This (NBA) shopping season, all eyes are on the Windy City

We walked to lunch, Artūras Karnišovas and I. In November 2019, when the Chicago Bulls’ executive vice president took the No. 2 spot in the Nuggets’ basketball operations, this reporter commuted west to Denver to learn more about the emerging competitor emerging around Nikola Jokić.

Karnišovas was charismatic, funny, and told stories of hikes nearby, followed by stories of an all-staff whitewater rafting trip during the early season. There was something in the thin Colorado air. Something tangible.

“I think success will attract everyone’s attention,” Karnišovas told me that afternoon. “Players get new contracts, coaches stay in the same place, (the) front office gets compensated.”

Within six months, Karnišovas was put in charge of the Bulls. Over the next year, surrounded All-Star guard Zach LaVine joined Nikola Vučević, DeMar DeRozan and Lonzo Ball in wide-ranging moves. You know by now that Ball’s knee injuries derailed a team that briefly held the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference for two years or more. I’ve often thought about how hard this result must be for Karnišovas to swallow after finally being given the chance to run his own front office. The same goes for Ball after his bright start as a Bull. Isn’t that what we all want?

Now the success of this quartet of players will likely be measured by what Karnišovas – after signing DeRozan in the summer and trading him to Sacramento – can generate on the trade market for the veterans who remain in Chicago. This is the vicious cycle of NBA team building.

If you want to do business this holiday season, you and business leaders alike need real sellers showing up in the NBA marketplace. It’s no secret that the Washington Wizards need to move veterans. Utah, Portland and Toronto are also on this list.

Still, in today’s NBA, no discussion of likely sellers begins without Karnisovas’ Bulls.