Top 4 Free Agency Targets for the 2026 Bulls Offseason
Reset. A word resonating with the Bulls fanbase for the first time in 11 years. That’s how long it’s been since the franchise was not spearheaded by a man named Billy Donovan, Fred Hoiberg, or “Walmart Thibs”, Mr. Jim Boylen. The three combined for a collective 380 - 495 record and a paltry two postseason berths. Let’s cut our latest game manager, Billy, some slack; he is after all a three-time COTY if you only consider results from the 9-10 matchup of the NBA’s play-in game, a contest this franchise has mastered during the 2020s. But in all seriousness, it was far overdue for Billy’s departure. And along with Billy, fans can finally breathe having also been liberated of the much maligned AKME era.1
Enter the 2026 offseason, a galore of possibility. Currently Chicago sits in first in terms of cap space. In fact, the Bulls are only one of six teams who are even under the NBA’s soft salary cap. We’ve cleaned house, sending a majority of our 2025 roster into free agency and leaving us with only eight active roster players.
Isaac Okoro
Jalen Smith
Josh Giddey
Matas Buzelis
Noa Essengue
Patrick Williams
Rob Dillingham
Tre Jones
With nearly half a locker room to fill, it’s time for us to splurge.
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Couple original and unoriginal principles that should motivate the Bulls' offseason search:
27-club
In pop culture, this morbidly refers to the group of singers who fatally saw their careers snapped short at 27. For the Bulls, this represents a mindset. Scrutinize any and every player above the age of 27.
In his first press conference, new Executive President Bryson Graham voiced an opinion that is symphonic to Bulls fans:
“We are in the rebuilding phase, and we’re extremely young too. So, that’s how I define what a rebuilding team looks like.”
Too often and too recently we’ve rejected this notion in favor of mediocrity. Yet now we approach free agency with a different blueprint. Not one of seeking immediate and short-term relevance but instead finding a core of guys that can manifest into a juggernaut in a few years. So in that spirit, let’s collect young talent.
SLAP(s)
Let’s roll with another Bryson Graham principle, his so-called scouting mantra “SLAP”: Size, Length, Athleticism, and Physicality. While we don’t live in Dennis Rodman’s 90s, in recent years there has been an added emphasis league-wide in procuring talent that can physically size up against offensive behemoths like SGA, Jokic, and now Wemby. But it’s not just those players, it’s the entire squad that surrounds them which makes the challenge all that more daunting. The best teams play with unprecedented pace, ensuring that “switching” defense is preferred, if not a must.2 The tangibles and intangibles that Graham preaches should be an aspiration for the Bulls this offseason.
The final “(s)”, which some Twitter head coined, represents shooting. As several organizations have demonstrated this playoffs, you can only go so far with just the “SLAP” mantra. The Rockets may be the prime culprit. Their deficiencies far exceeded the lack of “(s)”, but one cannot deny that without Fred VanVleet and only sporting an ailing version of Kevin Durant definitely plagued the team with numerous offensive woes that would’ve been alleviated with increased shooting around the roster. It may be Daryl Morey’s sole lasting imprint on the NBA, but the obsession with three-point shooting that he fervently pursued cannot be overlooked and should be acknowledged by the Bulls this offseason.
Find a reliable front court
During the trade deadline, the Bulls finally cut ties with veteran Nikola Vucevic: the last piece of the 2020 gamble that saw the Bulls assemble the DeRozan-Ball-Vucevic tandem to pair with my goat Zach Lavine.3 While initially promising, a Lonzo Ball midseason knee injury spelled the downfall and the group never recovered. Vooch was the longest tenured Bull entering this past season and despite his clear defensive limitations, his ethic and iron man nature will genuinely be fondly remembered by Bulls fans. 4
Critically though, by trading him away the franchise essentially PSA’d their desire to tank the remainder of the season, possessing a wildly imbalanced roster of six players under 6'4 and a dearth of serviceable big men. We now enter the offseason with only Jalen Smith and maybe Leonard Miller as our bigs.5 So to that end, let’s invest in the future of our front court.
