The Chicago Bulls are walking into the season with something they haven’t had in a while: real buzz.
That starts with the front office and the roster. Chicago landed Caleb Wilson with the No. 4 pick in the NBA Draft, brought in new leadership under Bryson Graham, and handed the keys to a young coach with playoff success in Tiago Splitter. They also added a proven scorer in Norman Powell, who arrived on a two-year, $45 million deal after leaving the Miami Heat.
Powell isn’t pretending there’s a clean read on what comes next. Asked Monday how he sees the year unfolding, he gave the blunt answer fans probably didn’t expect, but definitely noticed.
“We have the potential to be really good,” Powell told Fadeaway World. “But we also have the potential to be really bad.”
He doubled down on that same theme, making it clear he expects the Bulls to hear plenty of skepticism and wants the group to push back against it.
“We are on a team with a lot of potential,” Powell told Fadeaway World. “I know the media will count us out and say we’re not good enough and all of that good stuff.
But I’m really about installing that self-belief. We can be better and raise the level of expectations, not only for ourselves, but from what people expect from us throughout the league.”
That kind of honesty lands because Chicago is still trying to climb out of years of underperformance. The Bulls have made just one playoff trip since then, reaching the postseason in 2022 before falling to the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round.
Their official 2026-27 season schedule comes out Thursday at 2 pm CST.
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Bulls Could Benefit From Lakers Kuminga Trade In One Surprising Way
A proposed four-team trade has the Lakers, Hawks, Bulls and Nets all swapping picks, players and trade exceptions, with Los Angeles trying to land Jonathan Kuminga as a long-term starter. The framework is the kind of sprawling deal that only works when every front office sees a path to value, and Chicagos role in it is less about star chasing and more about extracting something useful from a complicated piece of transaction math.
For the Bulls, the appeal comes in the form of an under-the-radar return that could help around the margins while the bigger names in the deal dominate the headline. Chicago is not the team going after Kuminga, but it would come out of the setup with a young wing and a little added flexibility, the sort of outcome that can matter on a roster still sorting out what comes next. [Read more 🡒]
Bulls Just Reached A Crucial Point With Rob Dillingham
The Bulls broader evaluation of their young core has naturally put Rob Dillingham back in focus, especially as the organization weighs first-rounders Caleb Wilson and Dailyn Swain alongside Matas Buzelis and the guard they brought in with the Ayo Dosunmu trade. Dillingham showed flashes in his first run with Chicago last season, averaging 9.6 points, 3 rebounds and 2.8 assists over 30 games, but he never quite settled into a steady rotation role, which has left his long-term fit very much open to interpretation.
Chicago appears ready to answer at least part of that question next season by expanding Dillinghams minutes and giving him a longer look in a more meaningful role. With two years still left on his rookie contract, the 2026-27 season feels like a key checkpoint for a player whose talent is evident but whose place in the Bulls backcourt picture remains unsettled. [Read more 🡒]