By the Numbers: Where the Bulls Actually Stand

$161.5 million payroll. Chicago carries $161.5M on 14 contracts, comfortably under the $165.0M cap and nowhere near the $200.4M mark that triggers the tax. Giddey ($25.0M), Claxton ($23.1M), Powell ($21.5M) and Williams ($18.0M) make up most of that figure.

Minus 5.3 net rating. Last season's Bulls finished at a net rating of -5.3, 23rd in the league, with the offense 25th and the defense 22nd. Tiago Splitter inherits that number, not a roster built to erase it overnight.

9.1 assists a night. Josh Giddey ran the point for Chicago last season, piling up 9.1 assists to go with 17.0 points and 8.3 rebounds across 54 games. That workload makes him the engine this offense runs through, for better or worse.

Plus 4.2 in 65 minutes. The best five-man unit Chicago ran last season, Vucevic-Huerter-Okoro-Giddey-Buzelis, posted a net rating of +4.2 over 65 minutes. Three of those five are gone now, traded at the deadline, which limits how much that number says about this fall.

31-51, four years out. Chicago finished 31-51 last season, missing the playoffs for a fourth straight year, the record that cost Billy Donovan his job. It is the baseline Splitter starts from, not a sample of what his version of the Bulls will do.

Zero games, two exits. The record reads 0-0 because nothing has been played yet, and camp still thins by the day: Marquel Sutton and Peter Suder both left the roster today. The number that will actually matter starts October 7.