The most mediocre team in pro sports is looking for a savior.
On Monday, the Chicago Bulls fired vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley, initiating a search for a new lead executive to breathe life into a dormant franchise.
The Bulls have won five playoff series in the 28 years since Michael Jordan walked away from Chicago for the last time. Over the 11 seasons since their last series victory, the Bulls rank 23rd in win percentage but have only drafted in the top five once.
Much of the blame falls on notoriously frugal owner Jerry Reinsdorf (and his son, CEO Michael Reinsdorf), who's only spent into the luxury tax once while simultaneously avoiding the type of tear-it-down rebuilds that are painful yet necessary.
While Chicago's performance on the court receives much of the attention and criticism, Jerry Reinsdorf's hiring practices (and refusal to spend) in the C-suite may be what's doomed the Bulls. The owner sat idly by for years while John Paxson and Gar Forman - an executive duo dubbed GarPax - ran the team into the ground.
Paxson and Forman "earned" three consecutive top-seven picks between 2018 and 2020. The Bulls selected Wendell Carter Jr., Coby White, and Patrick Williams. The latter is one of the league's worst rotation players, while Carter and White were eventually traded by the incompetent Karnisovas-led front office that replaced GarPax (Paxson remains with the organization).
Karnisovas wanted to expedite the team's rebuild in his first year on the job. Despite the fact the Bulls were 10th in the Eastern Conference, he traded Carter and two first-round picks to the Orlando Magic for veteran big man Nikola Vucevic in March 2021. One of those picks turned into Franz Wagner, an All-Star-level talent when healthy. On the same day, the Bulls traded Daniel Gafford and Luke Kornet for what was essentially just Javonte Green and cash.
Later that year, Karnisovas traded eventual All-Star Lauri Markkanen for Derrick Jones Jr. and a couple picks that haven't conveyed.
We could go on and on, but the gist of Karnisovas' grand vision was to create a Big Three - or, as I deemed them, a Mid Three - of Vucevic, Zach LaVine, and DeMar DeRozan. The defensively challenged star trio had "first-round exit" written all over it despite a first-place start to the 2021-22 season, with Lonzo Ball's knee injury eventually sealing Chicago's fate.
The Bulls responded by doubling down on their flawed core despite sinking to a losing record in 2022-23. In fairness to the Reinsdorfs, Karnisovas reportedly had the green light to do whatever he saw fit following that campaign, but the then-VP affirmed a rebuild wasn't on his mind.
In the first two seasons after that sliding doors moment, the Bulls played three play-in games, appeared in zero playoff contests, and selected 11th and 12th in the first round of the draft.
After balking at earlier suggestions to tear it down, Karnisovas eventually sold low on the team's most valuable players and assets. If you follow the transaction trees, all the Bulls have to show for moving LaVine, DeRozan, Vucevic, and White are Tre Jones, Lachlan Olbrich, a pair of 2031 second-round picks, and the expiring trio of Collin Sexton, Zach Collins, and Nick Richards.
Jaden Ivey was part of one of those trees, but it swiftly became clear that the Bulls didn't do their homework before acquiring the former top-five pick.
By the time Karnisovas and Eversley were relieved of their duties this week, the team's underwhelming core consisted of Josh Giddey, Matas Buzelis, Rob Dillingham, and Noa Essengue. Buzelis is a promising sophomore and Giddey has utility, but there aren't any surefire stars in the system. Meanwhile, Williams is still owed $54 million and has a 2028-29 player option for some reason.
During his six-year tenure, Karnisovas oversaw only one playoff team, yet the Bulls averaged 39 wins and never made a top-10 pick. It's worth noting that Karnisovas (and presumably the Reinsdorfs) finally accepted that a complete reset was necessary at some point this season. But with a third of the league tanking and most of those intentional losers beating the Bulls to the punch, Chicago will likely enter the draft lottery with the ninth-best odds.
If the Bulls cash in on their 4.5% odds of winning the No. 1 overall pick - or their roughly 20% odds of landing a top-four selection - things could change instantly. Such a stroke of luck could deliver the type of franchise-changing talent the Bulls have been seeking since former MVP Derrick Rose crumpled to the court 14 years ago.
But those same odds suggest there's an 80% chance Chicago's pick will land somewhere between ninth and 11th, an all-too-familiar result for the NBA's most mediocre club.
It will likely be up to the Bulls' new front office to creatively navigate their way out of the league's slums - no small task given the weaker draft classes on the horizon in 2027 and 2028. The Bulls could have more cap space than any other team, but this summer's free-agent class isn't one to invest in, especially for a club starting from scratch.
There's also the question of head coach Billy Donovan's future. Donovan is a fine coach, but his presence shouldn't hamstring Chicago's executive search. Unfortunately, it sounds like that's exactly what will happen.
Regardless, the first step is ownership spending what's required to land a true culture-setter in the front office. Michael Reinsdorf said in a statement that he is "fully committed to getting this right." But actions speak louder than words, and his family's track record doesn't give Chicago much reason for hope.
Joseph Casciaro is theScore's lead NBA reporter.
