From workouts in the gym to the game's biggest stage, get an inside look at Caleb Wilson's road to the 2026 NBA Draft.
LAS VEGAS — Kevin Garnett folded himself into a baseline seat at the Thomas & Mack Center Thursday, with his old Boston Celtics teammate, Glen “Big Baby” Davis, close behind. This was a week into the 2026 NBA Summer League, which meant some of the biggest draws, the most ballyhooed lottery picks, already had been shut down, their team’s coaches and executives having seen enough after two or three games.
Not the guy Garnett wanted to see, though. Not Caleb Wilson.
Wilson was out there for his fourth consecutive game as his Chicago Bulls squad faced the Los Angeles Lakers. The fourth overall pick in last month’s Draft scored 21 points with eight rebounds, while sneaking at least a half dozen peeks at the Hall of Famer sitting courtside.
“Throwback, this kid right here,” Garnett told a familiar face shortly after tipoff. “He’s got a different attitude.”
Later, he good-naturedly referred to Wilson as “Little Ticket,” playing off his own “Big Ticket” nickname and a premature, not-very-accurate comparison tossed around at and after the Draft.
No one understood that better than the 6-foot-10, 215-pound rookie from North Carolina himself.
“We have some similarities, but I feel like we’re much different players,” Wilson said earlier in the week about the comparison. “Kevin Garnett’s a Hall of Famer. I don’t want to be compared to a Hall of Famer because that messes up my expectations.”
Then again, Wilson “messed up” expectations — as in, raised his ceiling — all through his Las Vegas stay. In the Lakers game alone, he displayed an array of talents:
• Wilson exploded from the right baseline for a slam early in the second quarter.
• On the Bulls’ next possession, he pulled up for a 3-pointer, the kind of shots he made all week to hush one criticism of his game.
• He threw a slick bounce-pass from midcourt to Noa Essengue cutting along the baseline. Essengue, Chicago’s top pick a year ago, bobbled the ball out of bounds.
• The 20-year-old had the ball stolen in the open court by the Lakers’ Adou Thiero and the crowd could feel it coming: Wilson chased down the 6-foot-7 forward and blocked the layup.
• Wilson brought the ball upcourt time and again, yet made himself available down low. On one emphatic dunk in the third quarter, he slapped the backboard on his way down, a good punctuation for his Summer League experience.
Listen in to the best of Caleb Wilson mic’d up from his Summer League game vs. the Jazz.
Afterward, he explained his desire to play the Bulls’ first four games (he finally sat out the fifth).
“I feel like it’s important to get reps,” Wilson said. “I didn’t have to persuade [Bulls management] — we came to an agreement.”
Wilson wrapped up his first official NBA exposure by averaging 23.5 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.3 steals and 2.5 blocks in 27.7 minutes per game. He made half of his shots and 41.9% of his 3-pointers. Additionally, he set the tone from the start with 35 points, including 7-of-11 from the arc.
Sam Vecenie, The Athletic’s NBA Draft expert, summed up Wilson’s excellent Vegas adventure with a critic’s blurb worthy of a movie poster: “This was a monster performance, and the kind of stuff you expect from future superstars. Wilson looked the part.”
Inside that, sure, there were mistakes and welcome-to-the-league moments. He suffered a cut on his arm late in the first half vs. the Lakers that required swift bandaging, and that injury seemed to bother him. When play resumed, Wilson trucked Lakers rookie Cameron Carr for a blatant offensive foul that probably should have been a flagrant 1.
He had eight turnovers while playing only three quarters. And the final score, a 105-82 defeat, didn’t help his mood either.
“Caleb, he’s super talented,” said Martin Rančík, one of three Bulls assistants who rotated as summer coach. “But I felt frustration got the best of him. I felt like he started to worry about stuff outside of basketball, stuff outside what he could control. That’s the type of competitor he is. He wants to be great and compete against the best and is willing to put in the work.”
Said Wilson, still a bit chippy afterward: “I’ve got 10 fouls, I’m going to use them. They were fouling me, so I’ll do it back. That’s the type of player I am.
“I’d summarize [this week] as a learning lesson. I came to Summer League as someone who ‘couldn’t shoot,’ and they played me like that. Then I was a focal point and I had to create for others more. I learned a lot.”
For the Bulls and their fans, what they saw from Wilson generated a level of excitement long overdue at United Center. Look up the word “umpteen” in the dictionary — that’s how many resets, fresh starts, makeovers and rebuilds Chicago has undergone in the 28 years since Michael Jordan put the finishing touch on the franchise’s sixth NBA championship.
There have been fits and starts since then, a few random playoff berths, a burst of true contention in the Derrick Rose-Tom Thibodeau years and, otherwise, a whole lot of waiting. Most recently, execs Artūras Karnišovas and Marc Eversley, as well as coach Billy Donovan, had six years that produced one first-round appearance (2022) even as folks faithfully packed the arena.
Now it’s new vice president of basketball Bryson Graham’s turn, along with coach Tiago Splitter and their staffs, to guide the organization. There is a core not just of talent but excitement in point guard Josh Giddey, forward Matas Buzelis and Wilson, with free-agent signee Norman Powell as a proven scorer and resident “old head” for the locker room.
Essengue has much to prove, as does forward Dailyn Swain, the No. 15 pick in June. At Texas last season, Swain was the only Division I player to lead his team in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and minutes. But he had a rude welcome in Summer League, averaging 4.3 points while making just four of his 31 field-goal attempts, including 0-for-7 on 3-pointers.
But the fourth pick a month ago, young Caleb Wilson, is the new flag bearer as Chicago heads in a new direction, once again.
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