Playoff/Championship Experience
In some ways, this last tenet stands in direct contention with the first one. After all, how many youngins have gone through the rungs of multiple playoff series. While the league is getting younger and I do remain committed to my initial prescription, an undeniable truth is franchises with dreams of competing at the highest level need quality veteran voices and presence. The dude doesn’t have to be Udonis Haslem level of “unc”, but even guys like Harrison Barnes for the Spurs or Mike Conley for the Timberwolves are invaluable assets.
That being said, I don’t think the Bulls should vie for players that maintain the level of quasi-“vegetable” presence possessed by the aforementioned two. The prototype should be guys like Alex Caruso or De’Aaron Fox who have certainly seen their fair share of professional basketball but also serve as both integral and reliable contributors to their current squads.
Our current veteran leader is Tre Jones. As much as I love the man (he made watching this past season mildly palatable), it’s time to find an upgrade in the player-leadership realm.
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As should be apparent, I want to emphasize that these are just guiding principles rather than stringent rules. Even if the Bulls deviate from the below four players, I am hopeful that whoever they pursue will meet at least one if not multiple of the above criteria. So with that being said, let’s unlock the names that can change the trajectory of this franchise.
Free Agency Targets:
Rui Hachimura
Am I crazy to promote the idea of a Chicago-based Three Musketeers (Japanese edition). Munetaka Murakami, Riku Nishida (despite his inevitable return to Charlotte), and Rui if the Bulls bring him in this offseason.6 And would it be the most relevant trio of Japanese athletes across sports in one American city? Chat seems to think so. The only competing options were Ichiro and his henchmen (Kazuhiro Sasaki and Shigetoshi Hasegawa) and Shohei Ohtani/Yu Darvish/Naomi Osaka??, a trio that is just patently false given tennis stars know no permanent homes.
Rui directly contradicts Rule #1, but that’s precisely what makes him golden for the final rule. Now having played on several Lebron championship-caliber teams, his experience is clear as day. A former Gonzaga lottery pick, if there were any question marks regarding his role in the NBA, they’ve been answered. He’s certainly not “that” guy, but during this past year’s run it could be easily argued that he was the most reliable player, albeit on a squad whose frontliners were clearly dinged up. Rui’s become known across the league for his picture perfect middie, and perhaps one day will be listed alongside Shaun Livingston, Kawhi Leonard, and Demar DeRozan for that aspect.
In that regard, he fills several crucial needs for this Bulls team. Experience, off and on the ball shooting, and perhaps most importantly embodying several aspects of the SLAP mantra. At 6’8, 230 his physique should prompt many suitors this offseason. Yes many metrics point to his defensive fallibilities (tending to be derived from subpar horizontal movement), but his length and size entail many positive externalities when it comes to deploying a “switching” defense. At the bare minimum, it provides any team flexibility when assembling different lineups.
Peyton Watson
A long held manifesto belief for Free Agency has been never commit to a player coming off a season-impeding injury. Unfortunately that’s exactly Peyton Watson’s situation as he missed the last six regular season games and the playoffs with a strained hammie, largely factoring into the Nuggets early first round exit. And for a Bulls franchise with consistent bad luck in the injury department (Ex. Derrick Rose, Lonzo Ball, and most recently the invisible rookie Noa Essengue), the apprehension is understandable. However at the same rate, Watson’s upside is undeniable.
In his fourth-year and at the ripe age of 23, Watson took a massive leap nearly doubling his scoring output (8.1 PPG in 2024 to 14.6 in 2025) and establishing a consistent presence on both sides of the court. Despite previous postseason Houdini acts, his growth this year was trending to be one of the primary reasons that many pundits projected a Nuggets finals run.
