WASHINGTON — Arturas Karnisovas saw it firsthand.
The Bulls’ executive vice president of basketball operations was in Charlotte on Monday for the hold-on-to-your-seats 115-108 overtime win over an undermanned flailing Hornets squad.
Two nights later, Karnisovas tagged in Marc Eversley so he could presumably zoom off to scout for a draft pick that they could very well not have, and it was the general manager’s turn to stand watch.
What Eversley got to witness was a Wizards team that wasn’t sitting any of their talent, mostly because they are void of it, evident by the fact that they were a five-win team, losers of 23 of their last 26 games. A franchise that is the poster boy for NBA tanking this season, and everyone knows it.
Yet, the Bulls GM got a front-row seat to an embarrassing 125-107 loss to the Wizards, and that came with Zach LaVine (left toe) back in the lineup.
Which leads to the ongoing question of the Bulls seasons: What are we doing here?
No, like what are we actually doing?
The trade deadline is still over a month away, but the 15-19 Bulls don’t have the luxury of waiting until Feb. 6 to try and dump valuable cargo. Not when there are right-thinking front offices making sure that they have a ticket for the draft lottery already in pocket.
Then there’s Karnisovas, publicly playing the role of martyr, hell-bent on competing at any cost even if that means finishing out of the top 10 and gift-wrapping the 2025 first-round protected pick to a Spurs franchise that is building the right way.
Memo to Karnisovas: Your “competitive” roster barely beat the Hornets and then got run out of the building against the Wizards.
This is no longer a front office that just appears to be very unserious about the business of basketball, it’s a front office on the verge of committing organizational malpractice.
And save the excuses about not being able to find the right trade partner in the market. That hasn’t stopped Brooklyn, that didn’t slow down the Lakers from dumping the D’Angelo Russell contract that everyone knew they wanted to trade.
When you’re sitting in that executive seat of a global brand like the Bulls and the Nets front office is outworking you? Maybe this isn’t the right career choice.
Suddenly, Gar/Pax doesn’t seem so bad.
Former executive John Paxson made his share of errors — that comes with the business — but looking back at it now and having an apple to compare to an apple, Paxson and Gar Forman drafted much better than this regime did and knew when it was time to walk away.
It’s almost like Karnisovas pulled off Plan A prior to the 2021-22 season — and a solid plan it was — but when Lonzo Ball went down to a season-ending left knee injury that January, has never been able to pivot or even figure out how to climb out of that roster hole.
Arturas, the job requires a Plan B, C and D.
Besides this current roster proving to be very mediocre at best the last week, it’s not like Karnisovas is going to get bailed out by his coach in the losing games department. Billy Donovan made that very clear yet again on Wednesday when discussing why a veteran like Torrey Craig — who is really not in the future plans — got more minutes than rookie Matas Buzelis against the Hornets.
“It’s hard for me as a coach to say, ‘OK, I’m taking (Craig) off the floor and I’m just going to throw Matas out there,’ because the group is really working towards trying to put their best foot forward and put themselves into position to win,” Donovan said. “And I feel like I’ve got a responsibility to try and help them.”
Karnisovas has a responsibility as well. It’s on him to understand the big picture and do right by this organization. What he’s doing now isn’t even close to working.
Charlotte and Washington were the latest reminders of that.
