”Overhaul?” “Reconstruction?” “Rebuild?” (Oh, sorry. Don’t use that word.) “Reset?” “Purge?” “Tank?” “Tear down?” “Demolition?” Yeah, that last one. That fits perfectly.
So this is (supposed to be) the Bulls’ version of “here we go!” Of their six-year vision coming to fruition. Their big plan finally making sense.
“It’s my responsibility to make this better and move this organization into something sustainable at the highest level.”
Those words had the nerve to exit Arturas Karnisovas’ soul Thursday after his “Rains of Castamere” trade-deadline day.
What have the last six years — this “experiment,” their “process” — all been for if this is the grand finale? Is there a vision that only Karnisovas sees where this is going to be better or at least vastly different than before?
New faces. New place. Same s—. Different toilet paper. These Bulls ain’t loyal.
The blood that is dripping from the knife you just pulled out of your back is not proverbial. Because the betrayal that inserted it isn’t. If nothing else can be said about what the franchise just did, there’s no other way to frame it for anyone who has stuck with this team’s insanity over the last decade but to call it what it actually is.
While resting in the 10th spot (again!) for the infamous play-in at the moment, rarely do you see a team lowering the bar for itself. Subtraction by addition. So many guards, so little bigs. Superstar-less and All-Star-less again. One bad decision after another. The Bulls act like they’re allergic to aprons.
So that’s Anfernee Simons, Collin Sexton, Jaden Ivey, Josh Giddey, Matas Buzelis, Isaac Okoro, Tre Jones, Jalen Smith, Zach Collins, Yuki Kawamura, Ousmane Dieng, Guerschon Yabusele, Rob Dillingham, Leonard Miller and Mac McClung. And somehow Patrick Williams and Noa Essengue remained. (Insert shrug emoji here.)
What is coach Billy Donovan going to do with this roster that he didn’t with the rosters before this? What are AK and general manager Marc Eversley going to do to make better with this new “juggernaut” they created with seven new players that they couldn’t with the last? What is Michael Reinsdorf, as Lord Walder Frey, going to do to cover up the blood he is solely responsible for?
They just helped the Celtics, Pistons, Hornets and maybe the Knicks (who got Jose Alvarado in return for the Bulls trading Dalen Terry to New York) in the East. (And they damn sure helped the Timberwolves in the West, sending them Ayo Dosunmu.) These are teams they’re going to have to beat at some point to get to that place their mouths keep telling us they want to go. Years away from making the Finals.
Is it all a move to get Zion Williamson? Put themselves in a stronger position to maybe get Giannis Antetokounmpo over the summer? Fill the stadium seats on the regular for Ja Morant games? Or are the Bulls purposely trying to beat the Grizzlies and Kings to the title of “worst franchise in sports history” that the Clippers once held? Or, like they’ve been for the last six years and counting, is the answer somewhere in the middle?
Former Nuggets coach Michael Malone, whom Karnisovas worked with for five years in Denver, is big on “understanding the why” in life and in life in the NBA. As we sit through this latest activity by the Bulls in addition to their public responses to the new chaos they just caused, we still do not “understand the why.” We don’t even know if they understand their own why. We do understand this African American proverb via Cottage Grove, though: “For whatever reason this is going down, I ain’t gotta go down with it.”
With cap projection beginning at $166 million, the Bulls have somewhere in the neighborhood of $86 million in cap space to mess around with this summer. With about 400 second-round picks. (OK, 14. Same thing.) For what? For naught? What’s the why? Draft capital is only as good as those making the decisions.
No player available in free agency is going to put the Bulls over the hill they’ve let the franchise die on. The front office’s “clean house” screams keep getting louder by the hour. The one question that overrides all of the questions asked in this column is: What now becomes the Bulls’ identity? Not in the form of a player, not in style of play, but in the form of a composite of a team, in the functionality and aptitude as an organization.
The Painful Era is over. Enter the numbness. The don’t care anymore. The End game. With these latest moves seeming like the culmination of their six-year plan, betrayal becomes us.