Watson now has four years in a championship-level locker room and has a physique that cuts at the essence of the SLAP vignette. Pair him up with Matas’ length, and Bulls fans should be salivating at the thought of a backcourt pairing that can mimic the effectiveness of the previous Timberwolves NAW-McDaniel duo; a duo that demonstrated how crucial stingy guards can be to winning basketball. With their combined potential on both sides of the court, the “Buzi-vert”-Watson duo could strike the perfect tone for this rebuild.7
Jalen Duren
This could be the biggest shocker on the list, and the shock factor could be derived from either direction. Prior to the last month, Duren was regarded as an indispensable asset backed by a 19/10/2 regular season stat line and accumulating his first All-Pro recognition (3rd team). At that point, he would’ve easily topped this list, or even omitted fully as the Pistons organization would’ve been remiss to entertain any possibility of breaking up the young core of Cade, Duren, and Ausar Thompson. But all it takes is one postseason.
To channel an iconic Sam Darnold quote, Duren was “seeing ghosts” for four weeks straight at the highest level in this sport. And unfortunately he doesn’t have the courtesy of attributing his “ghosts” to a HOF Belichick defense. Instead they came in the form of Wendell Carter Jr., Jarrett Allen, and Evan Mobley. Three capable players, yet still nowhere near the upper rungs of the Center position. His weaknesses and inexperience were magnified in a major way, and many have gone as far as to deem him the “Black Sheep” for the Piston’s underwhelming playoffs run.
The criticism is warranted. He was time and time again outclassed by whomever the Magic or Cavs threw at him, leading to one of the most alarming regular season to postseason dips in recent NBA history. His offensive output was down and like many young stars, Duren let the bad juju in that realm tarnish every other aspect of his game.
However despite all the alarm bells, Duren’s promise remains super tantalizing. He’s only 22 and a first-time postseason slump is not wholly unexpected. Ultimately, the Bulls have a sore need for a reliable, franchise cornerstone big-man and should right the wrongs of the Vooch era by targeting a two-way player like Duren. And now may be the best time to buy. Duren’s stock may never fall as precipitously and if you’ve ever read a statistics textbook, 14 games is not even skimming the surface of significance.
Lugentz Dort
I’ll motivate this section by bringing up a personal anecdote. My best friend and I routinely place long-term NBA bets against each other, and perhaps the most memorable for evidently amusing reasons is Dort to make the HOF. As of late, it’s also admittedly one of the few wagers where I feel comfortably at ease in my negative position. But while Dort is nowhere near sniffing Springfield, he has cemented his status as one of the most reliable role players in recent NBA championship history. Led by his swarming defensive presence, he’s an All-Defensive player who’s also brought low-volume but efficient three point shooting to the table.
His pedigree can’t be questioned. While OKC’s two-peat aspirations and Dort’s most recent playoff moments both ended in an incredibly flat fashion, it would be brazen to fully throw away 3+ years of established experience. Like Rui Hachimura, he would automatically slide into the veteran presence role that the Bulls will eventually need once this rebuild has materialized. And while there is good reason to have faith in the current young core, the Bulls roster is still very incomplete on the defensive side. In each of the last three years, we’ve finished in the bottom half of the league in terms of defensive rating while giving up historic offensive productivity to opponents. As mystical as Giddey’s offensive prowess is, it’s all moot if we can’t stop anyone.8
After a deflating exit, OKC will be reshuffling the deck this offseason and given how much young talent they’re hoarding, Dort may see the chopping block.9 I’d be disappointed if acquiring Dort was our only play this offseason, but in conjunction with another of the aforementioned names, this front office should consider buying in on him.
