The Bulls are finally interesting.
They may not be good, but for the first time this decade, the Chicago Bulls are worth watching. The team is building toward something behind the young core of power forwards Caleb Wilson and Matas Buzelis, along with point guard Josh Giddey.
So, what better time to start a Bulls column?
I’m Will Nichols, a second-year multimedia journalism major here at Loyola and host of The Phoenix’s podcast, The Byline. Every week in my column Nichols’ Nickel, I’ll be providing five insights on the Bulls from my perspective as a basketball nerd that has never seen consistently good Bulls basketball.
I’ll be diving into all the storylines, developments and drama as the NBA season progresses, with the occasional jokes and jabs only a soon-to-be 20-year-old could offer.
To start, a lot has changed for the Bulls heading into this season, so I’ll introduce the five biggest additions Chicago made this offseason.
Caleb Wilson
Simply put, 20-year-old phenom forward Caleb Wilson has to be the shining star of Chicago Bulls basketball for the next decade — and he hasn’t even played a game yet. Seems like lofty expectations, right? Not at all. Wilson himself will tell you.
“I expect to be Rookie of the Year,” he said in a June press conference.
That’s the sort of confidence you want from a fourth overall draft selection and face of the franchise. For the 2026-2027 season, the biggest thing for Wilson will be health.
At the University of North Carolina, Wilson played only 24 games before being sidelined due to a broken hand and then a broken thumb injury suffered during rehab. If he can stay on the court and progress his game this year, it would be a benchmark for success this season.
Norman Powell
Twelve-year-veteran wing Norman Powell joined the Chicago Bulls on a two year, $45 million deal this offseason. While good value for the sharpshooter, it’s a bit of a strange move, signing a 33-year-old veteran to a team with no aspirations of being good over the life of his contract.
As a short-term stop gap though, it makes sense, as Powell brings some shooting — 38% from three last year on over seven attempts a game — and an “old man at the rec” skillset that differentiates him from his teammates in a complementary way.
My biggest question for Powell this season is how long is he actually going to be a Bull? Powell seems like a player primed to score a lot of points on a young, wild Bulls team, and if he takes that role on, he surely will have plenty of trade suitors desiring the sharpshooting two-guard at the deadline.
Nicolas Claxton
In one of the more undernoticed deals of the offseason, center Nicolas Claxton was sent to Chicago as part of the deal that sent Julius Randle to the Brooklyn Nets.
The 27-year-old joins the Bulls after having spent seven seasons on a Brooklyn Nets team that, for almost the entirety of his career, occupied the basement of the Eastern Conference.
Sadly for Claxton, the Bulls probably won’t fare much better in the coming season — but at least he isn’t on the second most prominent NBA team in his city now.
All jokes aside, Claxton is the sort of gamble a young team like Chicago should invest in. He’s youngish, a highly switchable center and decent shot blocker who comes with real offensive limitations as well as a motor and drive that wanes game-to-game.
If nothing else, Claxton will certainly be an upgrade over the embarrassingly bad options Chicago trotted out at center to end last season.
Tiago Splitter
It’s pretty wild the new head coach didn’t crack the top three of the new additions in Chicago, but that goes to show just how impactful these three new players have the potential to be.
I think Splitter’s a phenomenal hire for the Chicago Bulls. After former Portland Trail Blazers Head Coach Chauncey Billups was found to be involved in a mafia-linked gambling investigation just one game into the season — yes, that really did happen — Splitter took over as the Trail Blazers’ interim head coach.
Splitter guided Portland to a seventh seed in the playoffs last year and elevated their franchise to their first playoff berth since 2021. In any other circumstance, he probably gets brought back, but since team Governor Tom Dundon is possibly the cheapest billionaire alive, that is not the case.
The 41-year-old Splitter is a former seven-year NBA vet, most notably with the San Antonio Spurs, and is the sort of hire that signals the start of a new era in Chicago. He’s not the flashiest hire, but he’s young and seems likely to succeed if his one year as an NBA head coach is any indication. Time will only tell if that proves true.
Dailyn Swain
Dailyn Swain is the other young forward joining the Bulls this year after being selected 15th overall this past draft.
Swain took an interesting path to get to the NBA, spending two seasons at Xavier University before transferring to the University of Texas and having a breakout third-year season, averaging 17.3 points per game on an uber-efficient 54% from the field.
Swain rose quickly in the pre-draft process and found himself selected at 15 before putting together what I’d consider to be a full on catastrophe of a performance at the Summer League where he went just 3/26 from the field.
Thankfully for Swain, he doesn’t have to be good right away, as he’ll be competing with forwards Leonard Miller, Noa Essengue and Patrick Williams for the minutes off the bench.
No matter how this season goes, Swain is an essential part of the Bulls young core moving forward, and I expect his development will be top of mind for Splitter this season.
This NBA season for the Chicago Bulls will be interesting, featuring a pair of vets, a couple exciting rookies and a brand new head coach.
Will Nichols is a second year student majoring in multimedia journalism and minoring in psychology. He is the podcast manager for the Phoenix and host of The Byline, along with regularly contributing to the arts section as a movie reviewer. Hailing from Lenexa, Kansas, Will loves watching the latest movies with friends and is seen regularly at sporting events and museums throughout Chicago.