The Bulls' front office change was widely welcomed in Chicago. When the Bulls announced the hiring of Bryson Graham as the new general manager to replace Arturas Karnisovas, it signaled a new, more competent era. The Bulls were finally going to do things the right way and embrace the rebuild.
Landing the fourth-overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft was a godsend. It would help kick-start the new era with a potential future star. Thankfully, Caleb Wilson already looks the part and more.
However, selecting Wilson with the No. 4 pick was the most obvious decision in the draft. It didn't show much about the competence of the new Bryson Graham regime. A lot of the other things the Bulls have done, however, do raise some questions about the new leadership.
GM Bryson Graham made a few questionable offseason decisions
One of the first big decisions the Bulls had to make was with the No. 15 pick. Chicago selected Dailyn Swain, who was arguably the worst player in the Las Vegas Summer League. He struggled mightily, couldn't hit a single shot outside the paint, and looked completely overmatched in his four games. Considering that he is going to be a 21-year-old rookie who played three years of college basketball, this is certainly concerning.
There was also the questionable management of the Noa Essengue situation. After a game and a half of Summer League play, the Bulls benched the 19-year-old forward and publicly threw him under the bus. He played sparingly in the rest of the games, signaling the team's lack of commitment to the Frenchman. Telegraphing this to the rest of the league ahead of a lottery pick's second season after he just had a lost rookie campaign is poor asset management in the most generous interpretation.
There was also the awful new contract for Zach Collins. For some reason, Graham decided the team's third-string center, who played only ten games last season, deserved a two-year, $17 million contract. Sure, the Bulls have a team option for the second year of that contract, but that is still one of the worst contracts signed this summer.
Given how much cap space the Bulls had going into the offseason, using a chunk of this on Collins was highly questionable. Chicago used the rest of its cap space on Nic Claxton and Norman Powell. Both players should start and make an impact on the Bulls, so it wouldn't be fair to criticize either of those moves.
But one has to wonder whether Chicago could have added more future assets using their cap space. Whether it's signing a younger player with upside or using the cap space to take on bad contracts and get compensated with draft capital, the Bulls weren't particularly creative with their financial flexibility.
It's still very early to judge Graham. What the Bulls do in the subsequent transaction windows will be more telling, but it certainly hasn't been a home run offseason for the new lead decision-maker.
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