“He’ll get my vote,” texted one Western Conference executive.Karnišovas, who works closely and collaboratively with his three initial hires of general manager Marc Eversley, vice president of player personnel Pat Connelly and assistant general manager J.J. Polk – plus holdovers Steve Weinman and Brian Hagen – undoubtedly would scoff at such talk. Like the professionally-minded team he constructed, he’s focused on the work ahead.
The Bulls finished in the “also receiving votes” category behind the Nets, Wizards and Rockets, who each drew 7 percent of the vote. Somewhat paradoxically, those same GMs predicted the Bulls to be the league’s most improved team at a category-leading 27 percent of that vote. There’s no bigger move, though, than DeRozan, whom Eversley played a large role in helping secure because of their shared history with the Raptors.
This doesn’t even take into consideration Karnišovas adding Derrick Jones Jr. and a protected first-round pick for a disgruntled Lauri Markkanen. Jones Jr. flourishing in his role after falling completely out of the rotation in Portland is another example of strong roster construction. Management has proved to be nimble as well. When a hardship exception signing like Alfonzo McKinnie broke out in one of his first opportunities, the Bulls immediately signed him and waived the non-guaranteed deal of Alize Johnson, who had fallen out of the rotation.
arturasfanclub