What to Watch This Week: Bulls Face New-Look Celtics, Pseudo-Desperate Knicks ...Middle East

Our Chicago Bulls will kick off an almost unfairly brutal 10-game tilt this season on Monday night, with the first of two road matchups against the Boston Celtics this week.

Here’s the slate:

Bulls next 10 games:at Bostonvs. Knicksat Bostonat 76ersat Knicksvs. 76ersvs. Spursvs. Hawksat Timberwolvesat CavaliersYikes

So that’s two clashes apiece against the Celtics and Jaylen Brown’s Philadelphia 76ers, an encounter with the mighty San Antonio Spurs, and meetings with the revamped Minnesota Timberwolves and Cleveland Cavaliers.

A home meeting with the Atlanta Hawks, who look pretty good thanks to their own new additions, might be the most gettable game here!

Bulls at Celtics – Monday, October 26, 2026

The Celtics’ covertly cheap new majority owner, Bill Chisholm, essentially lowered his ceiling but elevated his floor by surrendering All-NBA small forward Jaylen Brown — who finished sixth in MVP voting last year — and to Philadelphia for regressing former All-NBA small forward Paul George and some surprisingly minimal future draft equity.

Losing Brown’s athleticism and scoring versatility will prove costly. Boston team president Brad Stevens can say ditching Brown was an “optionality” move, but it’s very apparent it was about dollars and cents. Still just 29, Brown can command a supermax contract extension off his current deal. Brown and the 37-year-old George’s contracts both expire in the summer of 2028. George will not be getting anywhere near maximum money by then. They are not comparable players right now. George is notably worse, although he’s a really good 3-point shooter off the catch and off the bounce.

Last year, Boston posted a 56-win regular season record and snagged the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed with Jayson Tatum rarely absent and Brown becoming the fulcrum of the team’s offensive attack. Now, the Celtics are gambling that Tatum can recover his own All-NBA form post-Achilles tear, and that a deeper roster can step up in Brown’s absence.

It won’t work. This Celtics team is not championship-caliber. Without Brown, Boston is just way more vulnerable in the postseason.

Chicago will get two chances in five days to see the Celtics up close. The Brown-to-George drop-off will be fascinating. George has already been wildly inconsistent as a scorer, although he remains a committed defender and a good-enough long range sniper that defenses can’t sag off him.

For the very bad Bulls, though, the highest-impact change could actually be elsewhere on the floor: former New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson is now Boston’s starting five. Robinson is a massive two-way upgrade over Neemias Queta. Queta had been the fourth man during Boston’s 2024 championship run, and though he put up decent numbers as a starter in 2024-25 (and will likely get plenty of opportunities to do that again whenever Robinson gets hurt), he was not nearly the defensive presence around the basket that Robinson is.

First block for Mitch on one end.First three for George on the other. pic.twitter.com/09frqlh5A1

Robinson is also an elite per-minute rebounder, though his health limits how many boards he can actually gobble up.

With new Bulls starting center Nicolas Claxton not expected to return from his hamstring injury until next week at the earliest, Zach Collins becomes Chicago’s best available rim protector. Unfortunately, because Zach Collins is Zach Collins, he’s already working his way back from an injury and on a minutes limit. Jalen Smith, who’s clearly a natural power forward, has been the Bulls’ fill-in starting center. His lateral quickness makes him an okay man-to-man defender, but he’s just too small to offer much resistance inside.

Smith is a solid shooter from beyond the arc, so at least he can keep Robinson and Queta honest on that end of the court and drag them out of the paint sometimes. Can two-way rookie signing Tobe Awaka get a little rotation run here? Will Noa Essengue, who’s questionable with a head injury, be able to outleap the two Boston centers? Could Leonard Miller punish Robinson and/or Queta with his springy athleticism?

Color me dubious.

Bulls vs. Knicks – Wednesday, October 28, 2026

The Knicks have gone 0-3 to start the season, and clearly miss Robinson’s defense and ability to clean things up in the paint.

Beyond some worrying play from Mikal Bridges, New York’s biggest weakness has been its bench. The Knicks trotted out four small reserve guards — Landry Shamet, Jose Alvarado, Jordan Clarkson, and Deuce McBride — last year during their playoff run, and rather than balance the bench out positionally this season, the team weirdly doubled down. New York re-signed all of Shamet, Alvarado, and Clarkson. Trade rumors have circled around the extension-eligible McBride, who has the best upside among the four guards.

Robinson’s replacements, Andre Drummond and James Wiseman, have looked borderline unplayable. Drummond can’t finish around the rack with the consistency he enjoyed during his All-Star Detroit Pistons prime, and has always been a minus defender. Wiseman has never been a particularly good defender, and is even less reliable on offense than Drummond.

New York feels like a great Isaac Okoro trade destination, should they want more point-of-attack defense and positional versatility (he can play some small forward).

The Knicks will be hungry for a win after this shoddy start. The Bulls are quite beatable, but they have youth, length, and some real bench depth that could help them stay in it at least for a couple of quarters. Keep your eyes on how Mike Brown uses his bench against Chicago.

Bulls at Celtics – Friday, October 30, 2026

After traveling to Boston to play the Celtics on Monday, the Bulls head home Wednesday to play New York… and then return to Boston to suit up against the Celtics again on Friday, in their first “NBA Cup Nights” matchup of the season. The two teams occupy East Group C, along with the Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, and Washington Wizards.

The other item to keep tabs on across these two Celtics clashes: Boston’s perimeter rotation.

Payton Pritchard has returned to the bench this season, with the more defense-oriented Jordan Walsh subbed in as the club’s starting two-guard next to an aging Derrick White, now running point.

Walsh, for now, is something of a Keith Bogans in Boston. He’s a talented defensive guard who’s fairly limited and tentative on the other end. Baylor Scheierman and Hugo Gonzalez are trying to butt in on Sam Hauser’s bench minutes.

In just two games this year, Walsh is averaging a scant 2.5 points on 28.6 percent field goal shooting (33.3 percent 3-point shooting), 4.5 rebounds, 0.5 blocks, and 0.5 steals a night. Gonzalez is getting squeezed out a bit, he played just 3:35 of game action in Boston’s 107-103 Friday defeat over New York.

The Celtics are likely to blow out the Bulls, so maybe we’ll even some Ron Harper Jr. minutes. It’s worth observing who’s first off Joe Mazzulla’s bench among these guys, and how quick his whistle is when the game’s still meaningful.

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