Jobs of Bulls’ Billy Donovan, Arturas Karnisovas said to be safe for now

It may be a disaster of a start, but it doesn’t appear Chicago Bulls ownership is blaming head of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas or coach Billy Donovan. Not yet.

Instead, it seems the jobs of Karnisovas and Donovan are safe, as the team will look to make changes only to the roster — for starters — as it aims for a turnaround, per K.C. Johnson of NBA Sports Chicago.

The Bulls (5-13) have lost seven of eight and look as if they’re headed straight for the lottery. The early season has been dominated by trade rumors surrounding guard Zach LaVine, a few more surrounding power forward Patrick Williams, and a little bit of voiced frustration by small forward DeMar DeRozan.

Other than that, it’s been great. Or something.

“Rumors come with the territory,” center Nikola Vucevic said, via Johnson. “If you’re playing well, everything is great. Everybody is talking positive about you. If you’re losing, you get criticized and rumors start. We have to deal with that. The only way to deal with it is for us to play better. That’s the only way for that to stop.”

Chicago’s biggest issue isn’t that it lacks talented individual players. It’s just that those players don’t seem to mesh, and the chemistry only appears to be getting worse.

So changes will be coming this season. Just don’t expect them to involve Donovan or Karnisovas.