Meet the 2026 Chicago Bulls roster as they head into training camp. Hopefully this will be remembered as ‘that hodgepodge surrounding superstar Caleb Wilson in his rookie season’:
If you weren’t aware of last-week-in-September trades, a couple days before camp was set to open the Bulls traded 21.7 year old Rob Dillingham for 33.8 year old Buddy Hield.
There weren’t any other draft assets involved, and the cap and cash is fairly negligible1. At first glance, one could consider this move a bit odd for a rebuilding2 team, but: while the Bulls should be taking chances on young players, there are diminishing returns when you have too many of them, and it’s more important to foster development of the more important prospects.
In this case, it’s all about Caleb Wilson. And so all acquisitions are how to best provide support for him to grow as a player. In theory, Buddy Hield can provide spacing for Wilson and others (it’s a roster in desperate need of shooting). As stated, it’s only a theory. Another theory is that Hield is totally washed, the Atlanta Hawks - where new Bulls GM Bryson Graham worked before coming here - apparently thought so as he was outside of their rotation after being a spare-parts acquisition last trade deadline. So I am not too anticipatory of the scenario where Hield resurrects his career and is a positive-value trade candidate this coming February.
But there’s another non-negligible characteristic to Hield that Dillingham could not possibly possess: Hield has always been widely regarded as a ‘good locker room guy’. So even if he doesn’t play, or can’t play well, maybe Hield can still help in other ways versus a very young player trying to stay in the league. Maybe in ten years Caleb Wilson (ascended superstar at this point!) will call Hield “my vet”.
As for the rest of the roster, there hasn’t been much since Graham hit the ground runn…er, hit the ground and slowly trotted. It’s only been one offseason, but it was one where the Bulls had a ton of cap flexibility, so it is still a bit disappointing that he talked big but executed like a small market3. I mentioned the rationale for not keeping Dillingham along with everyone else 25-and-under, but it is pretty bogus (that’s right! bogus!) that the Bulls are entering Training Camp with one open active roster spot and one open two-way spot. It’s one thing to not want to use the Room Exception now and potentially save it for trade-making season, but there is no reason why these spots can’t be filled now (theoretically, you can get better players if signing them to a spot instead of having a tryout) and simply cut them later this year if they needed that roster flexibility back.
I don’t think I’m going to be disappointed in what Graham says to open training camp. I expect Graham to preach patience but set mild expectations, and actually demonstrate that at the very least he is realistic in how far he and the franchise he’s leading still has to go. I also expect him to say “that’s a good question” to every reporter there, and for the reporters to agree.
It’s a low bar, but: like his actions, Graham’s words are loads better than the last guy. Maybe if Arturas Karnisovas got to open his first training camp after drafting Wilson at #4 overall instead of Patrick Williams, we would’ve given him more of a honeymoon period.
Hield’s player option 2027-28 is only $3.1M guaranteed, and Bulls can stretch it to make it even less of a cap hit next offseason if that needs to be maximized.
they’ll even say the word! Or at least not dance around it like the prior regime. I have already thought way too much about how Arturas Karnisovas would treat this media day. I bet he’d really hammer home the ‘relegation zone’ with complete lack of understanding.
Bulls took on $3M in payroll with this Hield trade, but they are still 3rd lowest payroll in basketball, and it’s still not reported how much cash they received from Charlotte to offset the expenditure - it’s a new league year, so they start at zero even after the cash infusion on draft night.
If Hield isn't washed (and for what it's worth, both Hollinger and Duncan seemed to think he was not last year) I would think at least in theory that removes one excuse for not aggressively working to trade Powell.
Love the trade for the Bulls. Creates a nice mix of youth and veterans. Hield brings much needed shooting, obviously.
This team is giving me serious Pacers suprise championship run vibes. The team just makes so much sense and the pieces seem to really compliment each other.
It also reminds me of those bulls teams with rondo, wade and butler, just really tough, with multiple ball handlers.
As currently constructed i could see this team winning 48 games or so.