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The Bulls may have salvaged that Ayo trade after all.
Last February amidst our mourning the morning of Ayo Dosunmu’s trade to the Minnesota Timberwolves, we vacillated between declaring similarly as we did about John Kennedy, “Lenny, we hardly knew ye” to paraphrasing Hamlet’s declaration, “Alas poor Lenny! I knew him.” In any case, we figured Leonard Miller was a goner.
Experience, as it’s been said, is just the name we give our mistakes.
And, oh does it seem we were wrong about Leonard Miller, the road runner 6-10 Canadian forward who quietly has been maybe the most consistent player this preseason, Sunday in Denver leading the Bulls with 26 points and seven rebounds in the wild west shootout 133-128 loss to the Nuggets.
Miller, with his third consecutive double-digit scoring game without a play having been run for him after scoring in double digits in 17 of the last 18 games last season, again motored around to turn bouncing balls and apparent turnovers into baskets while using his idiosyncratic left handed shooting style to make 4-of-6 threes, 11-of-14 overall.
Miller’s relentless play also for probably the first time in the three games enabled the playing style coach Tiago Splitter has been advocating. It was a higher speed, long shooting game courtesy of Miller, Caleb Wilson with 17 points Matas Buzelis with 13 and Noa Essengue with eight.
Buddy Hield finally rediscovered his shooting stroke with 4-of-6 threes as the Bulls fired up 50 threes, making 21. They were 13-of-25 in the first half when they led 68-59.
The Bulls exhibition record is 1-2 with the fourth of the five preseason games in Milwaukee Wednesday
Though Splitter has talked vaguely about attempting the best threes that present themselves and according to the situation, his philosophy in Portland last season and when he coached overseas often seemed like a version of the Boston Celtics shoot-em-til you drop. Or they stop dropping.
Splitter’s Trail Blazers last season were the third poorest three-point shooting team, yet attempted the third most. He said that was offset by crashing the offensive boards, which this Bulls team has been instructed.
The Bulls had 13 offensive rebounds Sunday even without rebounding vacuum Tobe Awaka. The reserve center went down, supposedly briefly, with a sore knee and didn’t play. Jalen Smith did return while Zach Collins and Nic Claxton work back toward being active.
But the Bulls got moving more adroitly and effectively also with the return of Tre Jones, and that awakening from Essengue.
The 2025 first round pick who missed most of last season with surgery and seemed to be playing rag doll in Summer League was bothersome defensively against Denver star Jamal Murray. And had the play of the game, a baseline drive in which he dunked backward after passing the basket. He was off target on threes, but using his rubber man size to his advantage put up a putback slam dunk and another follow layup off a teammate miss.
“I feel amazing, no pain, nothing; I can play free,” Essengue said earlier in training camp. “After Summer League, I talked a lot with Tiago and Bryson (Graham, basketball chief). They told me to just play my game, play free offensively and defensively. Pressure the ball more. Offensively play simple, drive to the basket, make the extra pass, make my shots. Make the game simple.”
Splitter has said in the preseason he’s liked Essengue’s development.
“He's being more aggressive,” Splitter said. “He's fighting every possession, rebounding, protecting the rim. I like his ambition. He's getting stronger. It's a different vibe, it's a little more relaxed.”
Though rookie phenom Wilson was perhaps too relaxed. He started slowly again and was bedeviled by Nuggets dunkman Aaron Gordon. But Wilson showed that quick learning ability. In virtually the same spot and similar situation, though it was halftime this time, Wilson isolated for a three to close out the first half at the buzzer. Unlike Friday against Memphis, this one went in for that halftime Bulls lead.
Wilson and Gordon, the latter who had an historic dunkoff with former Bull Zach LaVine at the 2016 All-Star weekend, had their own airborne tête-à-tête when Gordon posted up Wilson early in the third quarter and spun by and dunked. Wilson came rocketing down the lane shortly afterward to slam on a pass from Josh Giddey.
Wilson also with a concerning five turnovers—11 in the three games—recovered after losing a ball early in the second quarter for a chase down block against Denver’s Alpha Diallo.
Thanks to that hot shooting the Bulls took a 15-point second quarter lead despite the usual slow motion passing and shooting brilliance of Nikola Jokić with a 22-point triple-double without seeming to break a sweat.
The Bulls went with more reserves in the third quarter and the Nuggets took a 99-94 lead entering the fourth. The Bulls went with starters part of the fourth quarter while the Nuggets used none. But Denver was able to hold on for a win despite the Bulls getting within a point with about two minutes left.
Maybe the Bulls should have taken the advice of Drew Carter, the ESPN play-by-play announcer on the national broadcast, who offered during one Bulls possession, “Get the ball to number 11.”
Number 11 kept the Bulls engaged in the fourth with nine points and was the story in impressive spurts, consecutive driving layups and a three when the Bulls took that second quarter lead. And then kicking off the third quarter with a three and a driving layup sandwiching a Wilson driving dunk for the Bulls last double digit lead.
That dunk was on a return pass when Miller saved the ball as it was lurching out of bounds. Later Miller lost Nuggets players with so many back doors someone was apparently calling for a locksmith to dead bolt the thing.
But Jokić then repeatedly baited the eager Bulls as the Nuggets ended up with 46 free throw attempts. Of course, asking Miller and other various optic fibre thin forwards to defend Jokić and Gordon and some bench bruisers wasn’t ideal.
Though it may have helped the Bulls discover Miller, who has been a disappearing mystery most of his young basketball life.
The Ontario native was a going nowhere 6-2 guard in high school not attracting much attention. He beanstalked to 6-10, but still nothing. So he left civilization for Utah’s Wasatch Academy, but they rarely played him. So without any US college offers, he returned to Canada for a high school post graduate year at Fort Erie International Academy. Somehow everyone then found him, and the college offers came. But by then he was eligible for the NBA. He chose the G League Ignite the year before current teammate Buzelis, and then was a second round Spurs draft pick in 2023 and quickly traded to Minnesota. Where he rarely played until packaged in the Dosunmu deal with multiple second round draft picks. The draft picks were supposed to be the prize.
Leonard Miller may be the surprise.
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