The Bulls Finally Pulled the Plug. What Took So Long?

Six years. One playoff appearance. Zero series wins. A 224-254 record. And somehow, the most damning number of all: **zero first-round picks acquired** from trading away seven significant players. On Monday, the Chicago Bulls finally fired Executive Vice President Arturas Karnisovas and General Manager Marc Eversley. Michael Reinsdorf released a statement about "going in a new direction" and "positioning our team for sustained success." Standard corporate language for what fans have been screaming into the void for three years: *these guys had no plan.* The question isn't why they were fired. It's why it took this long. ## The Promise When Karnisovas arrived in April 2020, Chicago exhaled. The GarPax era — Gar Forman and John Paxson's 17-year stranglehold on the franchise — was finally over. Here was a guy from Denver's front office, the organization that built around Nikola Jokic. He talked about collaboration, modern basketball philosophy, independent thinking. Marc Eversley came from Philly a few weeks later. Billy Donovan was hired in September. The vibes were immaculate. Then they actually had to make decisions. ## The All-In Summer That Wasn't The 2021 offseason was supposed to be the turning point. Karnisovas swung big: Lonzo Ball from New Orleans. DeMar DeRozan in a sign-and-trade from San Antonio (costing a future first). Alex Caruso from the Lakers. Suddenly Chicago had a real roster around Zach LaVine. And for half a season, it worked. The 2021-22 Bulls started 27-13. They looked like a legitimate threat in the East. Then Lonzo's knee gave out on January 14, 2022. He wouldn't play another NBA game for 1,013 days. That's not a typo. One thousand and thirteen days. Three surgeries. A cartilage transplant. A meniscus transplant. An entire career's worth of medical procedures crammed into two and a half years. The $85 million they committed to Ball? Gone. The playmaker who made the offense hum? Gone. The defense that held it all together? Gone. The Bulls still finished 46-36 — their only winning season under Karnisovas — and promptly got gentleman-swept by Milwaukee in the first round, losing four of five. That was the high-water mark. ## The Slow, Agonizing Decline Here's what came next: | Season | Record | Result | |--------|--------|--------| | 2022-23 | 40-42 | Missed playoffs | | 2023-24 | 39-43 | Missed playoffs | | 2024-25 | 39-43 | Missed playoffs | | 2025-26 | 29-49 | Missed playoffs | Three straight seasons of 39-43 or 40-42. Not good enough to make noise. Not bad enough to get a top pick. The NBA's version of purgatory. And Karnisovas just... stayed the course. Refused to blow it up. Refused to commit to a rebuild. Kept running it back with a core that had a ceiling of the play-in tournament. Every trade deadline came and went with minor moves. Every offseason brought incremental changes instead of a real direction. ## The Asset Destruction This is where it gets truly criminal. The Bulls had real, tradeable talent. LaVine was a two-time All-Star. DeRozan made All-NBA in 2022. Caruso was the best perimeter defender in basketball. Vucevic was a reliable 20-and-10 center. Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu were quality young guards. Every single one of them got traded. Here's what Chicago got back: **Alex Caruso → Josh Giddey.** A straight swap with OKC in June 2024. Caruso went on to make All-Defensive teams and help the Thunder contend. Giddey struggled in Chicago. Then the Bulls gave Giddey a 4-year, $100 million extension. For a player they'd had for two months. **DeMar DeRozan → Chris Duarte, two second-round picks, and cash.** The guy who made All-NBA as a Bull. Gone for scraps in a sign-and-trade to Sacramento. **Zach LaVine → Tre Jones, Zach Collins, Kevin Huerter, and their own first-round pick back.** After two years of trying to move his $215 million contract, this was the best they could do. No new first-round capital. Just salary filler and the return of a pick they'd already given away. **Nikola Vucevic → Anfernee Simons.** Decent return in isolation, but Simons is on an expiring deal. **Coby White → Collin Sexton, Ousmane Dieng, three second-round picks.** **Ayo Dosunmu → Rob Dillingham, Leonard Miller, three-to-four second-round picks.** **Lonzo Ball → Isaac Okoro.