Central Notes: Donovan, Bulls, Cavs, Bucks, Gores
Before the Bulls fired top executives Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley last week, it felt like there was a 90% chance that head coach Billy Donovan would be leaving the team, according to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times, who suggests that the former front office didn’t seem to have a plan that would make Donovan optimistic about the team’s future.
However, with Karnisovas and Eversley no longer in the picture, Donovan’s decision feels more like a coin flip, Cowley writes, speculating that there’s now a “49%” chance of the head coach departing.
Within his story, Cowley writes that Karnisovas’ and Eversley’s talent evaluation had long been considered questionable, dating back to the 2020 draft, when Karnisovas “fixated” on Patrick Williams with the No. 4 overall pick. According to one of Cowley’s sources, there were scouts and executives within the organization who preferred Tyrese Haliburton, but Karnisovas didn’t view the point guard as a “serious prospect.” Haliburton has since made two All-NBA teams and gotten within one win of a championship.
We have more from around the Central:
- In a separate story for the Chicago Sun-Times, Cowley considers a few potential targets for the Bulls with their newly secured second first-round pick, courtesy of Portland. Cowley identifies UConn’s Braylon Mullins, Michigan’s Aday Mara, and Kentucky’s Jayden Quaintance as prospects who Chicago may consider drafting using that pick, which will be either 15th or 16th overall.
- What’s at stake for the Cavaliers during this year’s playoffs? “Everything,” according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (subscription required), who believes that any number of organizational and roster changes could be on the table if Cleveland fails to advance to at least the conference finals this spring after spending more than any other team on its roster in 2025/26.
- Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (subscription required) poses some of the most pressing questions facing the Bucks this summer, including whether ownership wants to keep Giannis Antetokounmpo long-term, who will be the next head coach, and whether they can nail their first lottery pick since 2016.
- Pistons owner Tom Gores published a letter on Tuesday thanking fans for sticking with the team through a challenging rebuild that included five straight years between 14 and 23 wins, including a franchise-worst 14-68 mark in 2023/24. “What we’re building here is a story for the ages,” Gores wrote. “One of the great comeback stories in sports, and not just because of where we are today but because of how we got here.”
Bulls Notes: Giddey, Donovan, Buzelis, Miller, Dillingham
Bulls guard Josh Giddey had been away from the team over the past week and didn’t have an opportunity to weigh in on the recent firings of Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley until Friday, per Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. Giddey, who will end up missing the final five games of 2025/26 due to a nagging hamstring injury, gave a diplomatic response, saying he understood it was a business but appreciated what the two front office executives had done for him the past couple years.
Giddey also discussed the future of head coach Billy Donovan, and he made it clear he’s a big fan of the 60-year-old. Donovan will meet with the team’s ownership after the regular season ends.
“He’s been awesome,” Giddey said. “I’ve loved him ever since I got here. He’s been very straightforward, and I think all the guys would say the same thing. He’s very direct. He tells you what you need to hear and not what you want to hear, and he gives it to you straight. He coaches hard; he wants to win every game. You see how competitive he is on the sidelines. I couldn’t speak highly enough about him. I hope he’s here for a long time.”
As for his own performance this season, Giddey said it was, “OK, up and down” on an individual level but he hopes to have more team success going forward.
“I’ve got to find ways to impact winning, and that’s probably the next step for me as a player,” he said.
Here’s more on the Bulls:
- Second-year forward Matas Buzelis, another perceived member of Chicago’s core, reiterated his support for Donovan on Friday, tweets Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic. Buzelis, who was away from the team at the time due to an illness, said he called Donovan on the phone when he learned Karnisovas and Eversley were being dismissed. “I told him, ‘I hope you don’t leave. I’m riding with you forever. You’re a cornerstone for my career,'” Buzelis said.
- Scoop Jackson of The Chicago Sun-Times argues Donovan should walk away from his contract and reject any overtures from ownership to remain with the organization in a different role, writing that the veteran coach will likely have better coaching offers in the future and won’t be under the constraints of the Reindsorfs, who have done a miserable job operating the franchise over the years.
