Arturas Karnisovas Wastes No Time Hiring J.J. Polk

Arturas Karnisovas has made his mark on the Bulls’ front office quickly. In the first of what is expected to be many moves by the new vice president of basketball operations, the Bulls hired J.J. Polk away from the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday to be an assistant general manager. Polk, a salary-cap specialist who has been the Pelicans’ executive director of basketball administration, practiced law before joining the Pelicans 10 years ago. He also has experience not far from this area because he got his law degree from the University of Illinois.

While this hire was being announced, more news was floating around. Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Bulls were engaged in serious talks to hire Denver Nuggets scout Pat Connelly. In addition to having plenty of experience with player personnel, Connelly once was an assistant GM with the Phoenix Suns. And though this is only a rumor, Joe Cowley tweeted that “there’s been a lot of smoke around” former Bulls player and assistant coach Adrian Griffin, who’s now the lead assistant coach for the Toronto Raptors.

Undoubtedly because of Karnisovas pulling the strings, the Bulls are making sure everyone they desire to employ will be in place by the time games start up again, whether it’s for this season or next. This is a refreshing change of pace from a franchise that’s historically been more reactive than proactive. True, that’s applied more to settling for second-tier free agents after missing out on premier free agents than making front-office moves, but the cupboard has been bare of fresh meat in that area for so long that there’s nothing to go on. Even when the organization has been proactive in any area post-Jordan, the moves meant to shake things up typically haven’t worked, but no one is criticizing anything the Bulls have done in the past 48 hours.

For the first time, Bulls fans can look forward to an organization that will take a serious look at analytics for the first time ever and employ enough scouts that no stone in basketball will be unturned. The key to winning in the NBA is to build the best team possible, and because the Bulls have had such a small front office for so long, they’ve put themselves at a disadvantage that didn’t need to exist. So kudos to Michael Reinsdorf for finally recognizing that and bringing in a highly respected executive like Karnisovas. Chicago saw recent championship success from the Blackhawks and Cubs after both did complete restructurings of their front offices — ones in which everyone could do the jobs that brought out their greatest strengths.

These are moves the Bulls should have made years ago, not when practically the entire rest of the league already has moved into the current century. Still, it’s better late than never, and even if Karnisovas fails, we won’t be able to say he didn’t try quickly. As long a franchise works hard to build a winner and makes moves fitting of that narrative, fans will be proud of the effort, and terrific effort is one of Chicago’s defining characteristics. Karnisovas is well on his way to never having to buy a drink in the city again.