Bulls aim to exit NBA's 'middle' with busy deadline

The Chicago Bulls were one of the most active teams in the NBA before Thursday's trade deadline, executing seven deals to bring in a new mix of young players and extra draft picks. It was a flurry of moves vice president Arturas Karnisovas said came about because the team was "not satisfied with being in the middle."

"Being in the middle is what we don't want to do," Karnisovas told reporters after Thursday's deadline. "We've seen that for the past four years and we want to change that."

The Bulls deconstructed their roster in just a few days leading up to the deadline, trading away top scorer Coby White, leading rebounder Nikola Vucevic, key reserves Ayo Dosunmu and Kevin Huerter and former draft picks Dalen Terry and Julian Philips.

In exchange, the Bulls added a bevy of guards -- Jaden Ivey, Rob Dillingham, Collin Sexton and Anfernee Simons -- Leonard Miller, Nick Richards, Guerschon Yabusele and nine second round picks.

Karnisovas did not directly refer to the Bulls as rebuilding, calling it instead "a stage that we're in," but he laid out the tentpoles of what Chicago is prioritizing: youth, financial flexibility and draft capital. He outlined the team's core pieces -- Josh Giddey, Matas Buzelis and Noah Essengue -- and said he remained committed to building around them going forward.

"The play-in is not our goal," Karnisovas said. "A championship is. We know where we are in standings, and we are not satisfied with being in the middle as an organization or for our fans. At the same time, we are committed to building the right way without skipping steps. This process takes time, but we've already made [a] meaningful shift in how we are approaching roster building and development."

Chicago is currently in 10th place in the East, in position to make the play-in tournament for the fourth season in a row (they've lost to Miami in three straight years). They've finished with 39 wins in each of the past two seasons and 40 the year before that. In four consecutive seasons, the Bulls have been exactly 18-21 through 39 games, a lack of progress that finally forced Karnisovas to act.

Chicago began making moves to transition from its previous era of Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan last summer when they acquired Giddey for Alex Caruso, but they acted much more aggressively to overhaul their roster before Thursday's deadline.

The Bulls did not receive a first round pick back in any of the seven deals they made this week but Karnisovas said he did not regret waiting until now to pivot into a more full rebuild.

"The timing of it, the stage that we are in as a team, we started this last year," he said. "Going into this season, a lot of decisions had to be made with a lot of free agents. And that was a great opportunity for us during the trade deadline to address and get a lot of draft capital and target very specific players and take a look at them for the rest of the season."

The Bulls activity at this year's deadline represented a shift in tune for Karnisovas, now in his sixth season as lead executive for Chicago. The Bulls went three seasons (2022-24) without making a midseason move at all. And Karnisovas has often been resistant to the value of draft picks, especially in the second round. Yet on Thursday, he acknowledged "draft picks are currency."

"We've maintained sustained flexibility heading into the offseason," Karnisovas said. "That gives us real options, whether that's free agency, trades, the draft, or continuing investment in development.

"Flexibility allows us to be patient, but also decisive when the right opportunity presents itself. I believe you cannot have too many draft picks in terms of how you can operate for the future."