DO I WANT to wax poetic about the Chicago Bulls?
Meh. For most of the least decade, they’ve ridden the NBA’s dreaded treadmill of mediocrity, delivering a middling brand of basketball that has most of the fan base (myself included) tuning out by late-March.
For your typical mediocre franchise, off of said treadmill usually means it’s tank time, something the Bulls has avoided for years because, well, I don’t know why.
Is it pride? Nah. The Bulls haven’t been proud since Derrick Rose’s 2017 career- and team-altering knee injury.
Is it ignorance? Sure, there’ve been some brainfarty misfires — drafting Patrick Williams over Tyrese Haliburton, giving Patrick Williams a $90 million extension, allowing Patrick Williams into the building time and again — but when they traded Lauri Markkanen, did you think he’d become an All-Star? Yeah, me neither. You don’t know what you don’t know.
Is it the fear of continued bad luck? Post-Rose, we’ve seen our fair share of black cattiness — Lonzo Ball’s injury issues come to mind — but every team, champs included, gets screwed by the hoops gods every so often, and they deal with it, and they eventually win championship.
Regardless of how we got here, we’re here, so we’ll be forced to watch (and, in my case, write about) more meh basketball. On the plus side, this Bulls squad is a frisky, bouncy bunch that should be way more entertaining than the team’s plodding Nikola Vucevic-era collectives.
So here on the eve of the start of training camp, howzabout we drop one cray-cray 2026-27 prognostication — some yay, some nay — for each of the team’s top ten chips?
Listen, I dig the third-year man — local kid, proud to wear the uniform, hard worker, blah blah blah — but the CSS team (a.k.a., me) feels he has a celiing of Jerami Grant, noting, “Jerami Grant ain’t Tim Duncan — but when [Buzelis’] rookie contract is up at the end of the 2028-29 season, he’ll want to get rewarded like Jerami Grant…who, I think we can all agree, is absurdly overpaid.”
If Buzelis proves me wrong — if he evolves into, say, a less-athletic Jaren Jackson Jr. — they should probably pay the man.
But he won’t. Because he’s Jerami Grant. Thus, he’ll be your fourth option behind Caleb Wilson, Josh Giddey, and Norman Powell.
During his seven-year tenure with the Brooklyn Nets, Claxton had moments, many of which came in the 2022-23 season, when he almost averaged a triple-double (12.6 points, 9.2 boards) and was a defensive menace, swatting away 2.5 shots a night in the process. Not Bill Russell, but not bad.
The former Georgia Bulldog is still just 27, and a change of scenery will probably do him good…but it won’t do him enough good for him keep his starting gig. (We’ll discuss his replacement in about 750 words.)
The Aussie is a fun player to watch, no doubt, and is a triple-double waiting to happen, which is swell, but like former Bulls Zach Lavine and Nikola Vucevic, his career has been a combo platter of great stats and a not-so-great ability to help win games.
Josh Giddey
Career: 334 games
Averages: 14.6 points, 7.6 rebounds, 6.6 assists
True shooting: 54.0%
Playoff appearances: 10 games
Playoff record: 6–4
Championships: 0
The catch: During his only playoff run, Giddey’s role shrank to 18.1 minutes per game, with averages of 8.7 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists.
Zach LaVine
Career: 693 games
Averages: 20.7 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.9 assists
True shooting: 58.8%
Playoff appearances: 4 games
Playoff record: 1–3
Championships: 0
Nikola Vučević
Career: 1,036 games
Averages: 17.1 points, 10.3 rebounds, 2.9 assists
True shooting: 55.0%
Playoff appearances: 22 games
Playoff record: 6–16
Championships: 0
The Combined Résumé
2,063 regular-season games
36 playoff games
13–23 postseason record
.361 postseason winning percentage
Zero championships
New Bulls GM Bryson Graham inherited Giddey from the previous regime, and the the 6’8” guard might not fit his roster building vision, so Graham would likely have no compunction about shipping him out of town by February. Giddey’s only 23, and if he gets all triple-doubly in the first half of the season, he might fetch Chicago a first-round pick, something for which Graham would have way more use.
