The Bulls’ rebuild has a real foundation now, and it starts on the wing.
With Bryson Graham running the front office and Tiago Splitter on the bench, Chicago has leaned fully into a youth movement this summer. Landing the fourth-overall pick only accelerated that shift, but the bigger reason the future suddenly looks a lot brighter is the pairing of Matas Buzelis and Caleb Wilson.
Those two forwards have the kind of tools teams spend years trying to find. Size, athleticism, versatility - the whole package.
And in today’s NBA, that matters because two-way forwards are the rarest commodity of all. Wings who can defend multiple spots, handle the ball, shoot, and score don’t just help a roster.
They change the way it can be built.
That’s why Buzelis and Wilson matter so much. They give Chicago a chance to build around players who can fit almost any lineup shape.
Put a floor-spacing big next to them and the offense can hum. Pair them with a rim-protecting center and the defense can become a problem.
If the Bulls need them off the ball, they can do that. If they need them to handle it and play around shooters, that works too.
Buzelis already showed real growth last season. His True Shooting jumped to 58.6% even as his usage climbed to 22.8%.
He also improved across the board in rebounding, assists, steals and blocks, while getting to the line more and taking more threes. That’s the profile of a modern forward, the kind every team wants but few actually have.
Wilson, meanwhile, flashed his ceiling right away in his first Summer League game on Friday. His outside shot was supposed to be the question mark, but he answered with a 7/11 performance from deep, including tough off-the-dribble looks.
Add in the athleticism and physical tools, and the upside is obvious. He also made his presence felt on the other end with two steals and three blocks in his Summer League debut.
There are still clear areas that need work. Half-court offense is going to take time, especially with both players needing to sharpen their shot creation and ball-handling. But in transition, they already look like a problem.
Buzelis is 21 and Wilson is 19, so this is not something Chicago needs to force. It will take time. But very few teams can say they have two young wings with legitimate All-Star potential.
The Bulls have gone a long stretch without this kind of upside on the roster. If Buzelis keeps building on what he showed in his second season and Wilson’s shooting holds up as a real weapon, Chicago might already have the starting forward duo for its next great team.
In Other News...
Caleb Wilson Just Changed How Bulls Fans See That Draft Pick
Caleb Wilson arrived in Chicago with the usual top-pick expectations, but the early read on him was shaped as much by projection as production. The Bulls took him fourth overall in the 2026 NBA Draft after he was viewed as a project wing with shooting questions, and that made his work this summer worth watching closely from the start.
In NBA Summer League, Wilson has done more than hold his own. He has been one of the standouts, and the part that has turned heads most is the three-point shooting that once looked like the obstacle in his profile. Working with shooting coach Chris Matthews, Wilson has been trying to sharpen that part of his game, and the early returns are giving Bulls fans a very different lens on the pick than they had on draft night. [Read more 🡒]
Bulls May Have Seen Something In Caleb Wilson Everyone Else Missed
The Bulls had Caleb Wilson on their radar well before his name started drawing louder buzz around the 2026 NBA Draft. Chicago brought in the North Carolina forward for a pre-draft interview, and the early read inside the organization was that his confidence, maturity and work ethic stood out as much as his talent. For a team always looking for players who can grow into bigger roles, that kind of impression matters, especially when it comes from a prospect whose game already carried plenty of intrigue.
Wilsons shooting is the part that may have made Chicago look twice. At North Carolina, he was used mostly as a rim-attacking power forward in a fast-break offense, which meant the jumper did not always get the same spotlight it had in other settings. But his track record from high school and what he showed in Summer League suggest there may be more there than the college usage indicated, and that is the sort of detail front offices tend to circle long before everyone else catches on. [Read more 🡒]
Norman Powell Joins Bulls With Something To Prove In Chicago
Norman Powell is settling into Chicago with the kind of mindset the Bulls have to hope translates quickly. After officially signing with the team, the veteran guard said his focus is on being in the moment and helping Chicago win, a familiar message in a league where roster moves are rarely purely about basketball. For the Bulls, adding a proven scorer who understands the business side of the NBA is part of the larger push to keep reshaping the backcourt and finding players who can fit into whatever comes next.
There is also a layer of flexibility built into Powells deal, which gives Chicago some room to manage the partnership beyond the first season. That matters for a Bulls team trying to balance immediate competitiveness with longer-term planning, and it gives Powell a chance to show he can be more than a short-term addition. He arrives in Chicago with something to prove, and the early tone suggests he is embracing both the opportunity and the uncertainty that come with it. [Read more 🡒]