"I feel the core of this team is great," Karnisovas said on the Mully & Haugh Show on Monday morning.
The Bulls' core is viewed as guard Zach LaVine, guard Coby White, power forward Lauri Markkanen and center Wendell Carter Jr. LaVine just produced a strong season, while White had an up-and-down rookie campaign -- like you might expect -- that ended with him playing his best basketball yet. The progress of Markkanen in his third year and Carter in his second year largely stalled, which partly explained the Bulls' struggles and Boylen's exit.
"By adding another (draft) pick, we're going to look at free agency, we're going to have one or two other players, I think it's a good situation right now that we're in," Karnisovas said.
Karnisovas also shared his other selling points for the Bulls' coaching job.
"Chicago is a basketball market and great sports town," he said. "Besides that, the Bulls are a franchise committed to being a winning organization. I think this restructuring presents that."
When asked how important previous heading coaching experience is in evaluating candidates, Karnisovas didn't tip his hand at all. He responded simply that the Bulls would see who's available and who fits the team's criteria. The only criteria that Karnisovas has revealed so far is that he wants a coach who views "player care" as a "No. 1 priority" and someone with a strong background in player development.
"I don't have a specific timeline," Karnisovas said. "Our staff is generating a list of candidates and we will start exploring those options over the next several weeks. So no timeline.
"The process is a lot of background and a lot of you look at criteria that you're looking for, and you find candidates that fit that criteria. I don't want to get too much into specifics, but our main focus, as we have said before, is player development. Our core is young, and we want to be attentive to that. That said, we still have expectations of competing at a high level this season and moving forward."