For the first half of Wednesday’s 121-98 preseason beatdown of the Milwaukee Bucks, Caleb Wilson’s movements were accompanied by a discordant compilation of blown whistles.
The Chicago Bulls rookie just couldn’t find a way to stop the music. He scrambled out to the 3-point arc too eagerly and stepped on Ousmane Dieng’s foot. Whistle. He attempted to pivot around a defender on the low block only to step on the baseline. Whistle. The rookie tried to clear out space while driving to the basket by grabbing at his defender’s jersey. Whistle.
The game is slowing down for Wilson. He’s learning on the fly. But this is also a lot to take in all at once. And nights like Wednesday capture the steep learning curve the rookie will face throughout his debut season — regardless of opponent.
Wilson found his rhythm at times, as he often seems to do. He knocked down his first 3-pointer of the game with seven seconds left in the first half. He crushed a two-handed slam off a lofty leap from well outside the restricted area in the third quarter. But the rookie finished with an underwhelming scoreline of 10 points, four rebounds and three assists, shooting 1-for-5 from 3-point range against a Milwaukee team resting all of its starters. Another bump in the road during this tune-up period will be a valuable learning experience for the No. 4 draft pick.
Here are three other takeaways from the win.
1. Secondary squad.
The Bucks used Wednesday’s game to test their depth. All five of Milwaukee’s typical starters — Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kyle Kuzma, Myles Turner, Tyler Herro and Ryan Rollins — sat out the entire game. This gave significant starting minutes to young players like Ousmane Dieng, Brayden Burries and former Fighting Illini Kasparas Jakučionis. The result was a somewhat sloppy, disjointed night of basketball. The teams combined to turn the ball over 15 times in the first quarter alone. The Bucks shot below 25% from behind the arc and managed only 39 points in the first half.
It’s hard to rate a preseason performance when one team is rolling out their B-squad. The Bulls were missing plenty of their own players, but still began the game with four of their five standard starters on the floor. Jaylin Sellers made his preseason debut in Milwaukee, scoring 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting. Rookie Dailyn Swain didn’t get into the rotation until the final minutes of the third quarter, scoring only four points in fewer than eight minutes of playing time.
2. Backup frontcourt is ready to start.
Bulls coach Tiago Splitter hoped to use these final two preseason games to test his preferred primary and secondary rotations for the regular season, but that wasn’t a possibility due to the absence of forwards Isaac Okoro and Tobe Awaka and centers Zach Collins and Nic Claxton. This forced the Bulls to roll out yet another small-ball rotation, with Jalen Smith starting at center. Noa Essengue and Leonard Miller picked up more of the workload as secondary bigs. This will likely be the preferred plan for the Bulls until Claxton and Collins return from injury.
Smith and Miller, for their part, look more than ready to step into those elevated roles for the time being. Smith knocked down three of his five attempts from 3-point range. Miller eagerly attacked mismatches, particularly when he could get a larger big on the move and drive downhill to the basket, scoring 18 points.
3. Why isn’t Josh Giddey shooting?
With only one game left in the preseason, point guard Josh Giddey still hasn’t fully defrosted his shot. Giddey did not record a shot attempt in the first half, although he did earn a trip to the free-throw line on the first offensive possession of the game. (Notably, he missed both of those free throws.) Giddey looked off his own 3-point shot to make extra passes to teammates around the arc and cutting to the rim, limiting his attempts to drive to the rim.
Giddey finished with six points off four shot attempts in addition to nine assists in 22 minutes of playing time. This is a familiar pattern for Giddey, who took only three shots against Denver, seven against Memphis and six against Phoenix. He is now 7-for-20 in the entire preseason. The guard’s recent shooting volume marks a significant divergence from his previous offensive production, which averaged 17 points off 13.3 attempts per game last season.
It’s unclear whether Giddey’s preseason shooting pattern is a legitimate barometer for the upcoming season or simply a reflection of a reserved approach to these exhibition games. The guard’s role will certainly change in this new lineup alongside Caleb Wilson and Norman Powell. But Giddey used to average double-digit shot attempts while also playing alongside high-volume scorers like Coby White, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vučević. If he is truly shifting into a pass-first approach, the Bulls will need to compensate with much more assertive offense from young players like Wilson and Buzelis.