LAS VEGAS – The way Arturas Karnisovas sees his current push towards a youth movement is “it’s still not a final product.”
The Bulls’ executive vice president of basketball operations made that clear when he met with a small group of reporters on Sunday.
But he may have a bigger issue on his hands if there aren’t more changes made. It will be both unfinished and possibly “dysfunctional.”
According to an NBA source attending Summer League play, not only is Karnisovas trying to move off Zach LaVine because of the three years, $138 million left on his contract, but also concerns that the distrust LaVine has with the front office, and specifically head coach Billy Donovan, could lead to a “dysfunctional” locker room, especially if LaVine starts poisoning the well that the younger players are drinking from.
While both LaVine and Donovan have been asked about their icy relationship the last few seasons, both have downplayed just how bad it is, maintaining public professionalism throughout. But the source said that a key buffer between the two – especially as far as LaVine was concerned – was veteran DeMar DeRozan. With DeRozan shipped to Sacramento after a sign-and-trade, that buffer is gone.
LaVine is not. He’s still a Bull, and the talk going into this week’s Summer League play is while Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley continue aggressively talking to teams about trading for LaVine, there are no takers in the wake of how the draft and free agency fell.
Possible landing spots for LaVine like Sacramento, Orlando, Detroit and Golden State all went in different directions.
That’s why Karnisovas was trying to spin the idea that LaVine returning to the Bulls for the start of fall camp was not necessarily a bad thing.
“We expect Zach being fully healthy,” Karnisovas said. “I think he can help this group next year. He’s been professional.”
Well, sort of. He understood how to remain professional because of DeRozan’s presence.
That doesn’t mean that the locker room hasn’t heard LaVine be openly critical of Donovan, with the two-time All-Star never fully getting over a benching late in a fourth-quarter loss to Orlando back in 2022.
“That’s Billy’s decision; he’s gotta lay with it,” LaVine said after that game. “You play a guy like me down the stretch.”
The benching was just the first domino. According to a former teammate, LaVine thought that Donovan went out of his way to point out his defensive miscues in film sessions, and he would also complain about late-game situations and his role in clutch moments.
That would make sense since he did publicly express concern that the offense was getting too predictable in those situations early last season.
So what choices do the Bulls really have with LaVine at this point? Not many unless a team has a sudden change of heart.
They are not going to attach first-round draft assets to moving LaVine, and have to hope that he comes in fully healthy and can fake the role of good soldier, at least until the 2025 trade deadline.
It’s not in his makeup as of yet to rock the boat and he is well liked in the locker room, but what if he does decide to choose being a negative presence in hopes of speeding up his departure?
What the Bulls have on their side in guarding against that scenario is it would only hurt LaVine’s value and make him harder to move.
Then again, with no DeRozan, who knows?
“I think leadership, both on and off the court,” Eversley replied when asked about what would be missed most in DeRozan’s departure. “I think he was an extension of Billy on the court and off the court. The three years he gave us were unbelievable, far exceeded my expectations.”
And that might be truly felt very soon.
