Bulls Rumors: Artūras Karnišovas 'Quietly' Received Contract Extension

The Chicago Bulls were among the most disappointing teams in the league this past season, but executive vice president of basketball operations, Artūras Karnišovas, will reportedly have longer than his initial contract to figure things out.

Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic reported Karnišovas was "quietly handed" a contract extension and will "likely" receive a second contract as well. Mayberry pointed to his "good working relationship" with chairman Michael Reinsdorf as one thing working in his favor.

Chicago hired Karnišovas after the 2019-20 season. At the time, it seemed like an excellent move given his history with the Denver Nuggets.

He was with Denver for seven seasons, three of which saw him as the general manager. He helped build the Nuggets into one of the Western Conference's top teams with a number of marquee moves, including the drafting of two-time MVP Nikola Jokić.

"Denver went from a disaster to one of the most promising young rosters in the league and Karnišovas has his fingerprints on everything," TJ McBride of Mile High Sports wrote. "He led the charge by spearheading the selection of Nikola Jokić in 2014."

While the Nuggets are currently the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference and fighting for a championship in the playoffs, things have not gone that well for the Bulls.

They appeared to be on the right track last season with the grouping of DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Lonzo Ball, Alec Caruso and Nikola Vučević. The Bulls were the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference for extended stretches and seemed to be a genuine threat to some of the league's top teams.

However, Ball suffered a knee injury and the team never recovered before falling to the No. 6 seed and being eliminated in the first round by the Milwaukee Bucks.

This season was even worse, as it fought just to make the play-in tournament and was unable to make it into the actual playoffs. It didn't help that Ball remained sidelined with the injury and will miss time into the 2023-24 campaign, but the team is still a far cry from contenders such as the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers.

Even with that reality, the Bulls did not shift into a rebuilding mode at the trade deadline.

Now there isn't a clear path to immediate significant improvement either barring draft lottery luck with Vučević hitting free agency this offseason, DeRozan under contract for another season and LaVine locked up through the 2025-26 campaign with a player option for 2026-27.

The Ball injury was certainly a setback, but Karnišovas will have his work cut out for him when it comes to building a legitimate contender.