Bulls rumors: Staffers begged Arturas Karnisovas to draft Tyrese Haliburton over Patrick Williams

Undoubtedly, the Chicago Bulls are beginning a new era with Bryson Graham at the helm in the front office. Overall, his adaptable approach is a far cry from the regressive approach of Arturas Karnisovas.

As a result, ex-Bulls staffers are opening up about the contrast between working with Graham and Karnisovas. Among the things they are sharing is how they pleaded with AK to draft Tyrese Hailburton over Patrick Williams in 2023, per Jamal Collier of ESPN.

“Being the first draft that those guys ran and having [the pandemic] circumstances, I think was a recipe for disaster,” one ex-staffer told ESPN. “That being said, they way over-indexed on Pat’s potential. It was just a really bad misevaluation.”

At the time, AK reportedly said he didn’t think Haliburton was a “serious prospect”. Ultimately, Haliburton was picked up by the Indiana Pacers. In 2025, Haliburton was a catalyst for getting the Pacers to the NBA Finals.

Meanwhile, Williams has experienced a period of inconsistency, poor shooting, and being relegated to a role player. Overall, he averaged 7.0 points and 3.0 rebounds per game this past year while shooting 37.2% from the field.

Additionally, an ex-staffer criticized the front office for believing Williams would be the next Kawhi Leonard.

“It took probably three or four years for them to come off of the ‘Well, he could be Kawhi,’ statements,” the ex-staffer told ESPN. “Those things continued to linger even after Patrick pretty demonstrably proved that he was not going to be Kawhi.

“That was an unfortunate way to kick things off.”

Ultimately, AK was fired with GM Marc Eversley in April.

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