Bulls trade rumors already swirling, but they're likely falling on deaf ears

It’s only mid-November, but the Bulls already are being mentioned in the NBA’s drama-filled rumor mill.

With the Mavericks spiraling and general manager Nico Harrison having been fired, they might be the first organization to bail on the season and turn their attention to tanking to set themselves up for the loaded 2026 draft class.

It adds up perfectly, considering they landed Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 overall pick last summer and given the way college freshmen Darryn Peterson, AJ Dybantsa and Cameron Boozer have started this season.

That means the Mavericks will have to start unloading high salaries, and there might be no bigger potential prize on the trade market than big man Anthony Davis, a Chicago native.

And where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

Former NBA guard John Wall was on a podcast recently and said that while he didn’t want to speak for Davis, he was hearing that he wanted to play for his hometown team. NBA insider Marc Stein then reported Davis’ representatives are expected to work with the Mavericks’ front office to figure out whether an in-season trade is a logical path to pursue in the next few months.

Davis is owed a total of $175.4 million for this season and the next two, including $54 million this season. The Bulls, meanwhile, have six players on expiring contracts, including centers Nikola Vucevic and Zach Collins and guards Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu, on their roster.

But who knows what executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas might be thinking.

While the criticism of the job Karnisovas has done since taking over the Bulls in 2020 is justified, he hasn’t been a liar. If he says something is the plan, he seldom strays from it.

The last time Karnisovas spoke publicly was on media day in late September, and he was asked about adding a star player and his inability to do that during his tenure. Over and over again, he insisted a star might be emerging in-house, whether that be White, Josh Giddey, Matas Buzelis or someone else.

‘‘Going back a year ago, when we got into this transition . . . I think we were messaging the fan base that this is the way we have to do it,’’ Karnisovas said at the time. ‘‘We have to be patient, we have to do it the right way and we can’t skip steps. So for this team this year, we’ve got to show growth. This group is pretty young, and there’s a lot of potential there.’’

That doesn’t exactly sound as though Karnisovas is looking to trade the farm for Davis, who is an NBA champion but is also expensive, 32 years old and injury-prone.

Might the Bulls’ four-game losing streak, with three of those losses coming against teams with elite NBA players such as Giannis Antetokounmpo, Donovan Mitchell and Victor Wembanyama, plant a seed of doubt in Karnisovas and his plan? Highly unlikely.

The Bulls were in position to play the tanking game for Flagg last season and didn’t even give it a second thought.

‘‘Competitive integrity’’ and patience rule the day for Karnisovas.

There are no shortcuts allowed, even if they might make sense.