[Yahoo! Sports] Using Sabermetrics to rate every NBA team’s top executive, Bulls VP of operations Artūras Karnišovas was ranked 23rd out of 25. Drafting Ayo and signing Caruso were rated his best moves, while trading for Vuc and Theis and trading away Markannen were his worst.
August 29, 2023
[Yahoo! Sports] Using Sabermetrics to rate every NBA team’s top executive, Bulls VP of operations Artūras Karnišovas was ranked 23rd out of 25. Drafting Ayo and signing Caruso were rated his best moves, while trading for Vuc and Theis and trading away Markannen were his worst.
11 comments
I don’t see signing DeMar DeRozan credited to Karnišovas, which I find confusing. I would rate that his best move, at least a triple if not a home run. Drafting Ayo and signing Caruso were rated as doubles.
But I can’t deny that the overall results have been disappointing. And yes, he was very unlucky that Lonzo was so seriously injured, but this is a results oriented evaluation. And that was a bad result.
I think the reason only 25 executives were rated was because of the small sample size for 5 new executives. Here’s the complete list:
1.Danny Ainge (Jazz)
2.Masai Ujiri (Raptors)
3.Brian Wright (Spurs)
4.James Jones (Suns)
5.Kevin Pritchard (Pacers)
6.Pat Riley (Heat)
7.Troy Weaver (Pistons)
8.Koby Altman (Cavs)
9.Brad Stevens (Celtics)
10.Zach Kleiman (Grizzlies)
11.David Griffin (Pelicans)
12.Sam Presti (Thunder)
13.Daryl Morey (Sixers)
14.Tim Connelly (Wolves)
15.Rob Pelinka (Lakers)
16.Monte McNair (Kings)
17.Lawrence Frank (Clippers)
18.Rafael Stone (Rockets)
19.Jon Horst (Bucks)
20.Sean Marks (Nets)
21.Jeff Weltman (Magic)
22.Leon Rose (Knicks)
23.Artūras Karnišovas (Bulls)
24.Mitch Kupchak (Hornets)
25.Nico Harrison (Mavs)
This checks out. If P will makes a massive jump, he’ll make a massive jump, but to this point, he hasn’t been great.
Sounds about right. AK has taken risks that haven’t worked out and has stubbornly refused to pivot.
Sounds like an incredibly stupid way to rate NBA executives, since it was designed for a completely different sport and the ratings are arbitrary based on what the author thinks.
so we hindsight GMing. I am the best at it lol and using baseball metric oh boi…. and here we go!
Lol there aren’t 2 worse executives….
I always thought the team was in too much of a hurry to trade Lauri. I thought the right move would have been to keep him at least up to the trade deadline and see how he fit with the new look roster. The team needed his skill set, and it’s not like the return from the trade was too good to pass up.
Spot on accurate
Lol the front office is such shit. Every move has gotten us nowhere or moved us back. We’re running it back with veterans who didn’t even get us to the playoffs last year
It’s tough for me to pin the Lauri trade on AKME as that marriage was broken long before we fired Gar and promoted Pax (yet again) to the point Lauri’s camp *claimed* the Bulls were not willing to part with enough money to keep Lauri only for him to turn around and sign a relatively cheap deal with the Cavs.
I could see the Bulls offer being closer to $60M+ for 4 years and Lauri’s camp thinking he was worth $20M a year leading to the disparity. But for Lauri to then turn around and sign for around the same price indicates to me it was never really about the money. [For context here’s the signings from that season](https://www.spotrac.com/nba/free-agents/2021/) with the Bulls signing Lonzo for $20M and Caruso for $9M a year that season, it stands to reason Lauri was offered more than $12.5M a year for 4 years.
The Bulls franchise routinely mis-used Lauri as a big man instead of playing him to his strengths as a tall wing player, culminating in Boylen famously [telling Lauri if he wants more touches to grab more rebounds](https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/gqyq78/jeffares_lauri_markkanen_talked_to_coach_jim/) instead of trying to design some plays around Lauri’s skillset, so I am going to have a tough time putting AKME on the hotseat for letting Lauri go.
