In the past decade under the John Paxson-Gar Forman regime, the Bulls notably struck out in high-profile pursuits of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade in 2010 and then Carmelo Anthony in 2014. They had plenty of other misses as well.
"He lives and breathes basketball," Morey said on the McNeil & Parkins Show on 670 The Score on Thursday afternoon. "I'm excited for you guys to get to know him better, because he's a great human being. He's frankly a much better communicator and someone people want to be around than myself, and I think that's another real skill for him that will come to play in free agency. Players are going to really want to work with him."
The 48-year-old Karnisovas, a Lithuania native, had a long playing career in Europe and has worldwide basketball connections that the Bulls hope can help broaden their talent base.
"A magnetic personality, really patient, really listens and then very thoughtful and smart," Morey said of Karnisovas.
Karnisovas worked for the Rockets from 2008-'13 before leaving for a promotion with the Nuggets. Morey credited Karnisovas for seeing how the NBA game would transform before others did, as rule changes and a better understanding of analytics led to teams eventually prioritizing a wider set of skills, including 3-point shooting ability.
"One thing I can tell you he was on even well before myself was how the league was going to evolve into more of a skill game," Morey said. "I used to somewhat like one-dimensional guys, guys who could gather all the rebounds like Rodman did for the famous Bulls teams. And Arturas was way ahead of the game, saying, 'No, look, it's going to transition and all five positions are going to have to be skilled.' And a lot of that comes from his background in Lithuania, where their academy trains basketball players better than any place in the world, you could argue. They get them at a young age, they work on basketball skill at a young age. He was always on that trend, and it's just going to keep going."