The Chicago Bulls have spent the summer putting real shape around their roster, and that work may have revealed their smartest next move.
After taking veteran center Nic Claxton into cap space, Chicago addressed the draft with Caleb Wilson and Dailyn Swain in the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft, then rounded out the depth chart by signing Norman Powell and Zach Collins. Those additions gave the Bulls more balance now and more flexibility later, which matters plenty for a team in rebuild mode.
Even with all that business done, one roster spot remains open, along with an unused room mid-level exception. That leaves Bryson Graham with options, but the market is thinning fast. With several of the more appealing free agents already off the board, the cleanest path may be the one that asks for patience.
Chicago’s best play now is to keep that final roster spot open and wait for a chance to absorb a bad contract in a deal that brings back future draft capital, even if that chance doesn’t show up until the trade deadline.
The Bulls have gone from one of the league’s loosest rosters to a group with a much clearer rotation in just a few weeks. Claxton, Collins, and Jalen Smith are set to handle the center minutes.
Wilson, Matas Buzelis, Noa Essengue, and Patrick Williams will fill out the frontcourt. Powell and Swain have also given the backcourt more depth than many expected.
For a team that is not trying to contend this season, that’s enough to work with.
There was a window when Chicago might have used that last spot on a low-cost free agent and hoped to flip him later for draft assets, particularly if the player was a wing who could shoot it well from deep. But as names like Matisse Thybulle, Ziaire Williams, and Jett Howard have signed elsewhere, that route has become less realistic.
That doesn’t mean the opportunity is gone. It just looks different now.
Chicago still has the financial flexibility and movable contracts to chase one of those “albatross” deals - the kind that could involve a player like Jakob Poeltl or Christian Braun - while also picking up future draft capital in the process.
There are other paths the Bulls could take, including converting a two-way player to a standard contract or adding more perimeter shooting from the open market. But the reason that final roster spot has stayed open is becoming easier to see: Graham appears to be waiting for the kind of deal that lets the Bulls profit from another team’s mistake.
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Nic Claxtons arrival in Chicago was made official July 10, and it adds a familiar face to a Bulls frontcourt that is still taking shape. Tiago Splitter already knows him from their time together with the Nets, which gives this move a layer of comfort beyond the usual roster shuffle. Claxton spent the first seven seasons of his career in Brooklyn, and the Bulls are clearly looking for more than just another big body in the middle.
The bigger question is what Chicago is really getting now, not what Claxton once was. His shot-blocking and rebounding have trended down even as his passing has become more prominent, which suggests a player whose value has shifted in ways that matter to how he fits here. For the Bulls, the appeal may be as much about what he brings to the locker room and the broader culture as what shows up in the box score, especially with his role expected to carry weight beyond the floor. [Read more 🡒]