What the SummerBulls showed us
1 up, 2 down
Brief recap and discussion jumping-off of 2026 Summer League. There is technically one more game on Friday - Wilson is confirmed to not be playing but I’m less clear on the rest - but I am posting this now!
Caleb Wilson
Wilson put up consistent production through his 4 Summer League games, though never again reaching the heights of his debut. Finished with 23.5 points on 50% shooting (42% from three), 7.3 rebounds, 1.3 steals, 2.5 blocks.
In his final game versus the SummerLakers, Wilson overall played, per John Hollinger, “kinda brutal”. Yet Wilson was still able to generate a three-and-dunk combo highlight:
Here is our old friend Ricky at old site SBNation on Wilson’s change in shot profile.
A study by Owen Phillips showed that three-point rate (percentage of field goal attempts from three) is the “stickiest” stat of summer league — the one that carries over the best to the regular season. Well, Wilson moved his three-point rate from 9.1% at UNC to 47.1% for the Summer Bulls.
As Ricky emphasizes, it’s exciting to see this kind of dramatic improvement so quickly as it potentially indicates how eager and driven Wilson is to improve as a player. It’s something Wilson certainly talks about as very important to him, and very cool to see it on the court in the initiation of his Bulls career.
Another area of improvement for Wilson, as Ricky relays, is his playmaking. The assist-to-turnover ratio went backwards in SummerLeague versus college.
As Will Gottlieb of CHGO concurs, this Summer League was a resounding success for Wilson:
Caleb's highlights per 36 might lead the league. Super productive. Shot is a real weapon.
But he's got a ton of work to do: attention to detail, patience, consistency, strength, handle all need to improve.
He's already good, and still has a lot of room left to grow
Dailyn Swain
Here’s a the Dailyn Swain highlight of Thursday’s game:
Unfortunately that was pretty much it for Swain, his lone field goal and across 4 games he shot 4-31 from the field. Swain was moved off the ball more as the SL went on, but that relative lack of responsibility hasn’t helped.
Bust?!?! No, not yet, but being bad in Summer League is worse than being good. Would it have helped Swain if the Bulls deployed a ‘pure’ point guard on his squad? Maybe, but only helped him look good in these games this year. I can see the argument that for his long-term development he should be tasked with more responsibility, not less.
Noa Essengue
Speaking of responsibilities, it looks like while Swain is given opportunity to fail, Noa Essengue has already lost trust from the new administration that did not draft him. Essengue went from starting, to off the bench in the second half, to being the 8th man playing 11 minutes (and committing 7 fouls in that time!) on Thursday.
Was that deserved? Hollinger thinks there’s some bias working against him.
hasn't been amazing but there's also some Not Our Guy syndrome happening.
One can squint and see positives in the minutes he was on the floor, but it appears that Tiago Splitter, who was the one directly benching him in that second game and remained in Vegas even though no longer head coach of the SummerBulls, doesn’t like the cut of Essengue’s jib. I’m speculating a bit, but it is likely a combination of subjective body language and objective body-on-the-ground that has Splitter believing Essengue is simply not physically ready for the NBA.
Looking like the GLeague for Noa Essengue in his second season, which is not too negative a position given his significant injury and significantly young age (he’s younger than both Swain and Wilson).
I don’t have an opinion on Jaylin Sellers and Tobe Awaka, the two 2-way contracts on the roster. I’d just like to remind everyone that if Sellers is looking productive in Summer League and (likely) on the GLeague roster, he’s helped by being 3 and a half years older than Essengue.
As others brought up last year, Essengue represents the dilemma when drafting players who are really young and massive projects. Teams who draft them are running the risk of essentially just hosting them for an internship so they can get a taste of the industry before they go on to more meaningfully contribute later in life.
This becomes even more complicated when there’s a regime change during the early stages of that player’s career. It’s easy (and fair) to say that Graham should give Essengue a real chance, but we also have to put ourselves in his shoes. We’re basically saying “Hey, see that kid who can’t stop falling down and committing fouls and is only taking like three shot attempts per game? We think you should take him seriously, because your predecessor who got fired made a significant investment in him.” If we truly want Graham and Splitter to take charge of this organization, part of that is accepting they might not care about some of the players AKME brought in.
I think Noa will likely spend a good portion of this season in the G League. That might honestly be the best for him. He needs time to learn how to control his body and I’m not sure that will happen in short stints against NBA players. He’ll be someone worth monitoring, because the potential is there. I’m hopeful he can be at least a good role player, but we’re likely not going to see much of that this year.
I didn't understand yanking Essengue from the lineup at all. Ok sure he's the last GM's guy but you have him now and summer league should be for letting guys struggle a bit