Without question, the Bulls can save paper on playoff tickets, and with 15 regular-season games left, even the annual visit (and dismissal) from the Eastern Conference play-in tournament — also known as the Bulls Invitational — is all but out of reach.
For Billy Donovan and his coaching staff, it’s about the little things, those moments caught on film where they can say, “Hey, we got something here.”
When it comes to Leonard Miller and Rob Dillingham, who played well on the five-game West Coast trip, “Hey, we might have something here.”
Miller started the last three games, scoring in double figures each time and totaling 28 rebounds. Dillingham had back-to-back 12-point games to close out the trip, was a plus-12 and averaged 5.5 assists.
Donovan was quick to pat them on the back but also coach them up on details that need refinement.
“I’m really pleased with their effort and how they’re trying to play and share the ball,” Donovan said. “They’re doing some good things and have made progress and gotten better, but when you’re talking about trying to win games against teams that are trying to get into the playoffs, and that’s what this trip [was], you can’t make those kinds of mistakes.
“So the effort has been there, but the mental concentration has got to be better. On an individual basis, Miller has gotten better, Dillingham has gotten better. We’ve gotten good minutes from those guys.”
For next season, they’re showing signs of being at least rotation options for a team in need of talent and depth.
The Bulls have the $2.4 million team option for Miller for 2026-27, and Dillingham is only in the second year of his rookie contract, so he has time to get stronger and continue to work on his craft.
That’s not bad for a team that will enter the offseason with by far the lowest amount of guaranteed money in the books at
$90.5 million.
Josh Giddey will be the highest-paid player at $25 million, followed by Patrick Williams ($18 million), Isaac Okoro ($11.8 million), Jalen Smith ($9.4 million) and Tre Jones ($8 million). Like Dillingham, Matas Buzelis and Noa Essengue are also on their rookie deals.
The Bulls have the final say on restricted free agent Jaden Ivey, but that still leaves executive vice president Arturas Karnisovas with a lot of cap room to play bully ball with free agents and, more important, other teams’ restricted free agents.
But Donovan’s season isn’t even close to being over when it comes to evaluating.
Buzelis looked like a franchise-type force on the trip, and Giddey played like he could be a legit No. 3 option/facilitator on a playoff team — but not a championship team. Dillingham and Miller are proving to be rotation options to go along with Smith, Okoro and Jones. If Ivey can get back from his knee-strengthening program and play a few weeks, even better.
It’s still a huge amount of work to do to lift this roster to even a mediocre level, but the cupboard isn’t completely bare.
Donovan reiterated that the group will continue to be coached hard.
“We have too many mental lapses and breakdowns [defensively],” he said. “Quite honestly, we could be doing a better job as a coaching staff, where traps are coming from and where you can’t let the ball go, breakdowns going into the fourth, a couple of possessions [losing] offensive rebounds. I’m not saying we have to play mistake-free, but we have to pay more attention to details on the little things.”
