Joe Cowley

According to coach Tiago Splitter on Wednesday, the projected starting center will have his injured hamstring re-evaluated right before the start of the regular season in less than two weeks. Will he be ready in time? It's up in the air.

Reality bites as feel-good Bulls will have to start playing games soon

Of course Buzelis spent the offseason in the gym putting on muscle and in the lab refining his game, but the biggest change will be the freedom he feels like he will now be allowed to play with.

Yes, the back was a problem two seasons ago and the numbers dipped because of it, but last year Claxton and the rest of his Nets teammates were mostly a product of tanking. The back is just fine.

While executive vice president Bryson Graham and coach Tiago Splitter continue seeing Wilson live up to the hype of a No. 4 pick, they are realistic enough to know every rookie season has ups and downs.

First-year executive Bryson Graham is from the school of SLAP (size, length, athleticism, physicality) — as is coach Tiago Splitter — and while Josh Giddey and Norman Powell check a lot of those boxes, will the entire backcourt follow as fall camp is set to start in a few weeks?

Maybe it's because Caleb Wilson is the new shiny toy in town or maybe what Buzelis did last season is being overlooked, but joining the exclusive 150-100 club and being the youngest to do so served notice that the Bulls could have a star in the making. Someone wake NBA 2K and remind them.

Fall camp is less than a month away for the Bulls but players will start showing up to the Advocate Center for scrimmages and workouts over the course of that time. It's imperative that Essengue starts changing his mindset for a new front office that has no allegiance to him.

Since demanding center stage at Summer League with his play and bravado, the Caleb Show isn't slowing down. The good news for Bulls fans? It shouldn't.

The sample size was just one season in Portland, but for first-time All-Star Deni Avdija what a sample size it was as Splitter was the coach that helped lift him from promising but underwhelming to a foundation piece. Can Splitter pull that off with the Bulls?