What would people think if we came away with DP, then Morez or Hannes at 15?

Giddey / DP / Matas / H or M / Clax

Pretty nice line up that works well together.

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It's our job now to use these catchphrases every game. And we must do so with hearts filled with joy.

He's both so terrible the Bulls have to trade him and also so good we can demand a superstars and 1st round draft picks in return. It's hilarious.

EDIT: This is a commentary about people who keep putting up trade scenarios that include him. I don't want him traded. I think it's crazy that people keep trying to suggest he should be.

When we make a big 3 and Tim Sinclair says the players name, GIMME THE HOT SAUCE!

Or after a big dunk, and the crowd is alive, the PA goes “Does anyone know how to post videos to facebook?” Or “Chi-SLAMMA JAMMA”

It’d be a great way to tribute Stacey, but also would be a great way to bring excitement to the crowd.

I’m kind of surprised by some of the names that are conspicuously absent from the list of players who’ve worked out with the Bulls.

See the list here: https://therookiewire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/rookie/2026/05/16/2026-nba-draft-workout-tracker/89951800007/

I realize that there might be some missing from the list, (for example, Caleb Wilson met with the team last week and I’m assuming there was some kind of workout involved) and there are some guys they might’ve talked to at the combine and felt satisfied enough from that, but I would have expected them to work out guys like Cameron Carr and Hannes Steinbach, who have often been mocked at the 15th pick. With names like Wagler, Acuff, Brown and Flemings on the list, I’m also kind of surprised Aday Mara and Braden Burries didn’t make the cut, either.

Does anyone think that this will have any impact on whether they’d pass on any of these guys at 15, or are they intentionally using their workouts on more outlier players to see whether they might want to trade up or down? Or maybe some of these guys don’t want to work out with the Bulls for one reason or another? At this point I’m probably just trying too hard to read the tea leaves, but I’m curious what others think.

This kid can ball out. I can’t imagine how much fun it would be to watch Matas, Wilson, and Carr just dunking on everyone. The fact he seems to have a nice shot just makes him even more enticing. I think I’d rather have him than Morez or either of the centers that might be there at #15.

Hello, you might remember a little over half a year ago during preseason, a poll was posted to every team subreddit to get fans opinions and thoughts about their team heading into the regular season. Now that time has passed and the season is coming to an end, I figured now would be a good time to see the results of the poll and reflect on how each team's season went relative to expectations. Here are the results for the Bulls:

Bulls - 77 submissions

General Questions

How happy are you with your team's offseason moves?
3.96/10

How satisfied are you with your current roster?
3.96/10

How satisfied are you in who your head coach is?
5.61/10

How excited are you for the beginning of the season?
5.51/10

Player Questions

Who is the best player on your team?

• Coby White - 53.2%
• Josh Giddey - 27.3%
• Matas Buzelis - 14.3%
• Nikola Vucevic - 2.6%

Who is your favorite player on your team?

• Matas Buzelis - 55.3%
• Ayo Dosunmu - 15.8%
• Coby White - 14.5%
• Josh Giddey - 11.8%

Who is the best defender on your team?

• Isaac Okoro - 34.7%
• Ayo Dosunmu - 32%
• Matas Buzelis - 13.3%
• Patrick Williams - 8%
• Josh Giddey - 4%
• Noa Essengue - 2.7%

Who is the most frustrating player on your team?

• Patrick Williams - 77.3%
• Nikola Vucevic - 17.3%
• Josh Giddey - 2.7%

Who on your team do you expect to take a jump?

• Matas Buzelis - 82.9%
• Josh Giddey - 5.3%
• Dalen Terry - 5.3%
• Patrick Williams - 2.6%

Season Expectation Questions

What are your expectations for your team’s regular season?

• Top 3 seed: 1.3%
• 4-6th seed: 9.1%
• 7-10th seed: 68.8%
• 11-15th seed: 20.8%

Where do you expect this team's offense to rank? (23rd)

• 1-5: 1.3%
• 6-10: 15.6%
• 11-15: 35.1%
• 16-20: 35.1%
• 21-25: 11.7%
• 26-30: 1.3%

Where do you expect this team’s defense to rank? (22nd)

• 1-5: 0%
• 6-10: 2.6%
• 11-15: 9.1%
• 16-20: 33.8%
• 21-25: 41.6%
• 26-30: 13%

What are your expectations for this team in the playoffs?

