Bulls executive VP of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas defended his team’s limited moves leading up to the trade deadline in an interview with K.C. Johnson of Chicago Sports Network ( Twitter link ).

In a three-team deal with San Antonio and Sacramento, the Bulls traded former two-time All-Star wing Zach LaVine to reacquire control of their own top-10 protected first-round 2025 pick, along with three fringe role players.

Headed nowhere fast with a 22-30 pre-deadline record, Karnisovas opted to otherwise stay quiet and not move on from former two-time All-Star center Nikola Vucevic , despite there being trade overtures for his services.

During his conversation with Johnson, Karnisovas cited system continuity as part of the reason he didn’t want to move more key rotation players from what’s looking to be barely a play-in team.

“I think I’m happy where we are,” Karnisovas told Johnson. “I remember [the] trade deadline four years ago, when we acquired Vuc and we had, like, [five new] players. And it was tough for the 30 games remaining in season… to keep the same group and learning how to play with each other and all that stuff.”

After trading for Vucevic at the 2020/21 season deadline, Chicago went 12-17 across its final 29 contests and finished as the No. 11 seed. In the intervening seasons, the team had made zero trade deadline moves until this year. Although they’ve qualified for the play-in tournament several times, the Bulls have only made the actual playoffs once since adding Vucevic, with or without in-season trades.

A more talented Philadelphia team is breathing down the Bulls’ necks, just one game behind 10th-seeded Chicago as of this writing. Karnisovas’ argument for system continuity to effectively preserve an underwhelming team performance rings hollow.

Jon Greenberg of The Athletic also calls out Karnisovas for not having or explaining a clear vision for Chicago after dealing LaVine, while his colleague Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic is similarly baffled.