- Leonard Miller seemed like a throw-in as part of the trade that sent Ayo Dosunmu to Minnesota, but he has continued to impress the Bulls over the past several weeks and is making a strong case to stick around beyond 2025/26, Cowley writes for The Sun-Times. While Donovan admitted he wasn’t familiar with the Canadian’s game before the trade because he had played so little at the NBA level, he’s quickly grown to appreciate Miller’s play. “He’s a live body, he competes [and] he’s really long,” Donovan said. “He kind of has this instinctive way about him on the glass and chasing balls. Even defensively, he’s multidimensional. I think the biggest thing with him is he plays so instinctively that he catches up to the league and really understands digging in on film and personnel, guarding, game plans. I think he’s only going to get better because he’s got a really good motor.” The Bulls hold a $2.4MM option for next season on Miller, who is averaging 14.6 points and 7.3 rebounds on .538/.358/.743 shooting splits in his last 17 games (28.0 minutes per contest).
- The other player the Bulls received in that deal, Rob Dillingham, acknowledged he needs to add more strength to his lean frame this summer, according to Cowley. The former Kentucky guard also said he wants to make better in-game decisions and plans to watch a lot of film ahead of his third season.
Bulls Rumors: Donovan, Front Office, Ownership, Ivey, More
The Bulls fired executive VP of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley on Monday, but Marc Stein reported on Sunday that the team hopes to retain head coach Billy Donovan and Shams Charania of ESPN has heard the same (Twitter video link).
“My understanding is the Bulls want to keep [Donovan] as long as he wants to be there, in Chicago,” Charania said on NBA Today.
Donovan, who signed a multiyear extension with the Bulls last summer, is expected to draw interest from rival NBA teams with head coaching vacancies this offseason, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link), who confirms Chicago would like to keep the 60-year-old.
As for potential front office replacements, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic suggests Timberwolves GM Matt Lloyd could be a name to watch (Twitter link). Lloyd is well regarded around the league and began his NBA career in Chicago, Krawczynski notes.
Here are some more rumors and notes on the Bulls:
- Team sources tell Jamal Collier of ESPN that ownership had been considering a front office overhaul “for weeks,” and the urgency to do so increased after the team traded for — and then waived — Jaden Ivey. While the front office defended the homework it did prior to acquiring Ivey, ownership had questions about the process involved and Karnisovas and Eversley had a “credibility problem” around the league and with the team’s fans, according to Collier.
- Collier hears there was a “growing disconnect” between the front office and several areas of the organization, not just ownership. Bulls employees were reportedly unsure of the team’s direction after it traded away several veterans ahead of the February deadline to add seven second-round picks. “People didn’t know the plan,” one team source told ESPN on Monday. “They didn’t know the process. We needed to move on — with a clean slate and start this thing over.”
- According to Collier’s sources, Karnisovas and Eversley long maintained they were “working under the constraints of ownership,” which was reluctant to embark on a rebuild. Donovan also isn’t a fan of rebuilds, Collier writes, even though the team was stuck in mediocrity for years.
- Collier suggests the front office’s relatively underwhelming trade returns also factored into the decision to let Karnisovas and Eversley go, pointing out that the team waited too long to break up the previous core roster of Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Nikola Vucevic, Alex Caruso, Coby White and Lonzo Ball. “We took too long to pick a lane,” the team source told ESPN. “The Lonzo thing just really messed them up. We saw that success early on, and didn’t have the foresight to pivot early.” Ball missed two-plus years due to a knee injury which required multiple surgeries.
- While the Bulls want to retain Donovan, Collier hears it may not be as head coach, depending on what Donovan wants to do in the future. As Collier writes, Donovan’s father and mother-in-law both passed away within eight days of each other in February, and there has been previous speculation that the veteran coach might take a year off to reevaluate his options moving forward.
Bulls Fire Top Execs Arturas Karnisovas, Marc Eversley
The Bulls have fired Arturas Karnisovas, the team’s executive vice president of basketball operations, and Marc Eversley, their general manager, according to a press release.
“Arturas and Marc have led with a deep commitment to the Chicago Bulls. These decisions are never easy, especially when they involve people we respect both personally and professionally,” Bulls CEO and president Michael Reinsdorf said in a statement. “We are grateful for their dedication and the work they’ve put in over the past six years.