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Initially, I was planning on including five names, after all “Top 4 FA Targets” doesn’t retain the same zing. However after carefully considering the balance of FA’s, there truly isn’t another name that galvanizes any meaningful inspiration. Obviously you have the KING and certified playoff choke artist James Harden, but clearly neither of them fit well with the Bulls’ timeline. One guy who would’ve seemingly been prime lickings for this franchise was Walker Kessler, but all noise coming out of Salt Lake City is that the organization doesn’t view Lauri Markkanen or Jaren Jackson Jr. as a true center and therefore it’s only a matter of time before they lock up Kessler.
Mark Williams and Robert Williams are also names that have been linked to the Bulls. These two guys have had Embiid-level issues with staying on court but because of their youth and “upside”, will be exploring long term deals that bode risky for an organization miles away from competing.
Finally there’s the obvious. If there was any disgruntlement regarding our dealings at the trade deadline, we could undo all of that by bringing back Coby White or Ayo Dosunmu. Don’t get me wrong I love these two. They are absolute DAWGS and despite their early departures, I will always consider them to be a product of Chicago. But the math doesn’t make sense. Yes, the Bulls have all the capital in the world but I anticipate that both of these players will eventually sign highly overpriced deals. Coby clearly elevated the squad in Charlotte, and Ayo was an essential piece to the Timberwolves as their guards kept falling victim to the hardwood bug. That being said, there is minimal evidence to suggest that those small sample sizes of impact can be replicated elsewhere. At least from a Bulls perspective, we’ve already seen the fit concerns between Giddey and White. They just don’t mesh well together given their ball dominating-tendencies. And not to make a Bachelor’s reference, but seems like we’ve handed the “Rose” to Josh. All this to say, that an Ayo/Coby reunion probably falls short of the Friends reunion.
I’ll wrap the bowtie on this piece by noting that the Bulls have encountered incredible luck in securing both a Top 4 pick and also finally liquidating the Trailblazers 1st round pick from the Markkanen trade (currently sitting at 15th). In a historically talent-dense draft, those two selections carry considerably more weight than our FA choices. I’ll state my preferences for Caleb Wilson and a guard, but three teams could quickly squash that desire. Ultimately I bring this up because none of the organization’s choices/selections are occurring in a vacuum. Duren is the only true center on my list because I envision us picking a ready-for-service big man with at least one of our two first rounders. Whatever the final approach is, Graham and the front office should be incredibly scrupulous as they navigate an offseason that will loom large for the Bulls’ long-term future.
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Footnotes:
AKME was the fanbases’ abbreviation for the Arturas Karsinovs and Marc Eversley front office duo. Both were dismissed by the Bulls this past season.
Switching defense alludes to switching assignments on Pick and Rolls and other diversion plays, rather than sticking to the assigned man.
My only personal lifetime Bulls purchase was a City Edition (Sky Blue) Bulls Lavine jersey. While it has avoided the “burning” ritual, it remains retired in my closet until further notice.
Vooch played 70+ games in four complete regular seasons with the Bulls. He essentially served as our Mikal Bridges, while countless other teammates struggled to avoid long-term injury.
Leonard Miller has a “Club Option” entering this offseason. All signs point to us picking it up. Initially under looked in all our trade deadline transactions, Miller quietly became the most productive player from that batch and has demonstrated that he can be a reliable asset to this rebuild.
Since completing this article, Riku has indeed been relegated to the Charlotte Triple A squad. Yet I am confident that he will see another opportunity in the majors and hopefully with the South Side Slashers.
Along with many iconic phrases, Stacey King, the Bulls’ long-time color commentator coined this nickname for Matas. RIP to a legend who was a staple of the Bulls gameday experience for the last 20 years.
Josh Giddey averaged 17/9/8 this past season, but more impressively only trailed Jokic, and tied with Jalen Johnson, in terms of most triple doubles posted despite missing 25+ games. In fact, at only 23, Giddey already sits Top 20 all time in career triple doubles with 31 to his name.
Technically Lu Dort's contract is currently sitting on a Club Option. If OKC chooses to decline as predicted, Dort will become an unrestricted free agent this offseason.
