Rob Dillingham’s sudden slide into unrestricted free agency has opened a lane for Jaylin Sellers, and the Bulls guard now has a clean chance to turn preseason minutes into something much bigger.
Dillingham, once a Chicago Bulls guard, is now a former rookie-scale contract player after being traded twice in one calendar year and then waived by the Charlotte Hornets on Monday. In the fast-moving NBA, that kind of turn can happen in a blink. For the Bulls, it also means the minutes that might have gone to Dillingham during the upcoming 2026-27 preseason contests can now go elsewhere.
That’s where Sellers comes in.
At 6’5” and 205 pounds, the Bulls’ two-way contract guard brings more size than the 6’2”, 175-pound Dillingham, and that alone gives him a different kind of value as a bench point guard. He was also one of the more eye-catching Bulls performers during the team’s stretch of 2026 summer league games in Las Vegas, with Caleb Wilson’s shooting the only thing that might have stood out more.
The Bulls are not expected to go much deeper than 10 players into the bench when the 2026-27 regular season begins, but preseason is a different story. Those games should give Sellers a real stage to show he belongs in the Bulls’ player development plans and, just as importantly, that he might be ready for a standard contract on the main roster.
There’s a path there, even with the depth chart looking crowded.
Josh Giddey should be in line to start at point guard unless Bryson Graham sees things differently about his game, and Tre Jones is presumably set as Giddey’s top backup. Still, Sellers can work his way into the conversation because injuries always create openings, and Giddey spent the offseason recovering from a medical procedure on his right ankle. Jones, meanwhile, is expected to draw trade interest entering the 2026-27 season as a veteran point guard on a very affordable deal.
For Sellers, the assignment is straightforward: use the preseason to force the issue. That starts on defense. He was a vocal presence in Las Vegas, and Bulls head coach Tiago Splitter made it clear during 2026 Chicago Bulls media day that the team needs to be more aggressive on that end.
If Sellers can bring that same edge into preseason play, he could become a useful example of the defensive identity the Bulls want to build. And if it sticks, he might help give Chicago the kind of homegrown development success story it has been looking for.
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