When the Bulls pulled the ripcord at last year’s trade deadline, the return for Ayo Dosunmu was the most surprising.

Sure, they got out of the way of having to be the team that paid Dosunmu $112 million over five years. But as a core piece of the previous era, and a Chicago and Illinois basketball icon, the price of two end-of-bench players and four second-round picks, they may as well have kept Dosunmu around to have him usher in the new day.

As it turns out, Leonard Miller — the lone remaining player from that February flurry — was the best asset to come out of that series of trades.

Miller is building off his strong finish to the 2025-26 season, with a breakout in preseason. He is averaging 17.5 points, 6.5 rebounds while shooting over 65 percent from the field over his first four preseason games. He’s been effective as a backup power forward — his natural position — and center, as the Bulls struggle with frontcourt depth with Nic Claxton, Zach Collins and Tobe Awaka all missing time.

“He can do both positions,” Tiago Splitter said. “Of course his versatility there is awesome. He can attack slower bigs. We talk about random basketball, I think he’s great at that. It’s really hard to predict what he’s going to do and he’s effective at those situations.”

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