An insider recently claimed that our hapless Chicago Bulls are set to be the Eastern Conference’s top team to watch at this year’s trade deadline — which goes against everything we know about how longtime team president/bane of our existence Arturas Karnisovas operates.
Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints, who’s fairly plugged in, recently took to X to make a bold claim about how active the 17-18 Bulls would look to be. Siegel posited that Chicago would make multiple deals, and suggested that the team would actually be looking to offload assets as the Eastern Conference’s “biggest sellers.”
I would expect a couple of moves from Chicago.It appears as if they’re going to be the biggest sellers in the East. t.co/yrDyIqW2Si
— Brett Siegel (@BrettSiegelNBA) December 27, 2025It’s a wild suggestion — although it’s exactly how the Bulls should treat this season’s Feb. 5 deadline.
Karnisovas has generally been loath to make a deal across the past few years, and when he has pulled off a trade, he has typically mismanaged his own outgoing players as assets.
When it comes to deadline moves, Karnisovas has been active only twice during his five seasons at the helm.
His disastrous 2021 deal of two future lottery picks, Wendell Carter Jr. and Otto Porter’s contract for Nikola Vucevic has been oft-litigated. Yes, it brought us the DeMVP era — but that yielded just a single playoff season, in 2021-22. Those picks became rising Magic star forward Franz Wagner in 2021 (the No. 7 pick out of Michigan) and swingman Jett Howard in 2023 (No. 11, also out of Michigan).
He also offloaded Daniel Gafford, Chandler Hutchinson, and Luke Kornet for Javonte Green, Daniel Theis and, of course, cash in a three-team deal with the Washington Wizards and Boston Celtics. Where the Vucevic trade felt defensible at the time (of course, it looks terrible in retrospect), there’s no excusing this move.
Either Gafford or Kornet would likely be the best center on Chicago right now. Both players represent the kind of defense-first, rim-protecting presence that would really help the Bulls cover up for the current team’s lackluster perimeter defense.
More recently, Karnisovas executed a too-little, too-late three-team deadline trade of former two-time All-Star shooting guard Zach LaVine, plus a future Bulls second-rounder, to the Sacramento Kings last February.
Chicago received its own 2025 first-round pick back from the San Antonio Spurs (which Karnisovas appears to have wasted on Noa Essengue). The Bulls also brought back Tre Jones, Kevin Huerter and Zach Collins in the deal. All three players have been totally competent as present-day pieces for a Chicago team going nowhere. But beyond maybe Jones, none seem likely to be long for the Windy City.
If you’re offloading a (technically) multi-time, sharpshooting All-Star still around his prime, getting your own pick back and three bench players is hardly a haul. Yes, LaVine has been an eyesore in Sacramento and may just not be a winning player thanks to his tendencies to hog the ball and his poor defense.
But a better GM would have gotten actual draft capital back.
Karnisovas’ focus seemed to be adding semi-win-now players who went on to not help the Bulls win much. In 2024-25, Chicago finished with a 39-43 record and the East’s No. 9 seed for the second straight season, and once again was booted out of the play-in tournament by the Miami Heat. The 2025-26 Bulls are likely on track to finish in sub-mediocrity yet again.
Jim Dedmon-Imagn ImagesSo… What Is Arturas Karnisovas Clinging To With This Bulls Roster?
The Bulls need to think big-picture. As currently constructed, Chicago has one clear keeper in second-year forward Matas Buzelis, a rare draft hit for Karnisovas. The athletic, slashing pro has lit up the United Center with his flashy drives and dunks, and as a bonus, he can knock it down from the corners.
Point guard Josh Giddey, 23, has been a constant triple-double threat since inking a four-year, $100 million restricted free agency deal with the Bulls this past offseason. His current production is outpacing his money, but the 6-foot-7 pro has obvious limitations (defense, streaky jump shooting). Still, he’s worth retaining unless the price is right.
Everyone else needs to be on the table. Vucevic is on a $21.5 million expiring contract, and probably could have fetched more value last year with more money on his deal.
Shooting guard Coby White has yet to find his rhythm from beyond the arc this season, as the 6-foot-4 UNC product has been in and out of the lineup with a recurring right calf tightness issue.
Full disclosure, he’s my favorite Bull to watch, but objectively if Karnisovas can extract first-round draft pick value and a more defensively inclined guard for White’s services, it’s worth exploring.
The 25-year-old is a dynamic scorer and a solid secondary playmaker, but his fit next to Giddey yields a porous Bulls backcourt. He’s reportedly looking for a major upgrade of his expiring $12.9 million contract this summer, and it’s unclear how much money Karnisovas will want to fork over.
Huerter, Collins, and Ayo Dosunmu are all also on expiring deals. Dosunmu, a sneaky-good two-way guard, is severely underpaid at $7.5 million this year. Chicago should want to retain its hometown hero, and Dosunmu likely will face a less robust market in free agency than White, so keeping him next year could work out. But again, if the Bulls can get a first back for his services, that may be worth considering.
Collins and Huerter are overpaid, but the brevity of their deals could compel clubs looking to shed contracts to sniff around. If the Bulls are amenable to taking on long-term money in exchange for draft equity, they absolutely should — especially for two guys who likely won’t factor into their future.
Starting swingman Isaac Okoro, handily the Bulls’ best defensive player, may be playing himself into tradability this season. Then again, the 24-year-old’s lack of aggression on offense could limit his market.
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