{"id":879410,"date":"2026-10-12T06:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T06:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/879410\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T06:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T06:58:11","slug":"chicago-bulls-caleb-wilsons-cold-shooting-preseason-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/879410\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Bulls: Caleb Wilson’s cold shooting preseason night"},"content":{"rendered":"

After raining down 3-pointers<\/a> in Friday\u2019s preseason loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, Chicago Bulls rookie Caleb Wilson went cold from deep in Denver.<\/p>\n

The rookie missed his first three attempts from behind the arc in a 133-128 preseason loss to the Denver Nuggets. Wilson finally made his first and only 3-pointer of the game with the clock expiring at the end of the first half, watching the ball rattle through the rim as the backboard lit up with the buzzer. The shot earned an appreciative pat on the chest from Nuggets veteran Aaron Gordon.<\/p>\n

Even on a down shooting night, Wilson was never wanting for effort. After coughing up a turnover at the top of the key early in the second quarter, Wilson chased Alpha Diallo at a dead sprint to smack the ball out of his hands, preventing a transition dunk to erase his own error. When his 3-point shot failed to fall, Wilson shouldered his way into the gut of the defense and pulled up to unload his midrange jumper. He tallied 17 points on 6-for-10 shooting from the floor, drawing seven trips to the free-throw line.<\/p>\n

Wilson was an anomaly behind the arc in an otherwise hot shooting night for the Bulls. The rest of the starters went 7-for-13 from the 3-point range. Buddy Hield also went 4-for-6 off the bench. The Bulls finished 21-for-50 (42%) from behind the 3-point line.<\/p>\n

Here are four other takeaways from the loss.<\/p>\n

1. Small ball experiments continue.
\n\"ChicagoChicago Bulls center Jalen Smith, right, pulls in a rebound as Denver Nuggets guard Alpha Diallo, front left, and forward Zeke Nnaji defend in the first half of a preseason NBA basketball game Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n

The Bulls are already missing both of their centers with Nic Claxton (hamstring) and Zach Collins (quadriceps) sidelined for the majority of training camp. After playing 6-foot-8 forward Tobe Awaka in that position for the first two games of the preseason, the Bulls were forced to make yet another adjustment when the backup center was ruled out as a late scratch due to injury.<\/p>\n

The additional injury pushed Jalen Smith \u2014 who was originally expected to come off the bench as a backup 4 \u2014 into the starting center position. This was a particularly undersized look for the Bulls to roll out against Nikola Joki\u0107, who took advantage and racked up 22 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in fewer than 27 minutes.<\/p>\n

Collins could return by the season opener on Oct. 21 and Claxton should be close behind. But for now, these small rotations are the status quo for the Bulls. Although starting Smith gave the Bulls a positionless mobility that opened up a fast-paced style of play on offense, it\u2019s hard to see how the defense can keep up for long with such a disparity on the low block.<\/p>\n

2. Leonard Miller is gunning for a bigger role.<\/p>\n

The Bulls rotation is cluttered at the 4 position and forward Leonard Miller is only contributing to that cramped position group. Miller will compete with other backup forwards like Noa Essengue to establish himself in the rotation this season. The backup forward made a quick impression off the bench in Denver and started the second half as a result of a strong start.<\/p>\n

Miller went 4-for-6 from deep and 11-for-14 overall from the floor to score a team-high 26 points before he was pulled in the fourth quarter. He also led the Bulls with seven rebounds.<\/p>\n

3. Noa Essengue struggles to score.
\n\"NoaNoa Essengue of the Chicago Bulls dribbles against Julian Strawther of the Denver Nuggets during the first quarter in a preseason game at Ball Arena on Oct. 11, 2026, in Denver. (Tyler McFarland\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The Bulls are beginning to see flashes of the defensive instincts that made Noa Essengue an intriguing prospect last summer. But in his second preseason with Chicago, Essengue still hasn\u2019t quite figured out how to create his own shot. The second-year forward finished with eight points despite playing the third-most minutes of any player in the Bulls rotation.<\/p>\n

Essengue missed all three of his 3-point attempts. Three of his four baskets were put-back dunks or layups following a missed shot by a teammate. Those types of baskets are crucial for the Bulls and that type of secondary effort should be rewarded for a young player like Essengue. But on a team that already struggles with creation, the Bulls can\u2019t afford for Essengue to remain this stalled out in his own shot creation.<\/p>\n

4. New threads for DeMar DeRozan.<\/p>\n

The preseason game offered a first-time reunion for former Chicago Bulls star DeMar DeRozan, who signed a one-year $2.45 million deal with the Denver Nuggets in the offseason. DeRozan, 37, will come off the bench for the Nuggets this season. He scored two points in just over nine minutes against the Bulls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After raining down 3-pointers in Friday\u2019s preseason loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, Chicago Bulls rookie Caleb Wilson went…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":879411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[62693,7329,18427,1753,189330,211806,355,1063,113645,27552,99],"class_list":["post-879410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-caleb-wilson","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-demar-derozan","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-jalen-smith","tag-leonard-miller","tag-nba","tag-nba-basketball","tag-nba-preseason","tag-noa-essengue","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}