Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
Tiago Splitter makes a good first impression & Steve Stone talks White Sox (Hour 2)
18 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What are the key characteristics of Bulls head coach Tiago Splitter?
Basically, the characteristics that, you know, I kind of hit on earlier. You know, I truly believe in his basketball IQ. I believe in his ability to communicate, to connect, his competitiveness, his passion for development. And that's where, you know, that's just where we're at as an organization right now. And as we're building, those things mattered a ton.
And as we were going through our process, you know, we had all these characteristics written up on the board and we try to hold ourselves accountable to those things. And so, yeah, I mean that he checked a lot of our boxes. And like I said, we're happy. We're happy we landed on him.
That is Chicago Bulls Bryson Graham. He's the executive vice president of basketball operations. Bryson Graham is new. He was talking about the new head coach of the Chicago Bulls, the 41-year-old Tiago Splitter. who officially was introduced yesterday and took a bunch of questions from Bulls reporters, and we've got some stuff that we think is significant that we're going to play for you.
But I think the number one takeaway from everything I heard, and there was some substance to some of the things that both Bryson Graham and mostly Tiago Splitter were saying, but to me...
Chapter 2: How does Tiago Splitter plan to develop the Bulls' roster?
The most important parts of this are two different sentences, one from Tiago Splitter and the other was from Bryson Graham. Tiago Splitter said, it's going to be a lot of work. It's going to take some time. Bryson Graham said, we are at the ground floor, which could mean many things. It could be the ground floor of plastics. It could be Sam Wainwright. Hee-haw. Oh, come on, George. It could be.
It could be that, or it could be the ground floor of the Floyd era.
Wow. See, the fact that you allowed that to seep into your brain. That's disappointing, Mark Grody.
Is it worse than bringing up the Boylins earlier this week? The E and the A?
Chapter 3: What mindset do the White Sox have as the trade deadline approaches?
Yeah. It's about on par. Right on par. But you agree with me, though, that no matter what... And we're going to play stuff for you. We have opinions on what was said. We have opinions on the Bulls. But what you should go into...
thinking after during every single answer is it's going to take a lot of work it's going to take some time ladies and gentlemen your rebuilders are bryson graham and tiago splitter hey maybe i am being unfair to bryson graham and to tiago splitter because
I'm sorry, it's all relative. In the last introductory press conference I heard for our head coach of this magnitude was that of Ben Johnson and what he talked about and me being somewhat skeptical in terms of a timeline, right? Because that was my thing. We both had questions we wanted answered, and we'll get to those answers in just a moment.
Can the Bears be good right away with Ben Johnson? Right.
And he said it depends on how much you're willing to work and how much you're willing to sacrifice, right?
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Chapter 4: How have the White Sox performed against the Yankees recently?
Yeah.
They had a quote-unquote possible franchise quarterback. I don't know that the Bulls have a possible megastar, a future Hall of Famer under their control right now. They've got Josh Giddey, and they've got Matis Bouzelis. And... A week from today, they'll have some other players on their team, a top four pick and maybe a top 15 or a top 10 pick even if they make a trade.
Waggler.
So I don't know exactly that they have the same type of framework that the Bears had when they introduced their head coach. But I do know this, that from everything I heard from both Bryson Graham and Tiago Splitter, including the two sentences that you pointed out, Mark, that the future is looking brighter to me than it was a year ago today.
Yeah.
And also that the possibilities are much more boundless and expansive than they were a year ago. There's nothing hamstringing the Bulls right now because that's what I take from the ground floor comment is that we can build whatever we want here because there's an open lot and we have foundational pieces in me, the general manager or the lead basketball executive.
And then we have, of course, the head coach, Tiago Splitter.
I think that the Bulls are in better shape right now, but only merely by the process of elimination at this moment. I definitely like what I'm hearing from both of these guys, from Graham, from Splitter.
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Chapter 5: What impact do injuries have on the White Sox's performance?
It all sounds very good, but I don't know that it wasn't this similar when Arturis Karnaschovas and Mark Eversley were introduced and the hope and the fact that they were from outside the organization and the fact that they were going to be given resources and that they had foundational players on the team already.
And they started to add some more foundational pieces as time went on, obviously with DeMar DeRozan and Vucevic as well.
