The first week of the 2026-27 Chicago Bulls' training camp is nearly in the books. Camaraderie and, hopefully, cohesion are building among a Bulls franchise that is finally openly accepting the reality of a roster rebuild.
A moment of reflection should be embraced by Bulls fans as the 2026 NBA calendar shifts gears from offseason to preseason. The concept of an NBA rebuild is fundamentally changing before our eyes as preseason basketball draws closer to reality.
As Bulls fans, we no longer should equate NBA rebuilds with a conventional NBA front office plan of loading up a roster with a bunch of young players, waiting for the cream of the crop to rise, and also waiting for draft positioning to rise as well.
This, friends, was the tried-and-true playbook for rebuilding an NBA roster through “tanking”. Tanking for the foreseeable future is done in the NBA. Instead, NBA rosters are rebuilding with well-traveled veteran NBA players now.
New rules created a new NBA environment
In May 2026, the NBA Board of Governors held a vote that passed new “anti-tanking” rules that imposed a variety of penalties to discourage NBA franchises from running the old-fashioned tanking playbook to rebuild their roster.
NBA teams reacted accordingly. Sampling across 2026 NBA offseason roster changes for rebuilding franchises, the Memphis Grizzlies acquired a 32-year-old Jerami Grant, while the Washington Wizards acquired a 35-year-old Khris Middleton. Of course, the Chicago Bulls helped the Brooklyn Nets acquire 31-year-old Julius Randle by taking center Nic Claxton off their hands.
Which brings us to a Bulls 2026 NBA offseason that's ushered in 33-year-old Norman Powell and 33-year-old three-point sharpshooter Buddy Hield. If Caleb Wilson were the fourth overall selection of, say, the 2016 NBA Draft, instead of the 2026 NBA Draft, there’s a good chance his selection would not be followed up with acquiring two 33-year-olds, but that’s where we are in 2026.
The brand of NBA basketball that will tip off for the 2026-27 NBA season will be different, with a more explicit league policy in place to deter tanking. The Bulls, in theory, should avoid the relegation zone that now exists courtesy of the league’s anti-tanking reforms.
Adding players like Powell and Hield to a serviceable veteran such as Josh Giddey is intended to keep the Bulls’ competitive floor above draft-pick relegation, while also addressing real roster needs (shooting) and, for good measure, adding the rebuild virtue of veteran voices in the locker room.
It may feel weird to see two players north of age 30 added to the Bulls roster at the beginning of their rebuild, but remember the Bulls, like other rebuilding NBA teams, are no longer building rosters to tank.
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