Buyers or sellers? Bulls’ Zach LaVine has his opinion after a big win

PHILADELPHIA – Arturas Karnisovas better be enjoying that view from 50,000 feet.

What exactly the Bulls’ executive vice president of basketball operations is seeing from up there? Anyone’s guess.

Is Karnisovas seeing a team that is a combined 9-2 against Eastern Conference powerhouses Miami, Boston, Brooklyn, Milwaukee, and now Philadelphia after Friday’s 126-112 win at the Wells Fargo Center? Or is he seeing a team that can get up and square off against the big boys, but shows no urgency against lesser competition?

Is he seeing a team that can reach the second round of the playoffs – the bar that Karnisovas set for this team in the fall? Or is he becoming overly enamored by fool’s gold?

With the trade deadline just over a month away and organizations needing to start making decisions, coach Billy Donovan expected to find out what his boss was thinking sooner than later.

“I really like this group a lot,” Donovan said. “I like the way they come to work each day, the way they’re trying to improve. I still believe in the group. I’m in there everyday emotionally with them. [Karnisovas] probably has a 50,000-foot view overlooking everything and we’ll have those conversations, but I feel like in the time being regardless of what happens when that day comes, I feel like my responsibility with our staff and our team is how do we try and become the best version of ourselves more consistently.”

But Donovan also knows that this team has had disappointing moments, specifically losses to the likes of Orlando, San Antonio, and Houston.

That’s why he’s said on several occasions they are consistent at being inconsistent.

“This is who we are,” Donovan said.

Is that worth the gamble of hoping when the playoffs start and the competition is at its best, these Bulls players will again step into the octagon?

Only Karnisovas knows the answer to that with the Feb. 9 trade deadline bearing down.

“We’re both on the same page and think the same way, that there’s these moments we show really good hope and promise, and then there’s times we walk away kind of scratching our heads sometimes,” Donovan said. “For me as a coach, you’re trying to find those buttons to get us to play more consistently, and obviously they’ve got to take that responsibility, we all do. When we get closer to the date, as [Karnisovas is] evaluating the team and watching the team, I’m sure those conversations will get a little deeper of how he feels.”

He had to feel good in the win over the 76ers, as the Bulls improved to 18-21 on the season, led by a 41-point outburst from Zach LaVine, including a 19-point third quarter, and a ridiculous 11-of-13 from three-point range.

“You just fall into it,” LaVine said of his night. “I’m confident with all the shots I take, and eventually you make a couple in a row, you’re like, ‘OK.’ After that it’s just target practice.”

The one asterisk with the win that ended a Philadelphia 11-game home win streak, however, was Joel Embiid was sidelined with a sore foot. The same Joel Embiid that has never lost to the Bulls in his career, posting a 12-0 record against them, as well as averaging 29.1 points, 11.3 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game in those wins.

So add this win to a list of reasons to keep this roster intact and maybe even be buyers in a few weeks? LaVine had his opinion.

“At our best, we showed what we can be last year [at this time],” LaVine said. “We were the number one team in the East. At our best, we’re one of the best teams in the league.

“That’s for them to decide. Each and every night I go out there, and we’ve won with less before so I’m not worried about our roster.”

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