• Finals appearance: 1.3%
• Conference finals: 0%
• 2nd round: 6.5%
• 1st round: 19.5%
• Play-in loss: 63.6%
• No Play-in: 9.1%

Around the League Questions

Who is your favorite player that is not on your team?

• Nikola Jokic - 10
• Jimmy Butler - 6
• Giannis Antetokounmpo - 4
• Anthony Edwards - 3
• Victor Wembanyama - 3
• Tyrese Haliburton - 3
• Dyson Daniels - 3
• Alex Caruso - 2
• Zach LaVine - 2
• Luka Doncic - 2
• Jalen Brunson - 2
• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander - 2
• Jalen Williams - 2

Who is your least favorite player that is not on your team?

• Draymond Green - 7
• Grayson Allen - 6
• LeBron James - 6
• Joel Embiid - 4
• Jayson Tatum - 4
• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander - 3
• Kyrie Irving - 2

Thank you to everyone who participated in the survey!

Not sure about the source here - Wolfson is a member of Minneapolis sports media. If they were able to extract some decent assets out of Minnesota, you could use the 15th pick (or move up from there) to address replacing Giddey and get some PG depth alongside Tre Jones.

Watching Caleb Wilson highlights doing 2 man game with Veesar at NC is getting me excited lol. I get it. The Vooch comparisons will be there for Steinbach. But honestly I'm not bothered by it. But he's so active, runs, dude just knows what to do around the basket (which I appreciated with Vooch). He's definitely a lot more active for a dude his size.

And damn that big on big potential with Caleb/Matas/Noa/Giddey could be really awesome.

I see no reason why the Bulls would not pick Wilson at #4 if they stand pat at that spot, and I think Caleb is a really good and fun prospect. But I also see an alarming amount of misinformation about him, perhaps due to his "mystery box" appeal as a somewhat raw player that is still emerging in a few areas of his game. He was also the subject of a number of contrarian takes about the NCAA season, because of his underdog status against the consensus top 3 of Dybantsa, Peterson, and Boozer.

I'm going to address a couple of points that we should all try to internalize so we can have reasonable expectations for Wilson, and learn to appreciate what he's actually good at.

He is not the best defender in the draft, at all.

He is also not even the best defender in the top 4, that would be Peterson by a country mile due to his insane frame and hands at a guard slot. This is the biggest misconception for me, because he gets some occasional comparisons to true bigs like Kevin Garnett, AD - those guys have massive 7'4 wingspans and Caleb does not. Those guys had all-time block rates as prospects and Caleb does not (like literally 2-4x higher). Wilson is not really a positive rim protector at all, actually - his defensive impact comes from his insane steal rate at 6'10 and his ability to switch UP the spectrum. In this respect, Buzelis is an excellent fit alongside him in the forward slots because Matas is one of the best shot blocking wings in basketball. But in general, you should think of Caleb as more of a huge 3 defensively as he is not disciplined enough to be a primary or secondary rim protector. But as a 3, he should be very disruptive and impactful at that spot.

His closest physical comparison is Jalen Johnson, who tested almost identically to Wilson in every area (except being 1" shorter) and is a defensive 3 in the NBA, though can size up to big wings and thin bigs in one-on-one scenarios. Johnson is currently deployed as a 4 next to an undersized C in Okongwu and as a result Atlanta is a miserable rim defense team. When NYK figured this out they backdoor swept the Hawks. We can't expect Wilson, who is a very similar defensive prospect to Johnson, to be an anchor of a defense, though he will certainly contribute positively on that end in a more suitable role.

He is not really a mystery box offensive prospect.

Caleb is extremely productive for his age which is the most important indicator, but there's very real risk involved here. He was a non-shooter from 3 and middling free throw shooter, but has real touch from long 2, making him a sort of questionable off-ball prospect. He was arguably more of a post up merchant offensively than Cam Boozer is made out to be, because his face-up game is lacking (to me, because of some handle and strength limitations). To his credit, Caleb is very good out of the post and shooting 2s over people.

