Caleb Wilson Has 67 Points in Three NBA Games. The Bulls Have a Minus-40 Point Differential.

The most compelling thing happening with the Chicago Bulls right now is not the 1-2 record, the 43-point opening-night humiliation in Toronto, or even Tiago Splitter's rocky first week as an NBA head coach. It's that a rookie is already the best player on the floor for them — and the gap between No. 4 pick Caleb Wilson and the rest of the roster is widening by the game.

Wilson's three-game log reads like a season compressed into a week. In his debut against the Raptors, he went 7-of-21 for 16 points with four rebounds and nine turnovers in a 135-92 loss. Two nights later in Milwaukee, he scored 21 on 7-of-14 shooting with six rebounds and three turnovers in a 132-125 win. Then, in Saturday's 124-120 home loss to Washington, he put up 30 points and 14 rebounds in 38 minutes — 10-of-24 from the floor, 9-of-11 from the line, and, notably, zero turnovers.

That's 22.3 points and 8.0 rebounds per game on 34.3 minutes. The turnovers dropping from nine to three to zero inside a single week is the detail that should genuinely excite Bulls fans, because it suggests the game is slowing down for him faster than the box score chaos implies.

The supporting cast is a mixed bag. Norman Powell has been a steady second option at 19.3 points per game on 29.3 minutes. Matas Buzelis is averaging 15.0 and 5.3, and his 21-point, 5-rebound night against Washington (7-of-13 shooting, 5-of-5 from the line) was the best all-around performance of his young season. But Splitter benched Buzelis for much of the Milwaukee win — he played just 17 minutes and scored seven — and the coach had to defend that decision afterward.

Josh Giddey is the more pressing concern. He's averaging 5.7 points on 7-of-26 shooting across three games, with his best effort being a 9-point, 10-assist, zero-turnover outing against the Wizards. His floor vision (8.3 assists per game) remains real; his scoring has been close to non-existent. Splitter also appears to have made the long-awaited Patrick Williams rotation decision, and Williams has yet to log meaningful minutes.

The defensive numbers are the alarm bell. Chicago is allowing 128.0 points per game and owns a minus-13.3 point differential. The advanced picture is worse: a 120.1 defensive rating and a net rating of minus-16.7 over the first three games, with an effective field goal percentage of just 0.500 on the other end. The Bulls' 43-point loss in Toronto was the largest margin of the young season, and it came in Splitter's debut — against the same Portland organization that moved on from him and won by 41 on the same night.

The schedule does not offer much mercy. Chicago travels to Boston on Oct. 26, hosts the Knicks on Oct. 28, then heads back to Boston on Oct. 30. The Celtics are 1-1. The Knicks are 0-3 and desperate, which is its own kind of danger.

What it means for the season. The Bulls' points-based power rating sits 24th in the league at minus-9.42, down nearly a full point in the last week — consistent with a team that entered the year projected as a bottom-tier outfit and has done nothing to contradict it. The realistic read on 2026-27 was never about the standings; it was about whether Wilson could be a franchise centerpiece. Through three games, that question has an encouraging answer.

The caveats are real. Wilson is shooting 40.7% from the field and 4-of-23 (17.4%) from three on high volume, and he's getting to the line at a healthy rate (15-of-19), which is how he's propping up his efficiency. A rookie wall is coming. Defenses will load up on him once the scouting report catches up. But the Bulls finally have a direction, and the rookie is walking in it faster than anyone reasonably expected.