Bryson Graham has been completely unambiguous about his desire to build his Chicago Bulls roster around size, length, athleticism, and physicality. Graham’s actions rang loudly in the SLAP department when he ended the brief Rob-Dillingham era of the Chicago Bulls on Monday.
One day later, on Tuesday, the NBA League office released two officiating updates from NBA referee Monty McCutchen that cover officiating points of emphasis for the 2026-27 NBA season. The updates cover four broad categories of NBA offensive play: off-arm movement by offensive players, screens, perimeter and post play, and straight-line drives.
Overall, the updates shouldn’t require radical changes in how the Chicago Bulls play basketball. However, it will require that the rebuilding Bulls incorporate the implications of these updates into the grand plan Bryson Graham and Tiago Splitter laid out for the Bulls to meet a championship standard.
NBA basketball is a physical game. However, that dynamic shouldn’t be misconstrued as NFL football. NBA physicality is a function of force intertwined with craft, in contrast to belligerent expressions of strength and power that are required parameters for gameplay on the gridiron.
The Chicago Bulls' quest for a new cultural identity has a compounded cost to achieve that outcome now that NBA officials intend to exercise a more critical eye on how offensive players project physicality during the 2026-27 season.
Physicality elements to keep an eye on
Off-arm movement, and player control of said arm movement, should be an aspect of body control that Bulls players increase their intentionality in mastering during training camp. The 2026-27 Bulls players who are likely to contribute the most to on-ball drives to the rim are Matas Buzelis, Josh Giddey, Tre Jones, and Dailyn Swain.
The key for offensive players on their drives during the upcoming season is to be able to drive the ball to the rim and play through contact without extending their off-arm to push off a defender, which should be called an offensive foul.
For Buzelis, Giddey, Jones, and Swain, they’ll need to have a plan for creating separation on their drives while keeping their off-arm in a non-extended position.
As for the Bulls' screen setting, similar to off-arm movement, NBA officials will be policing screens that cross over into offensive players pushing defensive players in a manner that impedes their freedom of movement.
Bulls fans should pay attention to how effective any one of Nic Claxton, Zach Collins, or Jalen Smith is at setting screens that create space for the offensive player using the screen, while also ensuring the screener can maintain a firm base that doesn’t put the screener into a compromised position where they inadvertently push their screen assignment.
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