Power ranking the Bulls’ interesting candidates for top executive position

1. Arturas Karnisovas

Update: According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Bulls are finalizing a deal to make Karnisovas their new VP of basketball ops.

Like Webster and Zanik, some might be surprised to learn Arturas Karnisovas is actually the GM of the Denver Nuggets, not Tim Connelly. He’s been at the helm since 2017, taking charge as GM when Connelly was promoted to president of basketball ops, and before that, he had served as assistant GM for the Nuggets since 2013.

Karnisovas has been considered for several GM vacancies over the last decade, including the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks gigs. However, Denver ultimately gave him the chance, and he wasted no time, with his first major move being signing Paul Millsap in 2017.

No official offer has been made yet, but according to Wojnarowski, Karnisovas is the clear frontrunner after making a strong impression in his first interview and then undergoing an extensive second interview.

Aside from being a former Lithuanian basketball player who found success in Euroleague and the Olympics, as well as a former executive with the Houston Rockets, Karnisovas is easily one of the best and most qualified candidates for the job.

His success with Connelly in helping draft the foundations of the Nuggets — Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Gary Harris, as well as former center Jusuf Nurkic — reportedly sticks out to owner Jerry Reinsdorf and chief operating officer Michael Reinsdorf. That makes sense, given Chicago’s status as a lottery-bound team that needs to draft well with no established franchise star of the future. He’d also be trusted with hiring a GM and other various positions in the front office.

We can laugh over the Bryan Colangelo report or jest about how Chicago would be one of the few franchises we could actually see hiring Spencer Dinwiddie, but if the Bulls really hire Karnisovas, they will have actually done something smart.