Keeping the faith
Bulls stand pat at trade deadline, emphasize continuity with roster
NEW YORK — The NBA trade deadline came and went Thursday and the Bulls stood still — at least for now.
The Bulls were one of only two teams not to make a move ahead of the deadline. But that’s not a surprise if you believed the words of executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas and coach Billy Donovan, both of whom emphasized consistency and continuity as the deadline neared.
In a post-deadline news conference Thursday, Karnišovas said the Bulls’ inaction didn’t come from a lack of interest — but the available options weren’t lucrative enough to warrant shipping off any of their players.
“There were so many buyers, so there were a lot of teams that didn’t want to take a step back, including us,” Karnišovas said. “We tried to improve our team, but at what cost? That price was not OK with us. The next stage for us now that we’ve passed the trade deadline is to evaluate this group over the next 28 games.”
Consistency and continuity have been the buzzwords from the front office since last year’s trade deadline. In that span, the Bulls went 38-43 before Thursday’s 116-105 loss to the Brooklyn Nets, floundering against Eastern Conference opponents who continue to rebuild and reload.
Karnišovas said the Bulls were genuinely interested in making a deal, but the team’s main goal ahead of the trade deadline was to maintain the core trio of Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vučević. While no player was deemed “untouchable”, Karnišovas said the front office felt the Bulls were better off retaining their roster through the season.
“We tried to get into a lot of deals, but