Chicago Bulls: What to know about Arturas Karnisovas

The Chicago Bulls have finally made a seismic change to the front office. In comes Arturas Karnisovas, formerly known as the general manager of the Denver Nuggets.

With Paxson’s role in the team shrinking considerably, it’s not quite the full measure of #FireGarPax that many Chicago Bulls fans wanted. But Wednesday night’s Woj Bomb was enough to satisfy the hunger of the Chicago Bulls faithful for the time being. Without question, it is a slam dunk hire (no pun intended). Karnisovas is a well-respected executive around the league and has the history and resume to back it up.

The plan is that he’ll bring in his own guys: a new general manager to go with a revamped and cutting edge basketball ops, scouting, and (knocking on wood as hard as he possibly could) analytics departments. Modernizing the front office will be the first major step towards fixing this organization and team, as long overdue as it is.

That means Gar Forman will be thanked for his earlier contributions as general manager, but be shown the door. Doug Collins, Jim Paxson and everyone else will be following suit.

Lastly, Jimbo Boylen will almost certainly be removed as head coach as he proved over a 123 game sample size that he was the most overmatched coach in the NBA and should have no part in the new direction the organization will be going in. He may love how his players battled night in and night out, but it was as clear as day that they had zero respect for him or his shenanigans.

All that said, who is Arturas Karnisovas?

The Lithuanian started his North American basketball career with four years as a small forward of the Seton Hall basketball program (1990-1994). All four years he was under the tutelage of P.J. Carlesimo, he was the very first player from the USSR (remember when that was a thing?) to play at an American university. He started all four years, helping lead the team to two Big East Tournament championships and four NCAA tournament bids.

From 1987 to 2002, he put together a polished professional career overseas before taking up a job within the NBA’s league office from 2003 to 2008. The Houston Rockets eventually hired him as a scout from 2008 to 2013, which should by no means be glossed over in any way. He began cutting his teeth under current GM Daryl Morey, one of the most forward-thinking, analytically-faced front office executives in the NBA:

In 2013, the Denver Nuggets hired him to be their assistant general manager. After the beginning of Denver’s turnaround, he was twice passed over for general manager positions with the Brooklyn Nets in 2016 and the Milwaukee Bucks in 2017. However soon after the Bucks went a different direction, Karnisovas was promoted to general manager. He and President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly oversaw the Nuggets grow into a true Western Conference playoff contender in only a few years.

So what now (or later)?

There is an awful lot that Artie has to take care of, top to bottom. While his first focus will be to rebuild the front office, he has a serious task involving the roster. With the COVID-19 pandemic leaving plenty of unknowns in the world of sports, it’s hard to say what the gameplan is. How is he going to go about evaluating the players? Will he try to see the whole team operate together in 2021 when everyone is (hopefully) 100% healthy? Is everyone on the trade block? What about the wild free agency class in 2021? How will that affect his strategy? Is this simply a restructuring or is this another rebuild?

There are plenty of unknowns within the Chicago Bulls organization, but Arturas Karnisovas is a beacon of light. A light that we have been begging for for years.