CHICAGO — If you went to Maxwell Street in the 1970s and bought nine used hubcaps, you probably had a decent chance of finding one that might go with your rusty, old Buick.

If you were an NBA executive at the 2026 trade deadline and acquired nine second-round draft picks, you also might have a chance of finding a player who could change your team’s appearance.

I’m not sure whether Chicago Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas is a thrifty shopper outside of his job, but he seems to have cornered the market on second-round picks, so I’m guessing he’s comfortable looking at the bargain bins in secondhand stores.

Karnišovas is taking some flak for his trade-deadline maneuvering, which was a complete reversal of form from recent deadlines, which is to say he finally did something. With so many players on expiring contracts — including starters Coby White and Nikola Vučević and key sixth man Ayo Dosunmu — Karnišovas had little choice but to hold a yard sale this week, much like Cubs President Jed Hoyer did with his summer sell-off at the 2021 MLB trade deadline.

Like Hoyer, Karnišovas knew this Bulls team was going nowhere and none of the “big” names he was shopping would re-sign, so he bit the bullet and got what he could in return. It wasn’t much, but in Chicago we tend to overvalue players we love, so maybe an aging Vooch, an injury-plagued Coby and an energetic hometown hero in Ayo weren’t really as valuable as many fans believe.

But that’s water under the bridge. So what’s the plan now, AK?

“This process takes time,” Karnišovas said Thursday, repeating the mantra of every rebuilding executive in sports history.

Of course, Karnišovas doesn’t believe in rebuilds and refused to call this one, referring to it as “a stage.” He pointed to the draft and to financial flexibility for the offseason that might entice free agents.

But what makes him think any high-caliber free agent would choose to play in Chicago after looking at the current state of the organization?

“I mean, all we can do is prepare for free agency and have our targets in play,” he said. “We have a lot of flexibility. I think Chicago is still a desirable market for players to come. We’re just going to take one thing at a time.”

OK, sure.

That means first seeing what he has with the current roster, which now includes a plethora of young guards, several of them former first-round picks who haven’t lived up to their draft-day billing. It’s Josh Giddey’s team now, and Matas Buzelis and Jalen Smith will have to step up and show some game-to-game consistency. Anfernee Simons could become a viable offensive piece, and maybe Jaden Ivey can if he stays healthy.

It’s a cross-your-fingers approach, but it’s a bold one that puts Karnišovas in the crosshairs, just as Hoyer was with Cubs fans back in ’21.

Five years after Hoyer’s sell-off, he at least can point to Pete Crow-Armstrong as a valuable asset from the summer purge, and no one lamented the loss of Kris Bryant or Javier Báez when they regressed with new teams. Time marches on.

Can we wait until 2031 to judge Karnišovas for this week’s haul? Will Simons, Rob Dillingham or Collin Sexton even be here next season?

Some wonder whether Karnišovas would have a job if he didn’t have the faith of Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and his son, Bulls President Michael Reinsdorf. Not an NBA job, but any job, including valet parker, dog walker or Streets and San worker. That’s how low AK’s poll ratings are in Chicago these days.

Aside from dealing Zach LaVine a year ago, Karnišovas studiously avoided making moves at the last three trade deadlines, only to wake up and discover the Bulls were in Play-In Land again and the value of the players he held on to was slipping away. He said Thursday he didn’t regret not trading any of the impending free agents before this season: “Right now it’s good timing, and we addressed it.”

Karnišovas completely overhauled the Bulls roster in what could be interpreted as a tank job, but really it’s too late to truly tank and get high lottery odds. Blame the now-former players for overachieving and being a .500-ish team, which is good enough for a spot in the play-in tournament. Even if the Bulls play themselves out, they won’t catch teams that tanked from the start such as the Brooklyn Nets, Washington Wizards and Indiana Pacers.

They still can attempt a belated tank job, but knowing Billy Donovan, he won’t coach to lose. It’s just not his style. So they’ll probably wind up with a first-round pick in the 10-13 range, and Karnišovas will use it on a “project” like Dalen Terry in 2022.

Terry, curiously, was sent to the New York Knicks for Guerschon Yabusele and cash considerations. Yabusele was a first-round pick in 2016 who never panned out, just like Terry, who memorably said on draft day, “There’s going to be a redraft in 10 years and it’s going to be different.”

The No. 18 pick said he kept track of every name picked ahead of him.

“I remember everybody already,” Terry said. “Trust me. I got it.”

We saw flashes of his talent in Chicago but only in brief spurts. He’s a nice kid and hopefully he finds himself in New Orleans, where the Knicks reportedly sent him Thursday in a deal for Jose Alvarado.

Meanwhile, Karnišovas said the “evaluation period” begins now, and he confirmed that the current roster will maintain the same up-tempo style under Donovan.

Karnišovas was lambasted last year for the return from the LaVine deal, but Kevin Huerter and Tre Jones turned into valuable pieces. Huerter was dealt to the Detroit Pistons in the Ivey trade, while Jones still can be an integral part of the future.

Bulls fans are rightfully upset with the departures of favorites White and Dosunmu, but they should let Simons, Ivey, Billingham and the others play before tuning out the team on Chicago Sports Network.

Still, for a fan base going through the longest spin cycle in recent memory, it’s a hard sell. Karnišovas isn’t much of a salesman, so it’s up to Donovan to talk them off the ledge.

Remember, it’s just a stage. We all go through one growing up.

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