulls were aggressively trying to trade was Zach LaVine, and as reported several times since December, the leaguewide opinion on the two-time All-Star was the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze with his max contract.
LaVine will make $40 million this season, $43 million next season, $46 million in 2025-26, then owns the option for the final year at just under $49 million.
Any hope of moving him, however, died in the last week when LaVine and his representation at Klutch Sports opted for season-ending surgery on his right foot that will sideline him for the next four to six months. That surgery took place Thursday, and Karnisovas again downplayed any rift between LaVine and the franchise, even though the leak that LaVine favored a move out of Chicago came from his group.
“I think Zach wants to win, and bottom line is we’re a better team with Zach on the team,” Karnisovas said. “It’s as simple as that.”
And anyone who thought ownership would be growing impatient with Karnisovas, well, think again.
“Yes, ownership is supporting me, whatever we decide moving forward,” Karnisovas said, “whatever we decide to do with this team.”
The drumbeat goes on.