11 comments
I don’t see signing DeMar DeRozan credited to Karnišovas, which I find confusing. I would rate that his best move, at least a triple if not a home run. Drafting Ayo and signing Caruso were rated as doubles.
But I can’t deny that the overall results have been disappointing. And yes, he was very unlucky that Lonzo was so seriously injured, but this is a results oriented evaluation. And that was a bad result.
I think the reason only 25 executives were rated was because of the small sample size for 5 new executives. Here’s the complete list:
1.Danny Ainge (Jazz)
2.Masai Ujiri (Raptors)
3.Brian Wright (Spurs)
4.James Jones (Suns)
5.Kevin Pritchard (Pacers)
6.Pat Riley (Heat)
7.Troy Weaver (Pistons)
8.Koby Altman (Cavs)
9.Brad Stevens (Celtics)
10.Zach Kleiman (Grizzlies)
11.David Griffin (Pelicans)
12.Sam Presti (Thunder)
13.Daryl Morey (Sixers)
14.Tim Connelly (Wolves)
15.Rob Pelinka (Lakers)
16.Monte McNair (Kings)
17.Lawrence Frank (Clippers)
18.Rafael Stone (Rockets)
19.Jon Horst (Bucks)
20.Sean Marks (Nets)
21.Jeff Weltman (Magic)
22.Leon Rose (Knicks)
23.Artūras Karnišovas (Bulls)
24.Mitch Kupchak (Hornets)
25.Nico Harrison (Mavs)
This checks out. If P will makes a massive jump, he’ll make a massive jump, but to this point, he hasn’t been great.
Sounds about right. AK has taken risks that haven’t worked out and has stubbornly refused to pivot.
Sounds like an incredibly stupid way to rate NBA executives, since it was designed for a completely different sport and the ratings are arbitrary based on what the author thinks.
so we hindsight GMing. I am the best at it lol and using baseball metric oh boi…. and here we go!
Lol there aren’t 2 worse executives….
I always thought the team was in too much of a hurry to trade Lauri. I thought the right move would have been to keep him at least up to the trade deadline and see how he fit with the new look roster. The team needed his skill set, and it’s not like the return from the trade was too good to pass up.
Spot on accurate
Lol the front office is such shit. Every move has gotten us nowhere or moved us back. We’re running it back with veterans who didn’t even get us to the playoffs last year
It’s tough for me to pin the Lauri trade on AKME as that marriage was broken long before we fired Gar and promoted Pax (yet again) to the point Lauri’s camp *claimed* the Bulls were not willing to part with enough money to keep Lauri only for him to turn around and sign a relatively cheap deal with the Cavs.
[Allegedly the Bulls and Lauri were $4M a year difference during negotiations](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonpatt/2021/05/19/its-time-for-the-chicago-bulls-to-move-on-from-lauri-markkanen/?sh=371ea0cf651a) but I find it hard to believe, even with the cheapness of Jerry, that the Bulls offered Lauri $16M less than what he signed for [in 4 years $67M from the Cavs.](https://www.nbcsportschicago.com/nba/chicago-bulls/bulls-make-out-like-bandits-in-markkanen-sign-and-trade/181633/#:~:text=The%20Lauri%20Markkanen%20saga%20%E2%80%94%20and,Larry%20Nance%20Jr.%20to%20Portland.)
I could see the Bulls offer being closer to $60M+ for 4 years and Lauri’s camp thinking he was worth $20M a year leading to the disparity. But for Lauri to then turn around and sign for around the same price indicates to me it was never really about the money. [For context here’s the signings from that season](https://www.spotrac.com/nba/free-agents/2021/) with the Bulls signing Lonzo for $20M and Caruso for $9M a year that season, it stands to reason Lauri was offered more than $12.5M a year for 4 years.
The Bulls franchise routinely mis-used Lauri as a big man instead of playing him to his strengths as a tall wing player, culminating in Boylen famously [telling Lauri if he wants more touches to grab more rebounds](https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/gqyq78/jeffares_lauri_markkanen_talked_to_coach_jim/) instead of trying to design some plays around Lauri’s skillset, so I am going to have a tough time putting AKME on the hotseat for letting Lauri go.