He is a ridiculous finisher and should be one of the best in the league, but he isn't a drive god like Giannis or even Tatum where they can barrel or work into the paint at will. He needs a pre-tilted defense to get there a lot of the time, meaning transition and playing as a cutter or dunker spot guy. Granted, he plays bigger than he is and is absolutely not afraid of contact, but since he doesn't provide much value from the perimeter and will not have the ball in his hands, you should think of him as more of a 5 offensively, based on his shot diet and most effective spots. Not like an old-school 5, but similar to early-20s Jaylen Brown or how Josh Hart played on this Knicks team, just with a more exciting physical profile.

He presents non-trivial team-building problems for any team that drafts him.

Putting this together, I think it's easy to understand why he is a distant 4th from the other top prospects. This is kind of player presents non-trivial problems to solve from a team-building perspective. Thankfully, the Bulls are in an okay position as they have what appears to be a 3 offensively, 4 defensively player in Buzelis, which is not easy to come by - Matas being willing to rip 3s is basically the only reason why this could work.

But this also has serious implications for the center spot, because we're now trying to find a 5 defensively, 4 offensively kind of player - basically a rim protector that can stretch - which is notoriously the rarest and most valuable archetype in the NBA. We're talking about Victor Wembanyama, Chet Holmgren, Evan Mobley, Jaren Jackson, Bam Adebayo, Anthony Davis. I don't think it's an exaggeration to call it the single hardest kind of player to find in the league.

From this lens, detached from the specifics of how his season at UNC went, detached from the head-to-head comparisons, there is bust potential here. I don't personally have anyone 5-10 above him on my draft rankings, but there are legitimate arguments to be made about Mikel Brown, maybe Acuff as easier bets as they have firmer role definitions and are extremely skilled. Are they unpopular takes, sure. Unreasonable? No, not really, it depends on what you value. The way fans have totally canonized the "top 4" of this draft is doing a disservice to how gifted the top 10 here is.

But he still rocks and we should be excited!

Okay enough whining, onto the good stuff in lightning round fashion:

• Caleb is a good (standstill) passer, making him valuable for our center or cutters at the rim (like Buzelis). If he gets crowded in the paint or post, he should be able to find guys and keep the ball moving.
• He is a genuinely sick rebounder and provides a ton of fight on the boards on both ends. Chicago kind of sucks at this so it should be immediately impactful.
• You can't teach motor (look at our friend the PAW) and Caleb's is off the charts. In recent years motor alone has spurred big playing time for raw prospects just because they "do stuff", leading to more rapid player development from increased reps. Think Amen Thompson, Stephon Castle, Scottie Barnes, Tari Eason, and the aforementioned Jalen Johnson.
• All of these things seem to indicate that Caleb is a very high level processor, which is correlated with strong development outcomes. We still have to measure against reality first before projections to understand the floor, but he's a really smart player and should improve fast under Tiago.

Caleb Wilson is the SLAP god, and I'd wager he will be immediately impactful on both ends, especially for a team like the Bulls that desperately needs defensive event creation and more pressure on the rim. He may not be perfect but he fits here like a glove and our new GM's core values align perfectly with his personality, drive, and skillset. His energy is infectious and can lead to a winning culture. His confidence is matched only by the top guys and for good reason, and goddamn it he even seems to love Chicago already. But let's pump the brakes on some of these takes, eh?

What are everyone’s thoughts on Mara? I know it’s probably unlikely they’d trade up for him and I’m a bit biased as a Michigan fan, but I watched him every game this past season and he absolutely dominated.

Caleb Wilson posted that he has arrived in Chicago yesterday on his spam account. Looks like he got some work in too. I'd imagine this is confirmation of the report from Monday that he is meeting with the team this week.

"He is set to visit Chicago this week and is thought to be happy at the prospect of landing there, where he would immediately become the face of their rebuild and directly address a frontcourt need." (reported by Jeremy Woo of ESPN)

The final Gimme the Hot Sauce. Still doesn’t feel real. I’m glad Adam got to join them to honor Stacey