The Chicago Bulls could find their shooting saving grace in Norman Powell

On Sunday, Mike Scotto of Hoops Hype shared new reporting on the 2026 NBA free agency period, connecting veteran unrestricted free agent guard Norman Powell and unrestricted free agent center Jock Landale to the Chicago Bulls.

The free agency cases for Powell and Landale

Acquiring Powell would be a strong rebuttal by Bulls lead front office executive Bryson Graham to valid growing questions about his roster’s lack of shooting depth.  Powell is a career 39.6% three-point shooter on 4.5 career three-point attempts per game in his 11-year NBA career, according to Basketball Reference.  

Additionally, Powell is fresh off delivering the highest three-point shooting volume in his career, with 7.1 three-point attempts per game in consecutive NBA seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers during the 2024-25 NBA season and the Miami Heat during the 2025-26 NBA season. 

For good measure, Powell also brings strong locker room intangibles as a one-time NBA All-Star and famously a member of the 2018-19 NBA Champion Toronto Raptors.

Targeting Landale as a free-agent signing is unsurprising, given that he provides some contribution from the three-point line, albeit low-volume three-point shooting. Landale's long-range shooting is an evolving skillset for Landale, as he accomplished a career high of 2.8 three-point attempts per game in the 2025-26 NBA season. 

Landale’s NBA career overall is an interesting development, given he debuted in the league in his age 26 season with the San Antonio Spurs during the 2021-22 NBA season after an accomplished international basketball career in Europe and Australia.  

Acquiring Landale checks a solid culture box for the Splitter and Graham Bulls brain trust, given Landale’s shared center experience with Bulls head coach Tiago Splitter playing for legendary Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich in San Antonio.  

Moreover, Graham, in theory, should already have his Landale scouting homework at his fingertips since he acquired Landale via trade at the 2026 NBA trade deadline as senior vice president of basketball operations for the Atlanta Hawks.

The Bulls’ 2026 free agency cap calculus 

Based on Graham’s comments during his and Splitter’s radio interview on the Waddle and Silvy show about the Bulls' salary cap outlook for the remainder of the 2026 NBA offseason, it sounds like the Bulls intend to operate under the NBA salary cap of $165 million via his explicit reference to using the room mid-level exception in free agency, which is only accessible to cap space NBA teams.  

The additions of center Nic Claxton, rookie forward Caleb Williams, and guard Dailyn Swain would fill 13 of the Bulls' 15 active main roster spots and increase their projected 2026-27 active salary to $136.5 million, according to Spotrac.  

For context, the Bulls must spend a minimum of 90% of the NBA salary cap per the current NBA/NBPA collective bargaining agreements, which equates to $148.5 million for the 2026-27 NBA season and leaves $16.5 million of cap space available to use in free agency.

However, since the Bulls' cap space starting point for signing Powell starts at $136.5 million, the Bulls can offer Powell up to $28.5 million in annual salary for the 2026-27 season without exceeding the NBA salary cap. For context, Powell’s salary in the 2025-26 NBA season was $20.5 million.  

Operating without exceeding the cap would give the Bulls access to the room mid-level exception of $9.4 million, according to Spotrac.  Landale finished the 2025-26 NBA season on an NBA veteran minimum contract, so the Bulls, with access to their room exception, would be in a position to give Landale a strong raise for the 2026-27 NBA season.

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