The Bulls are on a season-long seven-game losing streak, but this could be the beginning of the road to landing a franchise-changing talent.
At the time of this writing, the Chicago Bulls are on the longest active losing streak in the NBA--tied with the New Orleans Pelicans--at seven games. The Bulls 9-14 record (39.1% win percentage) has them sitting at 11th in the 2026 NBA Draft lottery odds, a familiar area of the draft for a franchise that has picked 12th and 11th in the past two drafts. But this is where, the fact that these recent Chicago losses feel "different," reveal the silver lining to all the struggles.
Over the Bulls seven-game losing streak, they have lost to the Pelicans, Charlotte Hornets, Brooklyn Nets, and twice to the Indiana Pacers, all teams in the top-7 of the lottery standings (among the 10 worst teams in the league), with only a handful of the games being close.
Coming into a year with Zach LaVine off the roster, and more importantly, Coby White injured and the team committing harder to an egalitarian offense, getting off to a hot start was critical and the Bulls did just that. A 5-0 start built off of their unselfishness on offense and some poor opponent shooting quickly gave way to a five-game losing streak that saw the 3-pointers finally start to fall against the Bulls' defense, a stretch in which they gave up 120+ points in all five losses.
About a week after that five-game losing streak, the Bulls pulled out a narrow 121-120 win over the Washington Wizards. Nikola Vucevic was not thrilled in the postgame despite his 28 points in the win. His seriousness in contrast to the childlike enthusiasm of Jalen Smith and Matas Buzelis was a sight to behold.
It felt like a turning point in the 2025-26 Chicago Bulls season.
Yes, the Bulls won the game, but the extent to which they struggled to put away the ever-struggling Wizards was concerning.
What happened following that win against the Wizards in which Vucevic essentially warned the team against thinking they could continue to win games with how they were playing?
They lost their next seven games is what happened.
But as promised, here is the silving lining: for the first time in a long time, the Bulls are looking at a serious chance to make a run at top-five lottery odds, which would give them a better than 12% chance at the No. 1 pick and guarantee them a pick no lower than ninth in a class that looks loaded with talented players under the age of 20 in the top 10.
Chicago has a bottom-10 defense, and while that is the source of most their struggles, the offense is 22nd in the league in Offensive Efficiency per Cleaning The Glass (subscription-based service). The Bulls have scored under 106 points in four of their last five games, including 91 points on a terrible 42.1% Effective FG% in their most recent loss to the Warriors.
If the Bulls are able to land a premium pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, there is chance they could land Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer, AJ Dybantsa, Caleb Wilson, or Nate Ament. Those first two names specifically, represent players who could legitimately act as the centerpiece of the Bulls offense in their rookie season.
Peterson is an uber-athletic guard at six-foot-six with a 6-foot-10 wingspan. He uses his fast twitch athleticism to hound ball handlers defensively, and offensively, makes move that occasionally make him look like a future Kobe Bryant or Tracy McGrady-level scorer. Yes, I know the previous statement sounds ridiculous on paper, but that is the reality of how good Peterson looks at times.
The Bulls don't need the No.1 pick to have a successful rebuild, but they do need a young, difference-maker for their franchise, and that is certainly easier to find within the top-10 picks of a draft class. Whether it is the dynamic scoring and playmaking of Peterson, the bruising inside scoring and rebounding prowess of Cam Boozer, or the incredible slashing ability of Dybantsa or Wilson, all of the players projected to be top-four picks would fill clear needs for the Bulls, while more importantly, being players that could clearly serve as the foundational piece of the next great Bulls team.
Losing isn't fun, but finding the centerpiece of your franchise is. That player may already be on the Bulls roster, but if they aren't, all of these losses will lead to Chicago finding him and bringing the fun back to the UC.
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