This Bulls front office doesn't seem interested in tanking for an elite first-round pick, but with the depth of the 2026 NBA Draft class, Chicago may still stumble into a franchise-changing prospect.
The Bulls' front office finally admitted defeat and tore apart its roster at the trade deadline. Gone are Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu and Nikola Vucevic; in are Rob Dillingham, Jaden Ivey, Leonard Miller, nine second-round picks, and expiring contracts.
The Bulls aren't flush with assets, but they've at least begun the long trek from mediocrity to bottom-dweller back to (hopefully) playoff contender. But, of course, they wouldn't be the Bulls if they made that path straightforward.
The goal here is to earn the best draft pick possible, right? And that only happens by losing. Yet the organization is too stubborn to accept that fate and continues to fight for wins.
But this draft may be so loaded that even the Bulls can't screw it up.
A deep 2026 draft could help even the stubborn Bulls land an all-star
Chicago's organizational incompetence and misguided desire to chase wins may not be enough to ruin Bulls fans' summer, given how stacked this draft class is.
The first four players off the board on June 25, in some order, are likely to be Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, BYU forward AJ Dybantsa, Duke big man Cam Boozer and North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson. That quartet seems to have separated itself from the pack.
But even if the Bulls don't climb that high, guards Kingston Flemings (Houston), Brayden Burries (Arizona), Keaton Wagler (Illinois), Darius Acuff Jr. (Arkansas) and Mikel Brown Jr. (Louisville) have all-star-caliber skill sets.
Several NBA executives told Jake Fischer via The Stein Line Substack that teams will be able to find lottery-level talent in the 20s this summer, and that a player drafted at No. 25 this year would land closer to 15th in "typical" years.
If the Bulls stay where they are at ninth in the lottery standings, they have a 4.5 percent chance at landing the No. 1 pick and a 20.3 percent shot at landing in the top four. But even if they drop because of some outdated wins-are-all-that-matter mantra, the opportunity to grab a franchise-changing prospect won't disappear.
Chicago desperately needs to leave this draft with a superstar
The Bulls are getting a star turn from Matas Buzelis. Josh Giddey is a good NBA point guard worthy of his $25 million annual salary.
Dillingham is beginning to show why he was the eighth overall pick in 2024. Miller has been a pleasant surprise. The jury is still out on Ivey, who can't seem to shake the injury bug.
As far as high-upside players go, that's all Chicago has. And aside from maybe Buzelis, no one in that group is a franchise cornerstone.
But this draft class is loaded with potential cornerstones — so much so that even the Bulls' ignorant leadership could stumble backwards into one.