Graham was on the New Orleans staff when they drafted Hield in 2016, likely part of the reason he was comfortable acquiring him for the way younger (and, admittedly, possibly way worse) Rob Dillingham.
Graham won’t dictate new coach Tiago Splitter’s minutes distribution…but then again Graham might dictate new coach Tiago Splitter’s minutes distribution, so look for the veteran sharpshooter to see about 28 minutes a game.
Graham also inherited Jones, but he’ll like Jones, because everybody likes Jones.
And what’s not to like? He’s a true point guard who seems to not care about stats, but rather only about making his teammates better and, y’know, winning basketball games.
Barring the acquisition of a starting-level guard in our theoretical Giddey deal, Jones will have the keys to the car by springtime.
Miller is springy, and plays with a chip on his shoulder, and will be the only positive thing to come out of the epically stupid Ayo Dosunmu trade, a deal that might prove to be one of the worst in franchise history. And that’s saying something.
Miller replaced the injured Buzelis in the starting lineup for the final 12 games of the 2026 season, and acquitted himself quite well:
Minutes: 30.8 per game
Points: 14.2 per game
Rebounds: 7.9 per game
2.3 offensive rebounds
5.6 defensive rebounds
Assists: 1.6 per game
Steals: 0.8 per game
Blocks: 0.7 per game
Field-goal percentage: 55.2%
Three-point percentage: 29.5%
Free-throw percentage: 79.2%
Turnovers: 1.1 per game
Once the 22-year-old puts on some muscle, he’ll be a legit irritant off the bench. And the Bulls can use all the irritants they can get.
Being that the Bulls are about to enter Tank Town, I’m convinced that Graham signed Powell just so he could flip him at the deadline. Norm’s a great player and a great dude, but he’s 33, and 33-year-olds don’t buy in Tank Town. They rent.
The NBA Summer League isn’t a fair barometer of player quality, as at least half of the competition won’t ever see a regular season NBA game. That said, if you’re a first round draft pick, you should dominate the session. Like, by a lot.
This summer, Bulls rookie Dailyn Swain and virtual rookie Noa Essengue were the opposite of dominant.
Dailyn Swain — 2026 Summer League
Games: 4
Starts: 4
Minutes: 28.0 per game
Points: 4.2 per game
Rebounds: 5.0 per game
Assists: 2.2 per game
Steals: 0.8 per game
Blocks: 0.2 per game
Turnovers: 1.8 per game
Field-goal percentage: 12.9%
Three-point percentage: 0.0%
Free-throw percentage: 71.4%
True-shooting percentage: 24.9%
Noa Essengue — 2026 Summer League
Games: 4
Starts: 2
Minutes: 18.6 per game
Points: 6.5 per game
Rebounds: 4.5 per game
Assists: 0.8 per game
Steals: 1.2 per game
Blocks: 1.8 per game
Turnovers: 1.2 per game
Field-goal percentage: 43.8%
Three-point percentage: 16.7%
Free-throw percentage: 54.5%
Jesus.
They also flunked the eye-test — both looked as stinky as their stats would indicate — and methinks Splitter wants nothing to do with busts-to-be, which is why this season, they’ll each play no more than 12 games with the Chicago Bulls…and a shit-ton of games with the Windy City Bulls.
Remember what I said about somebody stealing Claxton’s starting spot? Yeah, it’ll be this guy.
Sure, he’s a defensive liability, and he doesn’t have Claxton’s rebounding chops, but he’s fast, he has a reliable outside shot, and athletically speaking, he’s a better fit next to Caleb Wilson.
And this season should be all about Caleb Wilson.
So now let’s discuss…
Wilson has everything a tanking team needs: Charisma, athleticism, hunger, and, y’know, goodness.
He’ll be a joy to watch, he’ll average 39.0 minutes a night, his numbers will be absurdly inflated, and he’ll have at least one holy shit play a night, all factors that’ll make him the franchise’s fourth Rookie of the Year.