The Chicago Bulls came out of draft night with Caleb Wilson at No. 4 and Dailyn Swain at No. 15. Those picks were fine. The noise started in the second round.
VP of Basketball Operations Bryson Graham dealt both of the Bulls’ second round selections Wednesday, including the No. 38 overall pick. That one went to Indiana along with Braden Smith, the NCAA’s all-time assists leader from Purdue. In return, Chicago got guard Kam Jones plus cash and future second rounders.
Jones played 37 games last season and averaged 4.4 points while dealing with a lower back issue. Smith is a record-setter. The math looked weird on paper.
Athletic columnist John Hollinger jumped on Blue Sky with a blunt assessment: “Second round picks are near-worthless, and the Pacers were likely cutting Jones and his partially guaranteed contract. Y’all sold the pick.”
That’s the criticism. But Graham isn’t backing off.
Why the Bulls Did It
Graham went on 104.3 The Score to explain. His thinking was pretty straightforward, at least from his seat. Nobody left on the board was a player the Bulls had targeted. So instead of taking somebody they didn’t want, they looked for a way to get something out of the pick.
“How can we get some future assets and push this pick forward?” Graham said. “That was the thinking.”
He’s focused on roster flexibility. The Bulls have about $54 million in cap space for the 2026-27 season, and Graham wants to keep that flexibility alive — not lock it into a second rounder who might not crack the rotation.
Graham argued that trading a second round pick for potential future assets is better than forcing a pick on a guy who wasn’t part of their plans. It’s a dollars-and-sense argument, with an emphasis on the sense part.
Whether fans buy it is another story. The immediate reaction online was heavy on the skepticism. But Graham is betting that a couple of future second rounders and the cap room will look smarter in a year than Braden Smith’s assist numbers on a team that wasn’t going to play him.
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