New-look Bulls prove it is possible to fire players, keep the coach

Bulls boss Arturas Karnisovas deserves some credit for outside-the-box thinking.

For decades, there's been a popular sports cliché, “You can't fire the players, so you have to fire the coach.”

Karnisovas showed everyone — you can fire the players. The Bulls cleared out eight lockers, roughly half the roster, in the final days before the NBA trade deadline struck.

Of course, considering seven of those eight players were guys Karnisovas either drafted, signed or traded for, it's also an admission he hasn't done a great job. “You can't fire yourself” — that old saying is still mostly true.

The revamped Bulls looked good for three quarters Saturday at the United Center, but when it was time to turn up the intensity, they couldn't compete with Denver's cohesiveness. The Nuggets opened the fourth quarter with a 20-2 run and won going away 136-120.

“We have to get in better shape,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said after the game.

The Bulls have had little time to get the new players acclimated and will face a major size disadvantage against most every team they face. In this game, 6-foot-7 Guerschon Yabusele started at center against Nikola Jokic, since Jalen Smith sat out for the Bulls with a calf strain.

Matas Buzelis scored 21 points to lead seven Bulls in double figures. Anfernee Simons scored 17, while Collin Sexton and Nick Richards added 15.

After the game Buzelis talked about saying goodbye to several of his closest friends. Only Patrick Williams has been on the Bulls roster longer than the second-year forward.

“It's definitely tough losing all my brothers,” Buzelis said. “You've got to accept it. Those guys are always going to be part of my circle and they've impacted me as a player and I'm never going to forget the relationships I built with them. They were great vets to me. … (But) you're put in tough situations and that's how you grow.”

Karnisovas declined to describe the latest moves as a rebuild. It was already obvious, though, when the Bulls moved on from DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Alex Caruso, they were starting over. It doesn't matter what the VP of basketball operations wants to call it, the Bulls were already a year into the latest rebuild.

This year the Bulls’ deadline moves were more like exchanging Scrabble tiles. They probably got a little worse, but not much, and the future path is very unclear.

What happens the rest of the season isn't all that important for the Bulls. But they should want to see how Simons, Sexton and Jaden Ivey look playing next to Giddey, who is still recovering from a hamstring strain and might be back after the all-star break. They should want to keep at least a few of the new guys, right?

The only new arrival under contract beyond this season is point guard Rob Dillingham. He said he's been buddies with Buzelis for years because they met on the AAU circuit. He's also relieved to be able to learn about the NBA without the high stakes he faced in Minnesota.

“Obviously we want to win, but we can mess up here,” said Dillingham, a top-10 draft pick two years ago. “It's not, if you lose, you die. Everyone's new, so they're all giving me positive thoughts.”

McClung a riser: Bulls two-way guard Mac McClung was added to the Rising Stars game roster for All-Star Weekend, replacing San Antonio's David Jones Garcia. McClung scored 33 points for the Windy City Bulls against Long Island on Friday