The NBA released the full regular-season schedule on Thursday afternoon, giving fans a taste of the upcoming season. Although the offseason wasn’t a busy one for the Chicago Bulls, besides awaiting the result of the negotiations with Josh Giddey, they did make one trade that will have fans a little extra interested.
Chicago sent Lonzo Ball to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a player-for-player swap, getting Isaac Okoro in return. They’re taking a similar gamble that they did last year when sending Alex Caruso to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Josh Giddey. That trade gave the Thunder a championship.
Our 2025-26 NBA schedule just dropped 🧸@ATT | https://t.co/1prQxyTrBE pic.twitter.com/w585g6kQDQ
https://twitter.com/chicagobulls/status/1956075634574438498?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1956075634574438498%7Ctwgr%5E844a9702f19fd2b87a32704110d3a22c99152b9b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.si.com%2Fnba%2Fbulls%2Fnews%2Flonzo-ball-s-first-matchup-vs-bulls-after-trade-announced-01k2nfwqfzrg
Lonzo Ball’s first game against his former team will be on November 8th in Cleveland. Because the Bulls and Cavs are in the same division, they’ll play four times in total.
Ball’s first game back in Chicago comes immediately after the NBA Cup championship on December 17th, then they turn right around and play again in Cleveland on the 19th. The last game in Chicago won’t come until March 19th, so three months in between. By then, each team will have its season goals figured out, whether they’re gunning for the top seed (Cleveland) or the Play-In (Chicago).
Feb 2, 2025; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball (2) passes in the first half against the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images / Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images
The Chicago Bulls have 13 instances of back-to-back games this season, three of them coming in consecutive weeks in January, and then there are three in a span of two weeks around Thanksgiving.
The NBA only gave the Bulls three nationally televised games, and even that’s a technicality. The first one is against the Orlando Magic on December 1st on Peacock. The second one is against the Brooklyn Nets of all teams on January 16th on ESPN. The third and final one is against the Toronto Raptors on Amazon Prime on February 5th. All three of those are road games, too.
Chicago also does not play on Christmas Day or on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Those combined with the lack of nationally televised games tells you what the NBA thinks of the Bulls this season. That could always change if they exceed expectations and are competing for a playoff spot near the end of the season, but the NBA isn’t sold on them.
The one favor that the NBA did give them is two long homestands. It starts with a six-game stretch from December 26th through January 3rd. That is six games in nine days, not an easy task, but at least they’re all at home. They also have a wild seven-game homestand immediately after the All-Star Break from February 19th to March 6th, which ends against the NBA champion OKC Thunder.
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