By the Numbers: Where the Bulls Stand Before Minnesota

One win in three. Chicago is 1-2 in preseason games, a 125-104 win over Milwaukee on October 14 following losses to Denver and Memphis. The number says the roster can execute when healthy. It does not touch the regular season, which starts clean at 0-0 regardless of these scores.

Opener five days out. The Bulls play Minnesota tonight in their final tune-up, then open the regular season October 21 at Toronto. Everything before that date, wins and losses alike, stays preseason. The number worth tracking is the five days left to settle a rotation before it counts.

$164.3 million committed. Chicago carries $164.3 million in salary across 14 contracts, comfortably below the $200.4 million tax threshold. That gap gives Bryson Graham's front office room to add during the season. It does not mean a trade is coming; nothing in camp points to one yet.

Giddey's $25 million. Josh Giddey's $25.0 million salary is the largest number on the roster, ahead of Nic Claxton's $23.1 million and Norman Powell's $21.5 million. That figure reflects what the front office is paying for a lead guard. It says nothing yet about what he produces in a Splitter offense nobody has seen in a real game.

Four names on the list. Isaac Okoro, Tobe Awaka and Zach Collins are questionable for tonight with return dates of October 16; Nic Claxton is out with a hamstring issue, expected back October 21. Four bodies missing from one lineup card is a lot for an exhibition night. It is not evidence of how healthy this team will be once the opener arrives.

Minus 5.3, last season. Chicago finished 2025-26 at minus 5.3 points per hundred possessions, 23rd in the league, with an offense ranked 25th and a defense 22nd of 30. That is the hole Tiago Splitter inherited when he took over in June. It does not predict this season's number, which has not started accumulating yet.