CHICAGO — If nothing else, Arturas Karnisovas is sticking to his guns.

The Chicago Bulls' top basketball executive had a familiar request for frustrated fans, stressing patience while talking about not skipping steps, just as he did at the end of last season.

“We have to be patient,” he said Monday at the team's media day. “We have to do it the right way and we can't skip steps. For this team, for next year, we've got to show growth. We've got to get better every year. We saw the glimpse at the end of last year. We also saw how we played against Miami (in a play-in loss). Those lessons are learned.”

Chicago has just one playoff appearance in five seasons since Karnisovas was hired as executive vice president of basketball operations. The Bulls return largely intact after going 39-43 for

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