The Chicago Bulls already have a new front office voice in place, and an early look at the 2026 NBA Draft has that voice attached to a pair of lottery picks. NBADraft.net projected Tennessee forward Nate Ament to Chicago at No. 9 and center Chris Cenac Jr. to the Bulls at No. 15.
That matters because the Bulls enter the summer ninth in the lottery standings, with a 4.5 percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick and a 20.3 percent chance of jumping into the top four. They also hold the No. 15 pick from the Portland Trail Blazers, giving them two chances to reshape a roster that has not yet found a clean long-term direction.
Bryson Graham, hired May 4 to replace Arturas Karnisovas, arrives with a reputation built in New Orleans. He was a lead decision maker with the Pelicans and helped select Dyson Daniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, the last two winners of the NBA's Most Improved Player Award. Graham also drafted Herb Jones and Trey Murphy III, and Jones was named First-Team All-Defense in 2023-24 after being taken 35th overall in 2021.
That background gives the Bulls a reason to trust the draft more than they did before. Graham’s recent track record suggests Chicago may lean harder on evaluation and upside, even if the public face of the summer is still the lottery math: a 4.5 percent shot at the top pick, a 20.3 percent path into the top four, and a pair of selections that could define the first stage of his tenure.
Ament, 19, is listed at 6-foot-10 and 205 pounds, but his lone season in Knoxville came with uneven production. He shot 39.9 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from three and posted a 1:1 assist-to-turnover ratio. That profile leaves Chicago weighing size and skill against the kind of efficiency questions that usually determine how far a prospect rises.
If the mock draft proves even partly accurate, the Bulls would come away with one high-upside forward and another frontcourt piece at No. 15. For a team entering the draft with two first-round selections and a newly hired evaluator at the top, that is the kind of starting point that can change the tone of a summer before the real decisions even begin.
