On Wednesday, at a shared podium, Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Bryson Graham introduced his newly hired Bulls head coach Tiago Splitter, and they proceeded to share their vision for the Chicago Bulls with the world.
However, the details of what Splitter and Graham will do to make their Bulls vision a basketball reality were sparse in the presser.
Why Graham hired Splitter was tallied in a concise slate of criteria during the press conference across Graham’s opening remarks in addition to him answering a question from Steve Greenberg of the Chicago Sun-Times.
Among Graham's details for why Splitter was the right hire include his NBA Finals experience as a player with the San Antonio Spurs, experience building basketball programs in Europe, and the on-the-fly build of the 2025-26 Portland Trail Blazers, a passion for player development, his communication skills, basketball IQ, competitiveness, and, of course, his shared vision with Graham.
Seeing the vision and waiting for the actions to realize the vision
A recurring theme that underpins the Bulls' vision, Graham and Splitter launched in their joint press conference, is setting high standards for their basketball organization.
That is a welcome change in messaging from Graham’s predecessor Bulls' front office, which prioritized the NBA Play-in Tournament in their actions despite often delivering messaging on the same podium that the Bulls were not content with mediocrity.
Bulls fans should hold Graham and Splitter accountable for however long they hold their Bulls jobs, and holding them accountable to consistent definitions of “high standards” should be the first checkpoint in measuring the success of the Graham & Splitter front office/coaching tag team.
Sam Smith of Bulls.com and Will Gottlieb of CHGO posed questions to Splitter that illuminated Splitter’s general principles for being a basketball head coach in discussing his approach to player development that will focus on ensuring all Bulls players have individual development goals and profiles to put them on a clear development path.
Additionally, Splitter talked about the true impact of coaching being more than on-court plays or schemes; rather, coaching is about earning belief, teaching, and leading basketball players. This is the second accountability lever Bulls fans should use when judging Splitter’s performance as Bulls head coach.
Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic asked the defining question of the presser to the effect of asking Splitter to explain his shared Bulls vision with Graham.
The implication of Splitter’s answer creates the mystery of how the Bulls will realize their shared Graham and Splitter vision because Splitter anchored his answer to Lorenzi in the roster characteristics of his previous two head coaching assignments.
At Paris Basketball, Splitter mentioned pace and three-point shooting working for the roster because they had scoring point guards. The same vision translated to the Portland Trail Blazers because they had drivers and good rebounding.
What do the Chicago Bulls have on their roster right now? Nobody knows, and Splitter’s vision won’t know until he sees a complete roster in Oct 2026.
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