The 'now they tell us' article on Arturas Karnisovas has been published

hope Bryson Graham doesn't take the wrong lessons from this

Bryan Curtis of The Ringer has popularized the term ‘now they tell us’, which is an article written after a firing or a trade that, only after the fact, has sourced information describing what went wrong.

This week, Jamal Collier of ESPN¹ posted one of these for the Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley era. It’s not the most explosive version of this kind of story, but it does reveal some interesting characteristics of this failed regime that only got worse in the past 5 years.

There isn’t a single detail that needs to be quoted, it’s more of a general pattern: AKME got more insular and defensive as mistakes piled up. This description of behavior was reported by Joe Cowley (so, caveats there…) after the 2024-25 season when player development head Peter Patton was fired. In Collier’s piece it seems to have started as early as in the build up to AKME’s first draft in 2020, where “multiple people in the scouting and analytics departments pushed” for Tyrese Haliburton over Patrick Williams.

I think Collier makes an important point here, after passing along that these same staffers also “liked” Williams quite a bit in draft prep:

Draft day mistakes happen, even in the best organizations, but staffers were more concerned by how long it took for Karnisovas and Eversley to come to terms with this misfire.

Poor evaluation skills and being too slow to react to those evaluations: that was the AKME way.

But this article seems to push the thesis that there was a different, more consequential issue: they weren’t collaborative enough.

Keep in mind why this is the throughline of the article: the sources want to separate themselves from what was a complete organizational failure², and some quoted still work for the Bulls. Some undoubtedly postdate AND predate AKME.

This is all a red flag to me. In AKME’s position, to succeed not just in staying employed but winning games, it’s more important to be correct than collaborative. And remember the situation they were coming into, an absolute wreckage brought on by the prior ten years of GarPax rule. I think both executives actually deserve some credit for taking personal responsibility in the wake of ownership clearly foisting franchise lifers onto them. AKME did things their way, and didn’t blame ownership ‘direction’, as their avoiding a rebuild was as much an AKME and Billy Donovan philosophy as it was for anyone above them.

Obviously, “their way” turned out to be stupid and terrible, but what accomplishments do these GarPax remnants have to suggest their way is better?

This post-mortem isn’t merely piling on a closed chapter of the Bulls, it’s informative to speculate on Bryson Graham’s ability to succeed.

The general sentiment when it comes to the newly-hired head man is that he is valuing staffers’ input and it’s producing a better “vibe”. However, this specific change is not making me feel good!

Some longtime Bulls executives, sidelined under Karnisovas, have been more active in internal team operations, sources told ESPN. That includes Paxson, who is now a senior adviser, and Brian Hagen, who has been with the organization since 2012 and was an assistant GM under Paxson and former general manager Gar Forman.

Collier mentions the external search firm that produced a list of VP candidates, but it was the extremely internal John Paxson who was part of the interview process. Paxson was also reportedly part of the coaching search, a nugget of information which gave me the creeps, especially when compounded by how many GarPax+AKME staffers were being retained³ and called “very good and talented” by Graham in his introductory press conference.

While it’s unfortunate that Graham isn’t as autonomous as he should be, he is at least saying the right things regarding this criticism of AKME:

“I’m not trying to come in and overcorrect. I’m just leading in the way that I believe is the proper way to lead. As you make decisions, you might convince your group when it gets down to the nitty-gritty. But earlier in the process, you just want to take in, and you want to hear from [everyone], and you want everyone focused on trying to give their absolute best to help make the right decision. And then ultimately I’ll take that information, process it and do what I need to.”

When mentioning Graham immediately upholding Bulls tradition when it comes to second round picks, one anonymous league source said "I just think that there's a certain way that they operate, and I don't see the fundamental core of that changing."

That may be indeed the case. But Graham may still perform better than AKME, because “player and team evaluation” is a way more important characteristic than “makes John Paxson feel valued”. Fluffing the self-admittedly-out-of-touch consigliere is what can earn you the Bulls job, but it’s not what will help you succeed at it.

1. ESPN doesn’t dedicate a beat writer to the Bulls anymore due to lack of interest. Collier covers several Midwest teams including Chicago.

2. credit to Collier for emphasizing that ownership is responsible for hiring Karnisovas

3. In a related story, the Bulls hired several assistant coaches this week who all look to be tied to head coach Tiago Splitter, versus front office present or past.