Bulls lead front office decision maker Bryson Graham has largely worked through his 2026 NBA offseason shopping list, save for the $9.4 million room exception and one active roster spot still at his disposal. The Bulls entered the 2026 NBA offseason flush with ample cap space to spend.
The haul the Bulls have acquired in their cap space shopping trip, over the course of the summer of 2026, has left some Bulls fans desiring more: acquiring center Nic Claxton, re-signing center Zach Collins, and signing guard Norman Powell to a two-year $44.1 million contract.
On Thursday, Spotrac’s Keith Smith shared an early analysis of NBA cap space projections, presumably for the 2027 NBA offseason. Smith estimates the Bulls will have $55.6 million in cap space in 2027.
Some way-too-early 2027 cap space projections:
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) July 23, 2026
1. Nets: $68.6M
2. Bulls: $55.6M
3. Clippers: $53.8M (could be $92.2M w/o Kawhi trade)
4. Pistons: $43.9M (w/o long-term deal for Duren)
5. Bucks: $43.3M
6. Hawks: $37.8M
7. Grizzlies: $36.5M
8. Kings: $31.5M
9. Warriors: $28.1M
A reasonable amount of grace should be allotted to the Graham-led front office's 2026 cap space decisions, given they had roughly a two-month window of time to hire front office staff, a new head coach, and prepare for the 2026 NBA Draft.
Looking forward to the 2027 NBA offseason, the Bulls' front office approach to using cap space must look different relative to the 2026 NBA offseason results.
A different cap space game plan in 2027
For starters, here’s where the Bulls' cap space shouldn’t be spent. Extending Isaac Okoro, extending Leonoard Miller, even extending Jalen Smith. Find new homes for all three players, especially Smith, who would be a great fit with another fellow Klutch Sports Group client.
The Bulls have not exited their rebuild yet and are far away from declaring mission accomplished on their rebuild.
Every move the Bulls make for the foreseeable future should serve one of two franchise priorities: adding players that complement Caleb Wilson or adding draft capital to strengthen the franchise’s leverage in future trades or the NBA Draft itself.
To that extent, the Bulls may already have the co-star Caleb Wilson needs in Matas Buzelis; time will tell, of course.
If Buzelis and Wilson are indeed destined to be the next great Bulls tandem, then the Bulls should have their eye on acquiring a viable long-term center who, at a minimum, can complement Wilson’s pull-up game as an elite rebounder, set ball screens for Wilson, and also function as an elite backline defender to carry the defense’s rim protection workload.
In the draft assets department, the Bulls should carve out space to collect draft capital attached to trades. Maybe these sorts of trades don’t look as lucrative as they used to because of the NBA’s new anti-tanking rules, and yet the Bulls still would be wise to acquire draft picks that aren’t their own picks.
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