This Chicago Bulls 2026-27 season preview starts with a front office overhaul. The Bulls enter training camp this month with a new head of basketball operations, a new head coach and a reshaped roster, the clearest sign yet that Chicago is not simply running back the same team it fielded a year ago. Bryson Graham replaced Arturas Karnisovas as the Bulls’ executive vice president of basketball operations, and he hired Tiago Splitter as head coach, introducing him on June 18, 2026, according to NBA.com’s official announcement. Splitter replaces Billy Donovan, who resigned after six seasons in Chicago, and arrives after coaching the Portland Trail Blazers to a 42-40 record and a playoff appearance the year before, per that same NBA.com report. “I can guarantee you one thing: We’re going to compete every night,” Splitter said at his introductory press conference.
The Roster Chicago Actually Built
The front office backed that new coaching voice with real roster turnover. Chicago signed free agent Norman Powell to a two-year, $44.075 million contract with a second-year team option, according to Hoops Rumors’ Sept. 3, 2026 offseason check-in on the team. In a four-team trade around the draft, the Bulls acquired center Nic Claxton from the Brooklyn Nets, sending forward Mouhamadou Gueye to Charlotte as part of the deal, according to NBA.com’s official team release on the trade. Chicago also extended center Zach Collins on a two-year, $17 million deal with a second-year team option and drafted forward Caleb Wilson fourth overall and wing Dailyn Swain 15th, the Hoops Rumors report shows. Guard Nikola Vucevic left Chicago in a trade at the February 2026 deadline, and veteran guards Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu also departed as part of that same deadline deal, while free agents Collin Sexton, Anfernee Simons, Guerschon Yabusele, Nick Richards and Mac McClung all left in the offseason that followed, per the same report.
A Backcourt Rebuilt Around Giddey
The most important returning piece is Josh Giddey, who is entering the first season of a four-year, $100 million contract and is fully cleared for camp after right ankle arthroscopic surgery in May 2026, Giddey told Last Word on Sports on Sept. 4, 2026. “I’m back playing five-on-five… I feel good, no restrictions, and I’ll be good to go when camp comes around,” Giddey said. Giddey, who posted a career-high 8.3 rebounds per game last season, will start alongside Powell in what Chicago Sun-Times beat writer Joe Cowley described on Sept. 13, 2026 as a backcourt built around Giddey’s size and passing rather than a traditional scoring lead guard. Behind them, veteran Tre Jones and 2024 lottery pick Rob Dillingham round out the guard rotation, with Dillingham facing what Cowley’s reporting characterized as a “sink-or-swim” year after working with Powell over the offseason.
The Organizing Principle: SLAP
Graham and Splitter have both publicly built their approach around defense first. “When you compete on the defensive end, your team typically competes harder,” Graham said, according to Cowley’s Sept. 13 reporting. Splitter has described his own approach in similar terms: “I have a vision, I have a way I want to play, but you also have to explore what they do best,” he told Cowley, with both executives repeatedly citing size, length, athleticism and physicality, shorthanded internally as SLAP, as the traits they are building the roster around. That framing matters for rookie wing Dailyn Swain in particular, who Cowley’s reporting frames as needing to prove himself defensively to earn a bench role, a direct test of whether the new front office’s stated priorities hold up once games count.
What Still Has to Happen
None of this is complete before a game has been played. Chicago is running a first-time NBA head coach, a backcourt anchored by a big, ball-dominant guard rather than a traditional scorer, and a rookie lottery pick in Dillingham who the team’s own new coaching staff has already framed as auditioning for his role rather than guaranteed one. Training camp and the preseason, not the offseason transaction log, will be where Chicago finds out whether its new brain trust’s vision actually translates into wins. For the full calendar of when camp opens across the league, see NBA Trending’s guide to the 2026-27 season’s key dates.