“At the same time, we have not had the success our fans deserve, and it’s my responsibility to go in a new direction. This move is about positioning our team for sustained success moving ahead. I want our fans to know that I hear you and understand the frustration. I feel it as well. I know this will take time, and I am fully committed to getting this right. At the Chicago Bulls, our focus remains on building a team that can compete at the highest level and ultimately contend for championships. We are committed to taking the necessary steps to move the Bulls forward in a way that makes our fans proud.”
The Bulls have gone through several roster upheavals since hiring Karnisovas and Eversley, yet the team has been stuck in an endless cycle of mediocrity. Both men arrived in Chicago in 2020 to revive a franchise that dominated the NBA landscape in the 1990s. The club improved its record from 31-41 in 2020/21 to 46-36 the following season but the franchise has been spinning its wheels since that point.
The Bulls have posted losing records ever since, with win totals of 40, 39 and 39 over the past three seasons. Chicago is 29-49 after the front office made several moves during the trade deadline that once again put the franchise in rebuild mode. The Bulls haven’t won a playoff series in 11 consecutive seasons, counting this lottery-bound campaign.
As ESPN’s Bobby Marks points out (Twitter link), the replacements for Karnisovas and Eversley will have plenty of work to do this offseason. Chicago can be aggressive with $65MM of cap space, along with its lottery pick.
This also increases the uncertainty regarding the status of head coach Billy Donovan. Donovan was reportedly a candidate for the North Carolina head coaching job, but the Tar Heels on Monday chose to hire former Nuggets coach Michael Malone.
Reinsdorf is expected to address the media at some point on Tuesday. Reinsdorf, along with senior advisor John Paxson, Brian Hagen, Pat Connelly and JJ Polk, will collectively lead the basketball operations department during the executive search, according to Chicago Sports Network’s K.C. Johnson (Twitter link).
Stein’s Latest: Rivers, Karnisovas, Donovan, Splitter
Bucks coach Doc Rivers will become a Hall-of-Famer this year, and there may be more news coming from him in the months ahead. According to Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Substack link), there is a growing sense that Rivers and the Bucks could either part ways or change his responsibilities after a season that has gone off the rails. Milwaukee has a 31-47 record and the franchise appears to be growing increasingly at odds with star Giannis Antetokounmpo.
While Stein doesn’t specify what such a restructuring would look like, the implication is that it could include a move to the front office.
“At the very least, Rivers’ Springfield induction in August, at age 64, has helped fuel the notion that he will not be coaching the Bucks after the regular season concludes,” Stein writes.
Jake Fischer, also of the Stein Line, agrees (via Twitter) that significant changes are expected in Milwaukee this offseason, while Stein adds that former Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins is seen as a potential candidate to replace Rivers should the Bucks decide to move on this summer.
We have more updates from Stein:
- The Bulls may be weighing the future of executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas, as the team will miss the playoffs for a fourth straight season. Chicago has advanced beyond the play-in just once during Karnisovas’ tenure, and that playoff appearance resulted in a quick first-round exit in 2022 against the Bucks. The Bulls’ front office under Karnisovas has also struggled to find a direction or extract peak value in trades. Meetings to determine the veteran executive’s future with the team will be taking place soon, per Stein.
- Despite their front office uncertainty, the Bulls would like to retain head coach Billy Donovan, Stein writes, noting that the team denied the Knicks’ request to interview him for their head coaching vacancy last summer before signing him to a multiyear extension. Donovan has recently been linked to the UNC head coaching job, but Stein writes that the Bulls’ coach will likely want to wait until after the season concludes on April 12 to meet with the Tar Heels, and the university may want to make a decision sooner than that.
- The Trail Blazers may be one of the teams looking for a new coach this offseason. New owner Tom Dundon is said to be surveying the coaching landscape as he determines interim head coach Tiago Splitter‘s future with the team. According to Stein, there’s an expectation that there could be more league-wide coaching movement than there was last year, and Splitter, who took over at the beginning of the season following the arrest of Chauncey Billups, may be one of the coaches on the move.
