Chicago Bulls Top Exec Reveals Plans For Offseason

The Chicago Bulls have some big roster decisions to make this offseason. Notably, they have several important free agents to address — center Nikola Vucevic, plus guards Ayo Dosunmu, Coby White and Patrick Beverley.

And according to Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas, a rebuild is "not on our minds."

Arturas Karnisovas on the possibility of the Bulls becoming a tax paying team this summer and the future direction of the franchise:

“That’s been thrown around all this season, this “blow up, rebuild,” he said. “It’s not on our minds.“ pic.twitter.com/i859SM8hwS

— Darnell Mayberry (@DarnellMayberry) April 15, 2023

“That’s been thrown around all this season — ‘blow up, rebuild,’ ” Karnišovas said. “It’s not on our minds. The moment we changed our minds in (the) 2021 season to focus on winning and try to build a sustainable program here, that’s what we’re focused right now on. How we can help this group and how we can improve from this year."

Which sounds like, to start, he's heavily leaning towards bringing back most of those free agent pieces. 

Vucevic is unrestricted, so it'll be costly, but both sides seem to want him to return.

“He’s been awesome for us,” Karnišovas said. “He’s been available in all 82 games. He’s been our iron man together with Patrick Williams. He's a double-double machine as a top three player in double-doubles this year. So he's a huge part of this team. We hope to retain him.”

In the backcourt, with Lonzo Ball expected to possibly miss all of next season after his third knee surgery, the Bulls will need to retain most of their depth at guard. 

That means re-signing restricted free agents Dosunmu and White. Where that leaves Beverley remains to be seen.

One thing Karnisovas knows needs to be improved, is the three-point shooting. 

“It will be a priority for us to change our shooting profile because it's very difficult for us to go into every game with such a deficit,” Karnišovas admitted. “We're last in three-point rate, last in three-point field goals made. It's almost like we're going into every game with an eight-point deficit to make up for it. First is the shot creation and then obviously our personnel." 

The Bulls finished the season 40-42, won the first game of the Play-In tournament over the Toronto Raptors, but then lost a heartbreaker to the Miami Heat in the deciding Play-In game. 

Photo: Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports