Bulls' brass might mask hard truths with what sounds good

Give Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley some credit: They aren’t liars.

Sure, the Bulls’ executive vice president of basketball operations and their general manager haven’t been realistic about the product they’ve built the last four years. Far too often, they sound like dreamers rather than basketball executives. But that’s not lying.

And that’s why things are about to get interesting in just over three weeks at the media day that marks the start of training camp. Expect the non-truths to be flying.

NON-TRUTH No. 1: “We’re thrilled to have Zach LaVine back.”

Unable to unload the oft-injured two-time All-Star guard since last season, Karnisovas and Eversley need to do everything they can to repair a damaged relationship with LaVine and build him up enough to help them persuade other teams at trade-deadline time.

If LaVine remains in Chicago all season, the Bulls will have invested $181.7 million in him for one playoff appearance and one playoff-game victory since 2017. And he’s still owed $138 million over the next three seasons in a new NBA landscape in which many teams are handcuffed by a revamped collective bargaining agreement.

LaVine must be presented as a game-changer to make him more marketable, even while the Bulls, behind closed doors, have lost faith in his ability to help them win since the 2022-2023 season, when they first began actively shopping him.

Coach Billy Donovan ironed out some differences with LaVine this summer when he met with him in Los Angeles, but trust could be one bad moment away from fraying again.

NON-TRUTH NO. 2: “This will be a competitive team.”

The last two seasons have ended almost identically for the Bulls: Finish with a play-in tournament spot, only to be eliminated by the Heat. And that was with an elite defender in Alex Caruso and one of the NBA’s best closers in DeMar DeRozan. Both were traded this summer.

The idea that this year’s team is better is a bad punchline, but Karnisovas and Eversley will have to spin the situation as moving forward when the reality is the best way to move forward is by falling backward. The 2025 NBA Draft could be filled with game-changing players, starting with Duke forward Cooper Flagg, but the Bulls will only keep their first-round pick if they finish in the bottom 10. Otherwise, it goes to the Spurs.

Las Vegas has the Bulls as the seventh-worst team entering the season. If they finished seventh, that would give them a 7.5% chance to hit No. 1 in the draft lottery and plant the Flagg and a 32% chance to hit on a top-four pick.

NON-TRUTH No. 3: “We’re accountable.”

“Accountability” is just a six-syllable word in a Jerry Reinsdorf-owned organization. The White Sox are on pace for historical embarrassment, and yet general manager Chris Getz can sleep easy at night knowing he can buy rather than rent.

The idea that Karnisovas and Eversley are in danger of losing their gigs couldn’t be further from the truth. As firings and changes throughout the Bulls organization this summer demonstrated, there was plenty of blame to go around, but nowhere near the top.