Central Notes: Bulls, Cunningham, Duren, Pistons, Mitchell

The Bulls‘ front office went nearly three years (from August 2021 to June 2024) without making a trade involving a player, but the team has been a little more active on the trade market in the past year-and-a-half. According to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times, there’s a sense that trend could continue this season.

As Cowley explains, league sources have described executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas as more transparent in trade talks and more realistic in terms of his asking prices since last season’s trade deadline. Rival executives have gotten the sense that Karnisovas is open for business this winter, with the Bulls once again hovering just below .500 and more than half of their roster on expiring contracts.

Karnisovas is starting to feel more pressure from Bulls higher-ups to get the team pointed in the right direction, according to Cowley, who says the team has been hurt by too many “passive” decisions in recent years.

We have more from around the Central:

• After four days off, the banged-up Pistons will be getting some reinforcements and should be closer to full strength for their game against Phoenix on Thursday, tweets Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press. Point guard Cade Cunningham is off the injury report and will be available after missing two games due to a right wrist contusion, while center Jalen Duren is considered probable to play after being sidelined for four games with a sprained right ankle. Forward Tobias Harris (left hip sprain) and big man Isaiah Stewart (illness) are also listed as probable to return following brief absences.
• Hunter Patterson and John Hollinger of The Athletic team up to consider potential Pistons moves ahead of the trade deadline, as well as how the team might create room on the 15-man roster for two-way standout Daniss Jenkins. Hollinger suggests that Detroit still needs to find a long-term answer at power forward, while Patterson hears from league sources that the front office is expected to be “opportunistic but not aggressive.”
• Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell was born in New York, but he said in a video diary for Andscape that he’d like to play for the World team if he makes this year’s All-Star Game, pointing to his Panamanian roots on his mother’s side. “I do think I should be on the World team,” Mitchell said (YouTube link). “But I don’t think people look at me as like a Panamanian basketball player. But I do. I would love to be on the World team if I got a chance. If not, I’m not tripping. Don’t get me wrong. But I definitely want to show love to my Panamanian roots and my people in Panama.”