On Saturday, the Chicago Bulls shared newly acquired guard Norman Powell’s first official remarks to Bulls media, via social media, since signing his two-year $45 million contract as an unrestricted free agent.
Norman Powell spoke with media for the first time as a Bull 🎙️ pic.twitter.com/DO82YDFKmc
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) July 11, 2026
Powell’s first season with the Bulls will be his 12th NBA season, and at age 33, Powell finds himself arriving in Chicago with a similar mission in front of him as his former Toronto Raptors teammate and former Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan.
DeRozan’s Bulls legacy is short on team success, while also being abundant in individual accomplishments that earned the respect of the entire league.
Perhaps the most indelible imprint of DeRozan’s Bulls legacy is the mentoring successes he achieved with the younger players of his Bulls tenure, in former Bulls guards Ayo Dosunmu and Coby White.
The power of a great locker room vet
Dosunmu’s basketball talent blossomed into well-deserved national attention as the 2026 NBA trade deadline shipped Dosunmu from the Bulls’ perennial mediocrity to an ever-constant NBA Western Conference contender in the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Capping off his post-trade deadline stretch of the 2025-26 NBA season with a return to the NBA Playoffs made Dosunmu a national household name, courtesy of a signature 43-point performance in game four of the Timberwolves first-round 2026 NBA Playoffs series against the Denver Nuggets.
Dosunmu’s efforts in the 2026 NBA Playoffs were promptly rewarded with the Timberwolves agreeing to a new five-year $112 million contract during the 2026 NBA offseason to retain the guard's services for the long term.
DeRozan’s mentoring of Dosunmu was intentional from the very first season that both players shared the Bulls’ locker room, and the NBA transformation of the 38th overall pick in the 2021 draft into a $100+ million NBA player is a testament to the caliber of influence DeRozan contributed to Dosunmu’s individual basketball talent.
As for Coby White, DeMar DeRozan’s face value common development bond with White is a shared basketball skills development coach in Johnny Stephene, however the White-Stephene player development partnership originated at a Chris Paul-hosted basketball camp.
DeRozan, in reality, was a constant training presence for Coby White and provided White with mental wellness advice (subscription required) to elevate the mental side of his overall athletic performance as an NBA basketball player, to the tune of a new three-year $74 million contract White agreed to with the Charlotte Hornets during the 2026 NBA offseason.
Powell’s Chicago Bulls mentoring agenda
The quartet of Bulls players that will benefit from Norman Powell’s NBA veteran influence, forwards Matas Buzelis, Caleb Wilson, Noa Essengue, and guard Dailyn Swain, each have sizeable expectations to meet in the Bulls' 2026-27 NBA campaign.
Hopefully, Powell’s work ethic, experience in an NBA championship locker room, and his own experience being mentored by DeRozan can serve as a subtle cultural connection between this new era of Bulls basketball and the last Bulls player to operate at an MVP-level in the NBA.
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