TORONTO — An acknowledgment of failure would have been a good starting point.
Then again, Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas doesn’t take that kind of responsibility very well.
He’ll dance around it and dip his toe in it, like he did Thursday, but he never fully will go down that road.
‘‘It’s my responsibility to make this better and move this organization into something sustainable at the highest level,’’ Karnisovas said in his news conference after the trade deadline.
Well, Arturas, it has been your responsibility for nearly six years now, and all the Bulls have to show for it is one playoff victory. Not a series victory, mind you, but one playoff game.
That’s malpractice punishable by termination for most NBA franchises, no questions asked.
And Karnisovas’ blind spot has been a complete lack of understanding about how to go about landing an elite player.
It’s not through free agency. Those days are over. And before they ended, Chicago was never a destination for elite free agents in the first place.
It’s definitely not by rifling through other teams’ trash, hoping to turn their disappointment into your prize. The Thunder landing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander from the Clippers in 2019 is the exception, not the rule. And while Josh Giddey is no longer the underwhelming player he was with the Thunder, he is merely a very good piece on the chessboard, not the king.
Still, this has been the process Karnisovas has been stuck on, playing the role of a raccoon.
The last week offered the latest evidence of that. Karnisovas was back to taking off the lid and flipping through other teams’ rosters, hoping to stumble on his Gilgeous-Alexander. Rob Dillingham, the No. 8 overall pick in 2024. Jaden Ivey, the No. 5 overall pick in 2022.
Both were once-shiny nickels who had lost a bit of their luster. Both rolled past Karnisovas and captured his attention.
Not a bad swing to take, but not every time at the plate.
Living in the land of ‘‘if,’’ however, is wasted energy. Karnisovas has the backing of Bulls ownership for now. Maybe that backing isn’t as strong as it once was, but you can take his immediate departure out of the equation.
The other ‘‘if’’ to move beyond is the idea that Karnisovas finally understands it’s time for the Bulls to tank. A top priority for a middle-tier team is to understand the currency of a draft class. The 2025 class and this upcoming class are full of game-changers. If only Karnisovas understood that better.
Karnisovas has shown an inability to draft well, so why not give him as many lottery balls as possible to make the process easier?
Pivoting to chasing lottery luck at this point in the season — after already securing 24 victories — and having at least nine teams tanking harder than the Bulls are is bad business.
Karnisovas’ immediate game plan, however, should be to hope for some lottery luck and to bully cash-strapped franchises with the muscle of financial flexibility. There will be only eight to 10 teams that will have the cash to bid on restricted free agents this summer, so Karnisovas can target players such as Jalen Duren, Walker Kessler and
Tari Eason.
Ideally for Bulls, the next five months will play out this way: They will land in the top seven of the draft, and Karnisovas will land a key restricted free agent.
Coincidentally, the word ‘‘raccoon’’ in Karnisovas’ Lithuanian language is ‘‘meskenas.’’ It translates to ‘‘kind of a bear but not really.’’
That’s fitting because, to this point, Karnisovas has been kind of an executive but not really.
