Caleb Watch
2026 NBA Draft
North Carolina
Caleb Wilson
Fourth overall, First Team All-Summer League, and the front office has said his growth is the priority. He’s the starter at the four unless he plays his way out of it.
The thing to watch is the three. He shot 25.9% from deep at North Carolina, then 41.9% in Vegas on nearly eight attempts a game. One of those is a fluke and nobody knows which yet. If it’s the college number that’s real, defenses sag off a 6’9” forward and the spacing around Giddey gets cramped. If it’s the Vegas number, he’s a shot-blocker who spaces the floor, and that’s a franchise player.
Filled by the build job every game day. Left empty rather than guessed at.
Matas Watch
2024 lottery pick
Age 21
Matas Buzelis
Two years of flashes is a compliment. Three years of flashes is a diagnosis. Buzelis is the older young guy now, on a team that just drafted a younger one at his spot. That role has a long, sad history in this building.
His best traits survive a real rotation: length, weak-side shot-blocking, and the ability to put it on the floor at 6′8″. The question has never been whether he belongs. It is whether the jumper arrives.
Year three is when the league decides what you are. Is he creating or just finishing? A wing his size who can make plays starts for a decade. One who only finishes is a bench guy on a rookie deal.
Filled by the build job every game day.
Who's Here, and Why
Everybody currently listed, and what they are actually here to do. Roles, not projections.
Chicago Bulls · 2026–27 RosterHead Coach: Tiago Splitter
The Depth Chart
The engine, and the closest thing to an established piece. A 6-7 point guard who rebounds and passes; the shot decides the ceiling.
Steady backup point guard who does not turn it over. Every young team needs one.
Instant offense off the bench. Whether he can defend at 6-2 is the whole career question.
The veteran bucket-getter, and the most obvious deadline chip on the roster.
Point-of-attack defender. Plays if the offense can survive it.
Young wing, deep on the bench.
Deep bench.
Year three. Needs to answer the jumper question before it gets answered for him.
Rebounds like a big, moves like a wing. Needs minutes that may not exist.
Still only 24, still unresolved after six years of the same conversation. New staff, last real chance.
Fourth overall. The season is about him whether the minutes say so or not.
Productive in short stretches. With Yabusele gone he is the first big off the bench, which is more than anyone planned.
Nineteen. A three-year project, and that is fine now.
Deep bench.
Rim protection and lob finishing. The defensive backbone a young team hides behind.
Backup five with real skill and a long injury history.
Roster checked 3 September 2026 against Basketball-Reference and the team's transaction log: fourteen standard contracts plus Sellers and Awaka on two-way deals, one roster spot open. Exhibit 10 camp signings left off. Jersey numbers left off. Starting five is projected, not announced. Order within a position and "the role" are editorial.
Coaching Staff
Eleven people, five of whom used to be paid to play. The full staff as announced by the team in September; video and analytics staff are not listed here.
Hired June 16, 2026, the 25th head coach in franchise history, at 41. Took over Portland on October 23, 2025 after Chauncey Billups’ arrest, went 42–39 and got the Blazers their first playoff series since 2021 (out in five to San Antonio). Before that he won the French league and the French Cup with Paris Basketball in 2024–25, and sat on the bench in Brooklyn and Houston. As a player he was a fixture on Brazil’s national team for a decade. His one promise at the introduction: “We’re going to compete every night.”
As a player · NBA regular season
- NBA Champion 2014
- First Brazilian-born champion
- Liga ACB MVP 2010
- ACB Finals MVP 2010
- All-EuroLeague First Team 2008
- ACB champion 2008, 2010
- No. 21 retired by Baskonia
- 28th pick, 2007
Retired September 14 after 17 seasons and walked straight back into the building where it started. Taken 26th in 2009 out of USC, he gave the Bulls his first seven and a half years, came off the bench on the 62-win 2010–11 team, and was the one Thibodeau left out there when games got ugly. His own line on it: he gave the game everything he had. This is the first coaching job of his life. Hard hat and lunch pail, in Stacey King’s phrase, and it never needed updating.
As a player · 17 seasons
- All-Rookie First Team 2010
- 2nd, Sixth Man of the Year 2014
- 5th, Sixth Man voting 2012
- 26th pick, 2009
The holdover. Wizards head coach from 2021 to 2024 and Billy Donovan’s right hand the last two seasons. The only person on this bench who has been a full-time NBA head coach.
The veteran. Two years with Doc Rivers in Milwaukee, and before that Toronto and Oklahoma City, where he was on Scott Brooks’ staff for the Durant and Westbrook years. Has coached under Brooks, Dwane Casey, Ty Lue and Rivers.
Fourteen straight years on an NBA bench and he is still only in his thirties. Player development in New Orleans from 2012, then Phoenix, then back to New Orleans, then Atlanta under his father Nate, then three seasons in Detroit. Played at Arizona State. Has never worked anywhere but the NBA.
The shooting coach. Ran the Spurs’ G League team in Austin, then two seasons on Taylor Jenkins’ staff in Memphis. If Wilson’s jumper becomes real, this is who gets credit.
As a player · NBA and G League
- NCAA career free throw record, 94.6%
- All-time G League leading scorer
- D-League Rookie of the Year 2008
- D-League scoring champion 2012
- D-League champion 2015
Came with Splitter from Portland, where he was head coach of the Blazers’ G League team (19–17) after three seasons as an assistant with the big club.
Arrives from the Knicks with a ring from June. Runs the development program, which on a roster this young is the whole job.
Player Development
Fifteen years as a pro across Italy, Greece, Spain and Slovakia without ever reaching the NBA, which is its own kind of qualification for this job. Slovak Player of the Year twice before he turned 24. Spent time at Baskonia, the same club where Splitter made his name.
As a player · 15 seasons in Europe
- Slovak Player of the Year 2001, 2002
- Italian League champion 2005
- Slovak League champion 2013
- Slovak Cup 2015, 2016
- Olimpia Milano · Fortitudo · Olympiacos · Baskonia
- Iowa State 1997–2001
Arrives from San Antonio. A defensive specialist at Wake Forest who captained the team three years running, then spent nine seasons chasing the game through the G League, the Philippines, France, Finland and Slovenia. Never got an NBA minute. Now he coaches players who will.
As a player · 9 seasons, never the NBA
- 2× ACC All-Defensive Team
- D-League Slam Dunk Champion 2012
- Three-year Wake Forest captain
- G League, Philippines, France, Finland, Slovenia
Came up through the video room in Dallas, six seasons there before joining the Bulls in 2023. The least famous person on this list and the one who has watched the most film.
Gone from last year’s staff: John Bryant (to Charlotte) and Austin Dufault (to Denver). Reporting via HoopsHype, Bulls On SI and Hoops Rumors. Playing records via Basketball Reference.