I think the biggest difference is that we've already been signaled this is a rebuild. Artur Shkarnashov, I never heard him talk about a rebuild. It's a good distinction. He was like, I'm going to go ahead and add to what we already have on deck. I'm going to make this trade for Vucevic. Those aren't the types of moves that Bryson Graham is talking about.
He's talking about drafting and developing, and he's talking about taking on bad contracts from other NBA teams to get more of the thing that AK specifically seemed to be allergic to, which is draft picks. More specifically, because I know I've got to be specific when it's AK, first-round draft picks.
The draft capital is what will open up the possibilities and keep you malleable and able to pivot defensively
On a dime, you and I yesterday during the show challenged each other to ask what we would ask. If we had an opportunity to ask Tiago Splitter a question, we named a couple of things, but a couple of the questions that we asked were answered. I don't know if they were answered, but they were certainly asked last night.
The question I had asked, I wanted to know what he thinks about the individual players on the team, like Matas Bezelis.
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Chapter 6: What are the expectations for the White Sox's upcoming games?
That was the name that I kept on saying. So we'll get his answer to that, but since we're talking about...
this year and what it might look like that's what you were interested in i don't want to mischaracterize it but you wanted to know if the bulls could be good right away maybe like you're talking about with ben johnson i think it's more how good can the bulls be right away in a league where it's by design 20 teams make the postseason and over half the league makes the playoffs
So Tiago Splitter discussed his expectations for this year's Bulls team.
As we go through this process, we're going to see what kind of roster we're going to have, but that's not done yet. It's really hard to give you an answer. We're going to go through this process. Probably in a couple months I can give you a better answer, but I can guarantee you one thing. We're going to compete every night. And we're going to have high standards with everything that we do.
It's really hard to tell you, hey, listen, we're going to win this X or Y or Z amount of games. We'll be very... Not smart by me saying that. So we got to know what's going to be the roster. We got to compete every day.
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Chapter 7: How does the White Sox's young talent influence their future?
We're going to set high standards and we're going to go from there. And then eventually we can make small goals and small wins.
That is the Bulls' new head coach, Tiago Splitter. Satisfactory answer from him? Oh, absolutely.
That's the answer you have to give because, one, he shouldn't know. How are you going to tell me what you're going to do? You don't know what your roster looks like. You don't know which of the highly touted prospects are going to end up on your roster. And I think that will shape. And notice he didn't say next week or next month. He said a couple months because he's got to get them in.
He's got to see what he's got. They've got to get through the free agency portion of this and see what their team actually looks like and maybe – a whole bunch of new players on the team.
Chapter 8: What are the main takeaways from the interview with Steve Stone?
Maybe some guys come back from last year. And remember, last year's team was bad, but it's not like they were that far away from making the play-in.
And a lot of it does depend, yeah, not just who the players are, but how fast they develop and blossom, so to speak. So maybe the better comp, really, as you were using the Ben Johnson and the Bears comp, can they be good right away? Maybe the White Sox is a better comp.
That even if you didn't expect the White Sox to be good this year, they left open the possibility that they could be good this year. Some of these guys... The 12 guys that have had major league debuts for the White Sox this year, if they were to blossom, many of them have. Many of them, at the very least, have contributed. So I think that that's a fair comparison.
But yeah, it's impossible to know right now. And when he says... A team that is going to compete right away and we're going to hustle and we're going to follow rules and we're going to have a good system and all that. It sounds like a bad team that tries really hard, which is probably what you can expect from the Bulls team this year. I mean, that's the realistic, that's the realism.
And again, I leave open that little possibility that there could be a revelation and surprise people. And, you know, if you draft Caleb Wilson, he's a revelation and he's great. And he's Kevin Garnett right out of the gate.
Wow. Kevin Garnett out of the gate is quite the statement. Kevin Garnett in three to four years, that's probably what's more likely to happen. If that's the floor or ceiling, depending on who you ask. Jeremiah Green apparently thinks it's the floor. You're responsible for him. I love how when someone says something terrible or something that can be highly questioned, he's my guy.
Well, no, in this case, because you are a Golden State Warriors fan. He is by... Am I wrong, guys? By definition, he is your guy.
Put him... He's definitely your guy, Marshall, and we're giving you all the Steelers, too, now.
Wow.
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