The Bulls have already moved on to a new era with Tiago Splitter and Bryson Graham in charge, but the story of how the old front office operated is still coming into focus - and it does not sound flattering.
A former Chicago staffer, speaking to ESPN’s Jamal Collier, took aim at the way the previous regime handled Patrick Williams. The issue wasn’t just that Williams was drafted high. It was that the organization kept leaning on a Kawhi Leonard comparison for years after the evidence said otherwise.
“It took probably three or four years for them to come off of the, ‘Well, he could be Kawhi,' statements,” the ex-staffer told ESPN. “Those things continued to linger even after Patrick pretty demonstrably proved that he was not going to be Kawhi.
“That was an unfortunate way to kick things off.”
That kind of expectation comes with real weight. Leonard’s résumé is the kind of thing that warps a franchise’s imagination: two NBA championships, two NBA Finals MVPs, two Defensive Player of the Year awards, six All-NBA selections and seven All-Defensive Team selections. He’s been one of the league’s defining postseason forces.
Williams, meanwhile, has never come close to that level. The No. 4 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft just finished his sixth NBA season with career lows across the board - 7.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game - while shooting 37.2% from the field, 34.7% from 3-point range and 72.0% from the free-throw line in 72 games, six of them starts.
He is still under contract, too. Williams is entering the third season of a five-year, $90 million deal that pays roughly $18 million per year and includes a player option for the 2028-29 season.
The Williams evaluation is only part of the bigger picture. Collier’s report also said the old front office repeatedly pointed to the Detroit Pistons as a reason not to tank, even though Detroit has since made the playoffs in each of the last two seasons and finished 60-22 as the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed in 2025-26.
Taken together, the details offer a sharper look at the thinking that shaped Chicago’s previous era. Now the Bulls are trying to build something different with Splitter, Graham and 2026 No. 4 overall pick Caleb Wilson.
In Other News...
Scary Summer League Scene Left Bulls Fans Waiting For One Update
A Summer League game between the Jazz and Bulls turned unsettling in a hurry when Trey Alexander went down after contact with Caleb Wilson on a drive to the basket. Alexander collapsed in visible pain and had to be helped by Jazz medical staff before being taken off the court on a stretcher, leaving the scene far more memorable than the final score.
The immediate concern now is simply getting a clear update on Alexander, because the injury looked serious enough to stop the games momentum cold. Even with the Jazz finishing off an 80-63 win, the night quickly shifted from box score talk to the kind of wait-and-see situation no one around the Bulls wanted to see. [Read more 🡒]
Bulls Draft Backlash Just Put Their Front Office On The Spot
The Bulls draft haul already has become a talking point around the league, and not in the way the front office would have wanted. Chicago came away with Caleb Wilson and Dailyn Swain, then moved through the rest of its second-round business by dealing the No. 56 pick to the Lakers for cash considerations, a choice that fit a broader pattern of treating those selections as flexible assets rather than must-keep picks.
Bryson Graham, the teams vice president of basketball operations, has been the public face of that approach as fans questioned how the Bulls handled the night. An NBA source said the strategy is consistent with how the organization operates, which is part of why the backlash has landed so sharply, but the larger issue now is whether Chicago can convince anyone that this was a deliberate plan rather than a draft night that left the front office exposed. [Read more 🡒]