Caleb Wilson Owns Vegas as the Bulls' New Era Takes Shape

The Chicago Bulls spent the past week doing something this franchise hasn't done in a while: giving its fans a reason to look forward instead of sideways. Caleb Wilson, the No. 4 overall pick, closed out his Las Vegas Summer League run as one of the event's biggest winners, torching defenses, demanding extra games, and generally acting like a teenager who can't believe he gets paid for this. Around him, the shape of a genuinely new operation came into focus — Tiago Splitter running his first practices as head coach, Norman Powell and Nic Claxton arriving as the front office's first big swings, and a roster that finally looks like it belongs to somebody's plan. Chicago Bulls news has been bleak for long stretches of the past decade. This week wasn't.

Caleb Wilson made Vegas his personal showcase

Wilson's summer league opened with a bang: 35 points on 12-of-21 shooting, including 7-of-11 from three, in a 97-96 loss to Memphis. That set a Las Vegas Summer League scoring record, and it came in a game where No. 3 pick Cameron Boozer went for 23, six rebounds and four assists and hit the winner for the Grizzlies. Chicago fell one point short despite a 28-18 fourth-quarter push, but nobody in the building was talking about the result.

Through his first three games, Wilson averaged 24.3 points, 7.0 rebounds and a frankly rude 3.3 blocks while shooting 60 percent from the field and 50 percent from three. Then he did the thing that endeared him to Bulls fans most: while fellow top picks AJ Dybantsa and Darryn Peterson sat out games, the 19-year-old asked to play both ends of a back-to-back, capped by the July 15 matchup with the Wizards. He scored 19 that night to deliver Chicago's first summer win before shutting it down. "I wanted to win a game before I stop," he said. In a league where top-five picks treat July like a photo op, that reads as a small thing. It isn't.

The rest of the summer Bulls: mixed returns

The team results were less romantic — Chicago finished Vegas at 1-4, closing with a 100-91 loss to Cleveland on July 17 in which the Bulls led 21-15 after a quarter and then got buried by a 30-16 second. A few notes from the box scores beyond Wilson:

• Dailyn Swain, the No. 15 pick, had a rough introduction: 3-for-26 from the field (11.5 percent) through his first three games, including 0-for-7 from three. The defense and feel are why Chicago drafted him; the jumper is clearly a project.
• Jaylin Sellers was a consistent bright spot, with 15 points against Memphis and 17 more against the Cavaliers.
• Donovan Atwell poured in 22 in the Cleveland finale, and Noa Essengue flashed his defensive tools with a 10-point, five-rebound, four-block outing against the Grizzlies.

One dazzling rookie, one worrying one, and some fringe guys making cases — that's a normal summer league. The dazzling one just happens to be the franchise's most important draft pick in a generation.

Splitter's first summer running the show

All of this unfolded under a new regime. Billy Donovan stepped down on April 21 after the Bulls stumbled to 31-51 and 12th in the East, and on June 15 Chicago hired Tiago Splitter, the 41-year-old who went 42-40 as Portland's interim coach last season and dragged the Blazers to the West's No. 7 seed. Splitter beat out a final four that included Minnesota assistant Micah Nori, Atlanta assistant Ryan Schmidt and incumbent Bulls assistant Wes Unseld Jr., and he arrives with an unusual resume: a title as a player in San Antonio, a EuroLeague head job with Paris Basketball, and NBA assistant stops in Houston and Brooklyn.

Executive vice president Bryson Graham, who ran the search, said Splitter "stood apart for his basketball intellect, his ability to connect with and develop players, and the way his teams compete every single night." Splitter has spent July in Vegas doing exactly that — managing minutes for Wilson and Swain and getting a first live look at the young roster he inherited.

Powell, Claxton and a deliberately flexible roster

The front office's free agency work drew real attention around the league, if not universal applause. The Bulls landed Norman Powell on a two-year, $45 million deal — instant, proven scoring for a team that badly needed it after shipping Coby White to Charlotte and Nikola Vucevic out at February's trade deadline. Days earlier, Chicago acquired center Nic Claxton from Brooklyn in a three-team deal involving Minnesota, giving Splitter a legitimate rim protector and switchable defensive anchor. They also re-signed Zach Collins for two years and $17 million, guaranteed Leonard Miller's $2.41 million salary after his promising 27-game stint, and still have roughly $23 million in cap space left to work with.

Remember the context here. February's deadline was a full teardown: White, a homegrown fan favorite, went to the Hornets, Vucevic finally got moved after years of rumors, and Chicago walked away with extra picks — including the No. 15 selection from Portland that became Swain and second-rounders from New Orleans and Denver. Zach LaVine had already been shipped out a year before that. This is, top to bottom, a different organization than the one that spent half a decade stuck on the mediocrity treadmill.

The skeptic's read — voiced loudly in Chicago media this week — is that Powell, Claxton and Collins are all mid-career vets on short, tradable deals rather than long-term pillars. The optimist's read is that this is the point: real players who raise the floor now and convert into assets later if the kids force the timeline forward. Both things can be true, and with Josh Giddey (17.0 points, 9.1 assists per game last season) entering his prime as the offensive hub, the Bulls have kept every road open.

Where the Bulls actually stand in the East

Let's be honest about the baseline. This team lost 51 games and was outscored by more than five points a night. But the East's middle class is soft, the Bulls just added two starting-caliber veterans without surrendering their cap sheet, and Wilson looks like he might be the kind of two-way forward you build around rather than wait on. A leap into play-in relevance isn't a fantasy; it's roughly what Splitter pulled off in Portland a year ago with less. The more important measure of 2026-27 will be whether Wilson and Giddey look like a real pairing by spring, and whether Swain's shooting is fixable.

What's next on the calendar

Summer league is done and the roster is mostly set, so the next two months are about development staff, Splitter's system install and maybe one more move with that remaining space. Key dates ahead:

• Late September: training camp opens, Splitter's first as Bulls head coach.
• Early October: preseason, including a first extended look at Wilson against NBA rotations.
• Late October: opening night of the 2026-27 season.

The Chicago Bulls haven't mattered in July for years, and suddenly they do — that's the quiet story of this week. A rookie who set a Vegas scoring record and then begged for more minutes, a coach with something to prove, and a front office keeping its powder half-dry. None of it guarantees anything, but for the first time in a long time, the interesting version of the Bulls is the realistic one. Check back when camp opens; this team's October should be worth watching.