Nic Claxton’s time with the Bulls must focus on relevance, not redemption

Newly acquired center Nic Claxton’s trade to the Chicago Bulls was made official on Jul 10, 2026.  

Over the course of Saturday and Sunday, Claxton took to social media to bring closure to the first seven years of his NBA career, all played for the Brooklyn Nets, in addition to acknowledging the start of the next phase of his NBA career in a number nine Chicago Bulls jersey.

Claxton is at an inflection point in his career.  Given this transition, Claxton’s north star for his first Bulls season, the 2026-27 NBA season, should have little to do with redeeming anything from his first seven seasons in Brooklyn and instead focus on being the most relevant center he can be to the Bulls roster that is being assembled over the course of the 2026 NBA offseason.

It helps that Bulls head coach Tiago Splitter has a previous relationship with Claxton from his time as an assistant coach for the Nets from 2019 to 2023, which coincided with Claxton’s Rookie season with the Nets.  

Splitter had a front row seat to Claxton’s meticulous development arc from making regular NBA G League appearances in the Brooklyn Nets' G League affiliate, Long Island Nets games, to earning modest acknowledgement of NBA Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY)-caliber talent in the 2023-23 NBA season. 

Assuming Splitter had input into the Bulls' eventual trade to acquire Claxton, based on the partnership dynamics of the Bulls head coach with Bulls lead front office executive, Bryson Graham, then Bulls fans should accept that Splitter got his guy in Claxton and also judge Splitter’s coaching on his ability to steer Claxton’s on-court play to productive outcomes.

Projecting a productive Claxton

Acquiring Nic Claxton isn’t a move that lends itself to analytics, as advanced analytics paint a stark picture for Claxton’s career trajectory.  

In statistical categories that carry a lot of weight when judging NBA center performance blocks and rebounds, Claxton has shown a clear linear decline in both categories since his DPOY-vote, fourth NBA season, Claxton’s block averages have declined from 2.5 blocks per game to 1.1 blocks per game in the 2025-26 NBA season.  

Claxton’s rebound averages declined from 9.2 rebounds per game during the 2022-23 NBA season to 6.9 rebounds during the 2025-26 season, according to Basketball Reference.  Three seasons is enough time to question and perhaps even conclude that Claxton’s rim protection and rebounding are depreciated features of his game.

For context, Claxton also evolved his game into a more varied offensive role in which the Nets progressively used him more as a playmaking hub of their offense, with Claxton averaging a career high of 3.7 assists per game in the 2025-26 NBA season.

Overall, the stats shouldn’t be the core purpose of Claxton’s role with the Chicago Bulls.  Instead, Tiago Splitter should lean on Claxton as a role model for a young team on how to work your way up from the NBA G League to earn a second and third NBA contract, certifying your ability to play productive basketball.

Claxton will be relevant to the Chicago Bulls simply by delivering locker room intangibles every day and not getting beaten on switches defensively.  As long as the Bulls don’t repeat a similar center contract failure, cough-Nikola Vucevic-cough, and extend Claxton, his Bulls tenure should be fine.

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