The Bulls are under two weeks from Media Day and the start of training camp, and they just finalized Tiago Splitter's coaching staff. The staff features a nice surprise in the form of franchise legend Taj Gibson, who just retired from the NBA and immediately returned to Chicago as a coach. Ricky and Jason talk all things Taj and why bringing him back is a good move.

The Bulls also have a plan in place to replace Stacey King, going with a cycle of Adam Amin sidekicks throughout the season. It's a decision that makes sense given King's larger than life persona that will be just about impossible to replace.

The discussion then turns to the Bulls' projected win total and where they stand in the Eastern Conference. While that win total has spiked since the odds first came out, it's still hard to see the Bulls being better than many teams in a suddenly loaded East. What's their ceiling?

Finally, there just had to be a little bit of Bears talk after a 59-point season opener.

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Jason joins Hardwood Knocks' Dan Favale for their annual Bulls season lookahead at the tail end of an eventful offseason that brought about regime change. What's to make of Bryson Graham's first offseason in charge? There was a lot of kicking the can down the road with short-term deals (Norman Powell, Nic Claxton trade, Zach Collins), making the upcoming season an important one for evaluation for new head coach Tiago Splitter before potentially bigger moves later.

Caleb Wilson and Matas Buzelis are at the center of it all as they look to develop into a star forward pairing. How do they fit together and what should we expect to see this upcoming season?

Josh Giddey also plays an important role as the point guard of this offense, and he's facing pressure to prove to Graham that he's worth keeping around as a franchise cornerstone. Giddey has improved upon many of his shortcomings, but his inconsistent last season still leaves plenty of questions about his future.

Jason then looks at a bunch of the other young players on the roster, including Leonard Miller, Noa Essengue, Dailyn Swain and Rob Dillingham. Essengue and Swain's brutal Summer League performances put a damper on their expectations coming into the season, and it'll be interesting to see how much this group plays under Splitter.

The end of the pod looks at a number of topics, including team needs, the rotation and lineup predictions, and season predictions.

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After lengthy forays into restricted free agency, both Bennedict Mathurin and Jonathan Kuminga went off the board in the same day. Mathurin is heading to the Pelicans on a two-year, $16 million deal, while Kuminga is going to the Timberwolves on a two-year deal worth over $12 million. The Bulls were reportedly interested in both players, but did they ever really have a chance? And are the Bulls actually missing out here?

ClutchPoints' Brett Siegel reported the Bulls as a team that "aggressively" pursued Mathurin via sign-and-trade, though a sign-and-trade would've required a three-year deal and Bryson Graham seemed hesitant to hand out any long-term contracts this summer. Perhaps Graham truly was willing to go that far for Mathurin, but the young guard clearly preferred the Pelicans and will be getting the Clippers to withdraw his qualifying offer in order to sign as an unrestricted free agent.

As for Kuminga, the fit didn't seem right with the Bulls even though they've been rumored to be interested going back to the Arturas Karnisovas regime. Kuminga picked a contender in the Timberwolves over more money from the Lakers, so the Bulls likely didn't have much of a chance even though Jake Fischer noted them being "involved to a real degree."

Ricky and Jason aren't shedding any tears over missing out on Mathurin and Kuminga, even at these small price points. So, how will the Bulls fill that last roster spot? Will they fill it at all before the season? Or will they take it into the season?

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