Central Notes: Giannis, Bucks, Trade Market, Bulls Shakeup, Pistons
The NBA weighed in with a statement on Saturday as it continues the investigation of a disagreement between Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bucks, writes Eric Nehm of The Athletic. Antetokounmpo, who has been sidelined since March 15 with a left knee hyperextension and a bone bruise, contends that he’s healthy enough to return to action, but the team won’t give him medical clearance. The Bucks say he hasn’t fully healed and isn’t sincere about wanting to play.
“The investigation has found that the Bucks scheduled Giannis to work out last week in three-on-three scrimmages as part of his return-to-play process, but he declined to participate,” the NBA said on Saturday. “There is a disagreement as to whether the team requested that Giannis participate in a group workout earlier this week, and the league is continuing to monitor the situation.”
The NBA has held conversations with Bucks officials as part of the probe, a source told Nehm. Antetokounmpo emphatically expressed his desire to return to action during an interview after Milwaukee’s loss to Boston on Friday, but with only five games remaining, it may be too late even if the dispute is resolved in his favor.
There’s more from the Central Division:
- Trading Antetokounmpo this summer could be the first step in a massive roster overhaul for the Bucks, suggests Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter video link). He points to Bobby Portis, Myles Turner and Kyle Kuzma as other veteran players who might be moved and says coach Doc Rivers’ future with the team is also uncertain. Scotto expects the Heat, Warriors, Knicks, Cavaliers and others to approach Milwaukee with offers.
- Major changes could be coming to the Bulls over the next 10 days, a source tells Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times (subscription required). Executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley could both be held accountable for the disappointing season, and a coaching move is possible as well. Cowley notes that Billy Donovan is one of the main targets for the vacant North Carolina job, and there are also suggestions that he could stay and help revamp the front office or move into the top management role himself.
- If there’s a bright side to Cade Cunningham‘s injury, it’s that his teammates are learning how to succeed without him as the playoffs approach, notes Hunter Patterson of The Athletic. Isaiah Stewart is also out indefinitely with a left calf strain, but the Pistons keep winning and look ready to be a force in the playoffs if the roster gets healthy again. “Obviously, we’re better with (Cade), Stew and today Tobias (Harris) on the floor,” Jalen Duren said. “But I think having guys come in and get reps in, get shots up, see the ball go through (the rim) — the type of offense we’re playing with everybody being involved — it gets everybody’s confidence up. It gets everybody’s juices flowing going into that postseason.”
Latest On Jaden Ivey
Jaden Ivey will receive the full remaining portion of his $10.1MM salary for 2025/26 after being waived by the Bulls on Monday, writes Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic.
Ivey’s salary has been fully guaranteed since Detroit exercised his fourth-year rookie scale team option back in the fall of 2024, but in instances where a player is accused of “conduct detrimental to the team,” a team can attempt to recoup some of the money it owes him. That won’t happen in this case, Vorkunov explains.
Asked on Monday about the Bulls’ decision to waive Ivey, Bulls head coach Billy Donovan spoke in more general terms rather than getting into specifics, as Vorkunov relays.
“I think there’s a certain level of standards and expectations that are here,” Donovan said. “I mean, we have people from all different walks of life working in the building and players from all different walks of life, right? So, the first thing is, everybody comes with their own personal experiences. But one is, we’ve got to all be professional. I think there’s got to be a high level of respect for one another, and we got to help each other and then be accountable to those standards.”
The decision to waive Ivey was reportedly connected in large part due to several appearances on Instagram Live, where he has made inflammatory remarks about religion and the LGBTQ community, among other things. According to Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic, Ivey was once again streaming on social media just hours after being cut by the Bulls on Monday.
“They’re liars, bro. This is lying,” Ivey said on Instagram Live. “They’re lying saying my conduct is detrimental to the team. That’s a lie. Ask any one of them coaches in there, ‘Was I a good teammate?’ All I’m preaching about is Jesus Christ and they waived me. They say I’m crazy, right? I’m psycho.”
