3 Bulls decisions to judge harshly in the first 20 games of the 2026-27 schedule

A full picture has been painted of the Chicago Bulls’ 2026-27 NBA regular-season schedule.  Given the composition of the roster, reasonable expectations for the upcoming season should be anchored more in player development outcomes than in the team’s actual win-loss record.

Bulls fans should certainly enjoy the ride that will be forward Caleb Wilson’s rookie season, guaranteed to be the franchise’s chief source of national relevance in the NBA.  Yet, Bulls fans should also embrace their critical side in the downs that will surely run in tandem with the ups of the season.

Rather than fry the entire Bulls management team, coaching, roster, or the entire upcoming season, there should be focused, intense judgment of three Bulls front office decisions made during the 2026 offseason.  

The first 20 games of the 2026-27 Bulls season are the optimal test environment for critical Bulls fan judgment because 14 of the first 20 Bulls game opponents are 2026 NBA Playoff teams, notably including the entire 2026 NBA Finals foes, the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs. 

Trading Nic Claxton into cap space

Here’s the nuance in the Bulls’ acquisition of Nic Claxton that doesn’t receive enough fan and media conversation.  Claxton’s previous working relationship with Bulls head coach Tiago Splitter.  

Presuming Splitter had input on the Bulls' front office decision to acquire Claxton with cap space during the 2026 NBA offseason, then Splitter’s coaching ability, in large part, should be judged through the lens of Nic Claxton’s early-season performance on the Bulls.

If it were a simple matter of analytics, Claxton would probably still be in Brooklyn or perhaps on another NBA franchise's roster.  However, the NBA is a league of relationships, and it would be naive to ignore the Splitter relationship's influence on Claxton’s move to Chicago.  

Tiago Splitter should be held accountable for making Claxton’s stay with the Bulls a relative success.  If Claxton becomes a defensive liability, doesn’t screen well, or is a non-factor in rebounding, that is a strike against Tiago Splitter.  

Part of the job of an NBA head coach is playing the roster hand you’re dealt - look no further than past Bulls head coaches such as Billy Donovan and Tom Thibodeau.

Drafting Dailyn Swain

Not breaking news, Dailyn Swain had a bad showing during his 2026 summer league games.  That’s not a career-defining experience by any means.  Yet, there’s a non-zero chance that Swain may not be ready for regular NBA rotational minutes.

Swain should be allowed rookie grace to develop and, at the same time, questions should grow about the decision to draft Swain if he’s spending more time on the floor with the Windy City Bulls than the Chicago Bulls in the first 20 games of the 2026-27 NBA season.

We Bulls fans witnessed this movie for six years under the Arturas Karnisovas front office regime.  Project picks too raw for NBA minutes, who never fully baked to temperature in the NBA G League, such as Marko Simonovic, Dalen Terry, and Julian Phillips.  

Swain’s college profile has a lot of positives that may translate to the NBA with time, and the detail to be critical of in Bryson Graham’s decision to select Swain at 15 overall in the 2026 NBA draft is whether the best use of the Bulls' rebuild time is to wait on yet another wing to display development growth toward a mean level of NBA production.

The Bigs Drew Steven made an astute observation on the possibility of Swain’s summer league struggles being the impetus for the Bulls’ reported exploration of the Bennedict Mathurin restricted free agency market. 

If the Bulls were to indeed follow through and acquire Mathurin, then it wouldn’t be unreasonable to judge the Swain draft pick as a mistake that would be further compounded by the mistake of signing a niche scorer to a three-year sign-and-trade deal.

A better alternative for the Bulls' 15th overall pick might have been to aggressively move up to acquire any one of the University of Michigan bigs: Aday Mara, Yaxel Lendeborg, or Morez Johnson Jr.

Punting the entire 2026 NBA draft second round

The last decision that, frankly, should be scrutinized for the entirety of the 2026-27 NBA season is the Bulls' befuddling decision to trade out of the entire second round of the 2026 NBA draft.  There really is no credible justification for the decision, as the Bulls were not cap or roster-constrained going into the second round of the 2026 NBA Draft.

A rebuilding team like the Bulls needs to audition as much talent as possible to ultimately turn around the fate of the franchise, and the Bulls' putrid 2026 Las Vegas Summer League results showed a clear deficit of talent that could have been filled in via the players that were available in the second round of the 2026 NBA Draft.  

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Meleek Thomas will likely be the obvious opportunity cost of the Bulls effectively selling their 2026 second-round draft picks. 

Factoring in Dailyn Swain’s painful struggles playing point-guard minutes, the Bulls may have also incurred another pronounced opportunity cost by trading away guard Braden Smith instead of giving him the opportunity to compete for a roster spot through the summer and the Bulls' 2026-27 preseason.

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