Leonard Miller has wasted little time making the most of his move to Chicago.
A Bulls team heading into 2025-2026 with little direction made deadline changes, and one of the biggest sent Ayo Dosunmu and Julian Phillips to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Coming back in the deal was Miller, then in the middle of his third season with Minnesota but hardly a featured piece on a club that had just reached back-to-back Western Conference finals. The change of scenery gave him the runway he hadn’t had before.
Since arriving, he’s taken full advantage.
In 27 games after the trade deadline last season, Miller earned his first 12 starts and averaged 11.7 points per game. That was more than six times his scoring average before the deal. He also posted career bests across nearly every category, with free-throw percentage the only holdover from his previous marks.
His impact showed up even more clearly after the All-Star break. Over 22 games, Miller ranked second on the Bulls in field-goal percentage at .551 and offensive rebounds at 1.9 per game.
He was fourth on the team in rebounds with 6.1 and fifth in scoring at 12.5 points a night. At that point, there weren’t many players on the roster giving Chicago that kind of all-around production.
The production carried right into preseason, where Miller led the Bulls in scoring at 16.4 points per game and finished second in rebounding at 6.4. The games didn’t count, but the message was clear: he picked up where he left off.
That kind of breakout is nothing new in the NBA. Sometimes a player buried behind more established talent finally gets a real chance somewhere else and runs with it. Miller has done exactly that in Chicago.
The Bulls figure to draw most of the attention this season because of Caleb Wilson, Matas Buzelis and Josh Giddey, but overlooking Miller would be a mistake. The 23-year-old, who turns 23 on Nov. 26, has been given room to show what he can do, and he’s made the most of it.
For a Bulls team that views this as a development year, Miller has a real opening to carve out a place in the future. So far, he’s answered every call. The bigger question now is how long he can keep it going as the league adjusts to him.
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The Bulls are among the clubs said to be monitoring the situation, along with the Hawks, Lakers and 76ers, all looking at the possibility of adding a frontcourt piece without giving up anything in a trade. Nothing is settled yet, but Cisses next move could quickly turn into a race of timing, roster space and whether a team decides he is worth the claim. [Read more 🡒]