Here’s more on the Ivey situation:
- Describing the decision to trade for Ivey last month as another poor one by Arturas Karnisovas and the Bulls’ front office, Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times says there were rumblings prior to the deal that the former No. 5 overall pick was a “preacher.” Those rumblings undersold it, Cowley writes, adding that Ivey’s interviews with the media “became sermons” and that he asked team reporters if they’ve been “saved” and whether they’ve “fornicated before marriage.” According to Cowley, “Not one Bulls player was shedding a tear for Ivey’s removal from the roster.”
- Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune also published a column critical of Karnisovas and the front office, describing the trade to acquire Ivey as an “unnecessary risk on a clearly troubled player.” According to Poe, religion isn’t considered a taboo subject in NBA locker rooms, where players “read the Bible before games and praise Jesus after them.” However, Ivey became increasingly insistent on preaching his beliefs in professional settings and “lost the ability to provide basic answers to the media without redirecting the topic to religion,” Poe writes.
- Ivey took to Instagram Live again on Tuesday to describe the reaction to his comments, per Lorenzi. “Those who are around me, those who are my family members betraying (me) because of what I spoke,” Ivey said. “The truth. Betraying me. Saying that I’m losing my mind. Saying that I’m crazy. Saying that I don’t know the truth. These are my own family members who love me. My blood. Those who raised me saying that I don’t know the truth. ‘Man, he’s psycho.’ He’s this, he’s that. Those are my own household. All because of the gospel. All because I said the truth.”
Bulls Notes: Tanking Decisions, Giddey, LaVine, DeRozan
The Bulls lost to the NBA’s worst team Sunday night in Sacramento, but it’s still not clear that they’re committed to a tanking strategy, writes Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune (subscription required). The team has gone 2-11 since shaking up its roster at the trade deadline and has plummeted to 12th place in the East. However, Poe points out that puzzling lineup decisions are still being made for a team with incentive to tank.
Jalen Smith returned to the court on Sunday after missing the previous five games with a calf strain. Poe notes that the Bulls refuse to shut down Smith even though he has been in and out of the lineup over the past month. Young guard Rob Dillingham, who was acquired from Minnesota at the deadline, only saw 15 minutes against the Kings, while 30-year-old Guerschon Yabusele, who will be a free agent when the season ends, remains in the starting lineup.
Poe blames executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas for getting “queasy” any time the organization faces a major decision. She states that just as Karnisovas is hesitant to pull the trigger on trading a player, he’s also reluctant to fully commit to a tanking strategy, even when it’s obviously in the team’s best interest.
“Everything I’ve gotten here from the front office, from ownership is that we need to do the best job you can to go out there and compete and to try to win,” coach Billy Donovan said last month. “I believe in that. … That’s kind of the mentality that we have here inside the organization. We’ve always tried to keep the integrity of that anytime we go out and compete.”
There’s more on the Bulls:
- In a separate story, Poe questions why the organization is so reckless with Josh Giddey after giving him a four-year extension last summer and making him part of the foundation for the future. She notes that Giddey was reinserted into Tuesday’s loss against Oklahoma City after limping off the court with a rolled ankle a few minutes earlier. He’s also dealing with a lingering hamstring issue that’s supposed to limit his playing time to about 30 minutes per night, but Donovan doesn’t always adhere to that. Poe questions why the Bulls are taking any chances with Giddey when there’s nothing left to play for.
- The new additions to the Bulls’ roster are still getting used to the extreme up-tempo pace that Donovan prefers, observes Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times (subscription required). It was effective in Thursday’s win at Phoenix, but didn’t work as well on Sunday. “The biggest issue I think was the fact that a lot of those guys were coming from situations where they were not playing at all,” Donovan said. “Like Yabusele wasn’t playing, Nick (Richards) wasn’t playing, Rob (Dillingham) wasn’t playing, so I think the pace has been a little different. We went through some of that with Tre (Jones), Zach (Collins) and Kevin Huerter last year.”
- Donovan has fond memories of former Bulls players Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan, who both missed Sunday’s game in Sacramento, Cowley adds in another piece. “Listen, I love both those two guys. I think those guys know how I feel about them,” Donovan said. “They were totally professional, and listen when you’re dealing with high-level players like that you are not always going to see eye-to-eye on stuff, but I appreciated the conversation and the intent on their part was to really try and win. That was important to those two guys. I don’t know all the reasons it didn’t work out (here).”
