With patience running short, Arturas Karnisovas' future could depend on Noa's arc

The Bulls are preaching ... patience?

That was general manager Marc Eversley's message after drafting intriguing 6-10 athlete Noa Essengue with the 12th overall pick of the NBA Draft on Wednesday night.

"We know we have a lot of work to do," Eversley told reporters at the Advocate Center "We know it's frustrating when change doesn't happen overnight, but we've seen encouraging growth from our young core, and we're going to keep pushing. Building something great, making it last, it takes a long time. It takes planning patience and doing the hard work without taking shortcuts."

For the record, it's not frustrating when change doesn't happen overnight. It's frustrating when change doesn't happen over 1,826 nights — the five years that Karnisovas and Eversley have been in charge. Or 3,653 nights — the 10 years since the Bulls fired Tom Thibodeau. Or 9,862 nights — the 27 years since the Bulls last won an NBA title. Please don't offend Bulls fans by insinuating that this rebuild just started last year. Why do so many coaches and executives in town think we've been here only as long as they have?

And regardless of the latest "transition," after moving on from DeMar DeRozen and trading Zach LaVine last season, patience is a tough sell a week after the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

Just two seasons ago, the Thunder had the identical 40-42 record as the Bulls in 2022-23. Two seasons later, the went 68-14 in the regular season and won the NBA title. Just two seasons ago, the Pacers (35-47) were five games behind the Bulls (40-42) in the Eastern Conference, but also took giants steps while the Bulls continued to run in place — 47-35 and reaching the conference finals last year; 50-32 and losing in Game 7 of the Finals this year — arguably a Tyrese Haliburton Game 7 injury from winning it all.

That's hardly cherry picking, either. The Thunder and Pacers built their championship-caliber teams the way the Bulls are trying to build theirs, with a well-rounded team led by a non-top-10 first-round pick who developed into a star — the Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (No. 11 overall in 2018) and the Pacers' Haliburton (No. 12 in 2020).

The Thunder's Mark Daigneault was hired after Billy Donovan bolted the Thunder for the Bulls in 2020-21. The Thunder emerged as title contenders in Daigneault's fourth season (57-25, losing in the conference finals in 2023-24) and of course won it all in his fifth season. The Pacers made steady progress in four seasons under veteran Rick Carlisle — from 25-57 to 35-47 to 47-35 to 50-32 in 2024-25.

The Bulls have stagnated after initially improving under Donovan — from 31-41 to 46-36 to 40-42, 39-43 and 39-43 in his five seasons. The Thunder's championship isn't a great look for him, either. He left the Thunder because of roster uncertainty with a 21-year-old Gilgeous-Alexander emerging, Chris Paul still an impact player and Danilo Gallinari and sixth-man Dennis Schroeder playing key roles. Donovan left, the Thunder went in full rebuild mold, SGA turned into a league MVP and the Thunder won the title five years later.

Sun-Times Bulls beat writer Joe Cowley's lede on the Bulls drafting Noa Essengue said it all — "What's the French word for 'meh'?"

The Bulls, meanwhile, are starting over again under executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas. It appears the arrow is pointing up with guard Coby White emerging as an All-Star caliber player, rookie Matas Buzelis and Josh Giddey having a strong second half of the season in 2024-25. Now they add Essengue, an intriguing 21st-century player with the athleticism, height, wingspan and open-court game to become a dynamic two-way player on a team that knows how to develop that kind of talent and put him in a position to max out as a basketball player and not just an athlete.

There's the rub, of course. The Bulls have to prove they are that organization. Let the record show that in Karnisovas' second year with the Bulls, he looked like an expert team-builder. Through 60 games of the 2021-22 season, the Bulls (39-21) were the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference — with just two players (LaVine and White) who were on the team a year prior (and Lonzo Ball missing 25 games with injuries).

So even though the ledger on Karnisovas clearly is tilted toward the negative heading into the 2025-26 season, it's not completely without merit. The Bulls have enough talent that one emerging star could bail out Karnisovas, Eversley and Donovan. But — "transition" or not — it's Year 6 for all of them. And, regardless of their contracts, they don't have as much time as they might think.