In what is reportedly the first roster move of the Bryson Graham-led Chicago Bulls front office to ship out a player acquired by Graham’s predecessor, Arturas Karnisovas, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the Bulls agreed with the Charlotte Hornets to trade guard Rob Dillingham to the Hornets in exchange for guard Buddy Hield and cash considerations.
The reported move represents an instant roster upgrade in terms of three-point shooting. Hield is a career 39.5% three-point shooter on 7.3 three-point attempts per game in his 10 NBA seasons. Dillingham, on the other hand, is a career 32.4% three-point shooter on 1.8 three-point attempts per game across his two NBA seasons.
Three-point shooting aside, despite Dillingham’s age (21), he’s a low-upside player. Choosing Hield's shooting over Dillingham's perceived upside is the right roster choice to rationalize the Bulls' rebuilding roster going into the 2026-27 NBA season.
The Bulls may be focused on player development for the 2026-27 NBA season, and at the same time, that doesn’t mean there are infinite development minutes to go around on a Bulls roster that is still pretty much a mixed bag of Karnisovas’ priority players like guard Josh Giddey, trade-return spare parts like Leonard Miller, and obviously Graham’s guys like Caleb Wilson, Dailyn Swain, Nic Claxton, and Norman Powell.
More moves please and thank you
To make a decisive move such as trading Dillingham for Hield should be considered a positive action by Graham and his front-office staff. It certainly helps that Graham worked on a Buddy Hield trade once already in 2026 as a member of the Atlanta Hawks front office who acquired Hield at the 2026 NBA Trade Deadline.
Acquiring Hield addresses a pronounced roster weakness before the start of the 2026-27 NBA training camp. Moreover, Hield’s remaining contract salary falls into the short-term flexibility model that Graham has executed in all of his moves to acquire new players onto his Bulls roster.
Hield holds a 2027-28 season player option for $10.1 million that is also only partially guaranteed up to $3 million when exercised and becomes fully guaranteed one day after the 2027 NBA Draft, according to Spotrac.
Overall, this trade is a trend that Bryson Graham should continue to increase in his roster moves as he addresses real roster needs while sharpening the player development focus of his roster around players who merit the development minutes, such as Wilson, Swain, and perhaps Noa Essengue if he’s able to survive Bulls training camp and remain on the roster.
Hopefully, Graham’s next move actually returns the Bulls draft capital as well.
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