** A former number-two pick for a role player. Fitting end to a cursed acquisition. Add it all up. Seven significant players traded. Zero new first-round picks acquired. A mountain of second-rounders that'll mostly become European stash-and-forget projects. The cupboard isn't bare — it's full of condiment packets. ## The Overpays Bad trades are one thing. Bad contracts are another. Karnisovas signed both. **LaVine's $215 million max extension** (July 2022) was the original sin. The team had just been bounced in the first round. Ball's knee was already a question mark. LaVine's own knee had required surgery. And Karnisovas handed him the biggest contract in franchise history. Within a year, LaVine was essentially untradeable. His value cratered, his injury history grew, and the Bulls spent two and a half years trying to find someone — anyone — willing to take the deal. **Patrick Williams' $90 million extension** in 2024 was the sequel nobody wanted. The fourth overall pick from 2020 had shown flashes but never sustained production. Ninety million dollars for a player who averaged fewer than 12 points per game as a starter. Karnisovas bet on potential. The market bet against it. **Josh Giddey's $100 million extension** after two months in Chicago was the cherry on top. A player acquired for pennies on the dollar (Caruso), immediately locked into long-term money. Classic sunk cost thinking dressed up as conviction. ## The Final Straw The February 2026 trade deadline was supposed to be the reset. Six deals. Full teardown. Strip it down and start fresh. Instead, it became the final indictment. No first-round picks came back. And then came Jaden Ivey. Acquired from Detroit in the deadline shuffle, Ivey was waived days later after anti-LGBTQ social media posts surfaced. The Reinsdorf family — who had publicly championed inclusion — was reportedly furious. Not just at Ivey, but at the front office that brought him in without proper vetting. That was the last straw. ## What's Left The Bulls' current roster reads like a collection of reclamation projects and expiring deals: - **Josh Giddey** (23, locked into $100M) - **Patrick Williams** (24, locked into $90M) - **Matas Buzelis** (20, project wing from the 2024 draft) - **Noa Essengue** (19, raw project from 2025) - **Rob Dillingham** (21, acquired for Dosunmu) - **Anfernee Simons** (expiring) - **Collin Sexton** (veteran guard) There's young talent. There's also nearly $200 million committed to Giddey and Williams — two players the rest of the league valued far lower than what Chicago is paying. The one silver lining: the Bulls own all their future first-round picks, 2026 through 2032, plus a lottery-protected first from Portland. For the first time in the Karnisovas era, Chicago actually has draft capital. ## What Comes Next Michael Reinsdorf, alongside senior advisor John Paxson (yes, that John Paxson), will lead the executive search. The irony is thick enough to cut. Bob Myers — the former Warriors executive who built Golden State's dynasty — has been mentioned as a top target. He'd bring instant credibility and a championship blueprint. Then there's Billy Donovan. The head coach is seriously considering leaving. A "growing belief around the league" suggests he's done in Chicago. UNC wants him. Can you blame him? Six years of treading water would exhaust anyone. Donovan said he won't make a decision until after April 12. But the tea leaves aren't subtle. ## The Verdict Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley didn't fail because they lacked intelligence or work ethic. They failed because they couldn't commit. Couldn't commit to competing. Couldn't commit to rebuilding. Couldn't commit to the hard, painful decisions that define front office success. They spent six years stuck in the middle — too proud to tank, too timid to go all-in — and the result was the most forgettable era in Bulls basketball since the pre-Jordan days. The Bulls haven't won a playoff series since 2015. Eleven years. An entire generation of Chicago fans has grown up knowing nothing but mediocrity from a franchise that once defined greatness. Karnisovas inherited a mess. He left behind a different mess with worse contracts and fewer assets. The next front office inherits a blank canvas — young players, future picks, and a city desperate for direction. The talent will come. The cap flexibility will come. What matters now is finding someone with the vision and the spine to actually commit to a path. Chicago has waited long enough.