Bulls Notes: Deadline, Karnisovas, Donovan, Yabusele, Dillingham
The Bulls were extremely active this week, making seven trades prior to Thursday’s deadline. Vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas says Chicago wasn’t content with “being in the middle” after making the play-in tournament each of the last three seasons and getting eliminated in the first round of the 2022 playoffs.
“The play-in is not our goal,” Karnisovas said, per Jamal Collier of ESPN. “A championship is. We know where we are in standings, and we are not satisfied with being in the middle as an organization or for our fans. At the same time, we are committed to building the right way without skipping steps. This process takes time, but we’ve already made [a] meaningful shift in how we are approaching roster building and development.”
While Karnisovas didn’t use the term rebuild when discussing the Bulls’ roster reconstruction, he acknowledged the team is now prioritizing young players, acquiring draft capital and maintaining financial flexibility, Collier writes. Karnisovas singled out Josh Giddey, Matas Buzelis and Noa Essengue as members of the team’s core going forward.
According to Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune, Karnisovas has downplayed the importance of second-round picks in the past, but he shifted his tune during Thursday’s video press conference after the Bulls added eight second-round selections in their several trades.
“Second-rounders are a currency in our industry, and you cannot operate and acquire players and trade players (without them),” Karnišovas said. “We addressed it during the trade deadline and hopefully they’re going to contribute during the draft, during free agency and trying to build this team.”
Here’s more from Chicago:
- As Poe writes, the front office has had multiple transaction windows in which to sell high on players like Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu (and boost the team’s lottery odds in the process), but waited until they were both headed to unrestricted free agency — when their values were at a relative low point — to deal them away. Karnisovas defended the decision, saying, “You don’t want to lose you free agents for nothing,” and said he didn’t regret making the moves when he did. “I do not,” Karnisovas said. “I think we were at that stage as well, we continued evaluating our young guys. Right now it’s a good timing, and we addressed it.”
- Head coach Billy Donovan made it clear he’s committed to staying with the Bulls in the midst of the rebuild, writes Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. “I’ve talked to you guys about what’s important to me is the mentality, the competitiveness, that kind of stuff, and things can happen quickly too,” Donovan said. “Look at what Detroit was able to do. They were really bad for a while and they took off and have done really well. You look at a team like Boston, where they shed a bunch of salary cap and people thought they weren’t going to be any good and now they’re second in the East, so things can happen pretty quickly.”
- While the roster looks much different, the front office and ownership remain the same, and they were the main issues over the past several years, argues Jon Greenberg of The Athletic. Greenberg gives Karnisovas credit for finally biting the bullet and making long-overdue trades, but is skeptical the results will be much different down the line. Paul Sullivan of The Chicago Tribune also questions whether Karnisovas has a plan to lead the team out of mediocrity.
- Guerschon Yabusele waived his $5.8MM player option for next season as part of being traded to the Bulls because he may have been stuck in New York past the deadline if he hadn’t and he wanted an opportunity to play again, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv. The French forward got his wish in his first game as a Bull, recording season highs of 15 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and 33 minutes in Thursday’s loss to Toronto, per Toni Canyameras of BasketNews. “I guess in the summer we’ll figure out what happens. I did give up the player option because I wanted to play basketball at the end of the day. That’s what I was really motivated about, getting out there, having some minutes tonight. It was amazing for me, I’m so happy,” Yabusele said. “I’m a little bit sad because we lost, but just being out there with those guys, it’s been amazing.”
- 2024 lottery pick Rob Dillingham is hoping to regain his confidence with Chicago after rarely playing for Minnesota over his first two seasons. “Really just confidence, confidence from my teammates, confidence from my coaches, and really confidence in myself,” Dillingham said (Twitter video link via Will Gottlieb of CHGO Bulls. “I really just feel like I haven’t got to get an opportunity where I feel confident. I’m just waiting for the spark to come back.” The 21-year-old guard was acquired from the Wolves in the Dosunmu trade.
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.”