(670 The Score) The inconsistent Bulls wanted to be buyers ahead of the trade deadline Thursday afternoon, executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas said, but no deal to their liking materialized as Chicago instead stood pat.
"Consistency is the word, right?" Karnisovas told reporters in Brooklyn before the Bulls visited the Nets. "I think I can start with saying that we were pretty active at the trade deadline. It just didn't seem like there were deals for us to make to improve this group. At the end of the day, we decided to go with this group for the next 28 games. I just think this group showed some resiliency, improvement this year because we kind of flipped the script from last year – beating bad teams, losing to good teams. This year, it's winning against good teams and losing to below-.500 teams, staying in a lot of games. I'm like our fan base – I hate to lose in a lot of those close games. But a lot of those games, we were in it. It's just disappointing to see that our record doesn't show that we improved … We came to the conclusion that this was the best group for us to give us the best chance to win."
The Bulls are 26-28 and ninth in the East entering play Thursday evening. Their +0.5 point differential ranks in the middle of the NBA at 15th.
They'll continue to move forward with their core of guard Zach LaVine, forward DeMar DeRozan and center Nikola Vucevic. LaVine was dangled in preliminary trade discussions with the Knicks on Thursday, but no deal got close to being done, Joe Cowley of the Sun-Times reported. Vucevic had been a potential trade piece given that he's set to hit unrestricted free agency this summer, but the Bulls chose to hang on to him, meaning they'll look to re-sign him.
"That's what you're looking at – there were so many buyers," Karnisovas responded when asked if he was disappointed the Bulls couldn't make a deal. "There were a lot of teams that, do you want to take a step back? Including us, so we tried to improve our team, but at what cost? And that price was not OK with us.
"The next stage for us now that we've passed the trade deadline is to evaluate this group for the next 28 games. Like I said, mediocrity and average is not OK with us. But the next step is what's going to happen for the rest of the season and then how we can address during the draft and free agency the shortcomings."
The playoffs are still the Bulls' goal, Karnisovas said. If the playoffs began Thursday, the Bulls would have to win two straight games in the play-in round just to make the Eastern Conference's traditional eight-team bracket.
"Now that the trade deadline has passed, this is the group that we're sticking with," Karnisovaas said. "They can go out there and play and put a foot on the gas and put together a run."
The Bulls will browse the buyout market soon for help, Karnisovas said. The Bulls are already rumored to be interested in veteran point guard Russell Westbrook if he's bought out by the Jazz, and veteran point guard Reggie Jackson could be another option as signs pointing to the Hornets being set to part ways with him.
"We'll look at it, for sure," Karnisovas said.
Listen live to 670 The Score via:
Audacy App | Online Stream | Smart Speaker
