Arturas Karnisovas made it very clear on Saturday that every option will be explored when it comes to fixing the Bulls this offseason.
Well, almost everyone.
A scenario in which the roster is blown up and restarted from scratch? Not happening.
That wasn’t in the DNA of the executive vice president of basketball operations during the February trade deadline, and it won’t be this summer.
“That’s been thrown around all this season … ‘Blow up, rebuild’ … It’s not on our minds,’’ Karnisovas said. “I think the moment we changed our minds in 2021 season to kind of focus on winning and try to build a sustainable program here, I think that’s what we’re focused right now on.
“How we can help this group and how we can improve from this year, and that’s what our offseason goal is going to look like. We’re going to consider everything and how we can compete with the top teams.’’
Realistic?
Not with the current landscape of things.
There’s a reason the Bulls finished 40-42, and then lost to Miami on Friday in the final play-in spot of the Eastern Conference. They just weren’t good enough. A lack of three-point shooting – and making , too many slow starts, and a group that for some reason didn’t have a dog mentality late in games to put teams away.
Last season, Karnisovas watched almost this same roster finish 25-16 in clutch-game situations. Third best in the NBA. This season it fell to 15-23, which was the second fewest wins in those situations.
So does that mean bringing back the big-three core of Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic? That’s how it sounded.
“Well, we have to surround them with certain profile players, right?’’ Karnisovas said. “But I think we have all this time in the offseason to figure it out, how we can do better.’’
But saying the core was coming back and the reality of it are two very different things.
DeRozan is eligible for an extension with one more year left on his deal, while Vucevic is a free agent.
While the center continued to play coy with his exact plans, he did say that he would shop around.
“I would like to stay here,’’ Vucevic reiterated on Saturday. “But that’s on the front office to decide and work with my agent on the contract part. And also I’ll talk to them about their vision and plan and things like that. That’s as much as I can say. Obviously, I’ll be a free agent. I’ll see what else is out there and test the market.
“I’ve been here for 2 1/2 years now. I like my time here and built good relationships with my teammates, coaches, front office, people in the organization and around the city. So a lot of positives here. But we’ll see what their plan is and what they decide to do.’’
The elephant in the room that Karnisovas did dance around was the salary cap. If he does want to re-sign Vucevic, plus keep a Coby White on the roster, as well as add shooting to go along with LaVine and DeRozan, it would seem like he would have to venture over the cap and into the luxury tax. An area that the Reinsdorfs rarely venture, especially with a product that underachieved.
“In terms of support from the ownership, from Jerry and Michael [Reinsdorf], I’ll always add support and just obviously that’s going to have to be justified when we’re ready to push forward,’’ Karnisovas said. “It waits to be seen this offseason what this team is going to look like.’’
Karnisovas did say what he doesn’t want it to look like. A below .500 team that didn’t make the playoffs.
“At the end of the day, to be a .500 team is not good enough,’’ Karnisovas added. “It’s not good enough for this organization, it’s not good enough for the fan base.’’
