Norman Powell may have landed in Chicago as one of the offseason’s surprise additions, but his future with the Bulls could be tied to how ugly the opening months of the season get.
That’s the knot for executive vice president of basketball operations Bryson Graham. He signed the 33-year-old guard to a two-year, $45 million deal with a team option on the second season, a contract that should be easy enough to move if Chicago decides the smart play is to shop him at the trade deadline.
In a vacuum, that kind of flexibility makes Powell a useful asset. But the Bulls may not get the luxury of treating him like a simple trade chip.
The reason is the schedule, which looks brutal enough to make life miserable for a young roster already in the early stages of a rebuild. New head coach Tiago Splitter opens his first season with games against the Toronto Raptors, Milwaukee Bucks and Washington Wizards, and things get tougher fast from there.
Chicago then has six games in 11 days against Boston Celtics, New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers, a stretch that is followed immediately by a meeting with Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs.
As Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic pointed out, the Bulls play 10 straight games from Oct. 26 to Nov. 16 against teams that made the playoffs last season. That kind of run could leave Chicago buried before November is even over.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if the Bulls are still sitting in the single digits in the win column once December arrives.
And that’s where Powell’s presence starts to matter in a different way.
The NBA changed the lottery format this summer after the league decided tanking had gone too far. Under the new setup, the three teams with the worst regular-season records get fewer lottery ping-pong balls and a worse shot at the No. 1 pick. The real sweet spot now is finishing fourth through 10th in the reverse standings.
That’s the range Chicago wants to land in. But if the first few months go the way this schedule suggests, the Bulls could find themselves closer to the bottom three than the middle of that group.
If that happens, Powell may be too valuable to deal away. Chicago might need his scoring and veteran know-how just to stabilize the season and claw back into position by the end of the year.
In Other News...
Bulls Face An Early Problem Tiago Splitter Can't Hide
The Bulls are heading into Tiago Splitters first season with an early test that looks more like a survival stretch than a soft landing. Chicago opens the 2026-27 campaign with six of its first eight games on the road, and a lot of those trips come against teams expected to be in the playoff mix. For a young roster still trying to settle into a new style under a first-time NBA head coach, it is a rugged way to start building habits.
Bryson Graham has already been candid about one of the rosters biggest shortcomings, the lack of shooting, even as the front office has tried to address it by adding Norman Powell to help with floor spacing. Still, the Bulls are left with questions about how much three-point support they can count on beyond that, and early on that issue could matter just as much as the schedule. Splitter does not have the luxury of easing into the job, and the opening weeks may say plenty about how quickly this team can take shape. [Read more 🡒]