Caleb Wilson's Debut Landed. The Bulls' Center Depth Did Not.

The Caleb Wilson era got its first real data point on October 7, and it looked the way the Bulls hoped. In a 124-117 preseason win over Phoenix at the United Center, the No. 4 pick finished with a team-high 15 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists — his first shot coming at the 6:13 mark of the opening quarter. He also got a genuine welcome-to-the-league rep against Dillon Brooks, and head coach Tiago Splitter pointed to that matchup as the night's real lesson for the rookie.

It was the kind of evening Chicago has been waiting years for. The franchise has spent a decade finishing in the 35-to-40 win wilderness without committing to a direction; now it has one, and the rookie is the center of it. There was also a poignant underscore before tip-off, when the Bulls held a moment of silence for Stacey King, who died in June at 59 — a reminder of how long this organization has been cycling through eras.

The problem is what happened around Wilson.

Nic Claxton, acquired to anchor the middle, was ruled out for two weeks with a hamstring injury before the opener, and backup center Zach Collins was already sidelined with a soft tissue issue. Then, in Friday's loss to Memphis, Matas Buzelis left at the 4:38 mark of the second quarter with a right ankle injury and did not finish the game. Suddenly the Bulls were down multiple frontcourt bodies in the first week of exhibition play — and any hope of a coherent evaluation period was compromised.

That's not a minor inconvenience for a rebuilding team. The whole value of this season is the reps: Wilson learning NBA spacing, Buzelis building on a sophomore year in which he averaged 16.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks across 77 games, and Josh Giddey — 17.0 points, 9.1 assists, and 8.3 rebounds in 54 games a season ago — figuring out whether he's a long-term partner for Wilson or a trade asset.

Some of the replacements made noise. Leonard Miller has looked like a legitimate complement to Buzelis and Wilson. Rookie Dailyn Swain, the No. 15 pick out of Texas, had a standout preseason debut, which prompted Splitter to publicly urge him to "be himself" as his role grows. Norman Powell, Miller, and Wilson all stood out in the Memphis loss. The Bulls also added veteran shooter Buddy Hield from Charlotte in a late-September deal that sent Rob Dillingham out — a move that gives this young roster a floor-spacer but also confirms the front office is prioritizing development over immediate results.

The market's read matches that. Chicago's posted win total sits at 29.5 at BetMGM, below the 31-51 mark from a season ago, when the Bulls scored 116.3 points per game but surrendered 121.5 — a minus-5.2 differential. That gap doesn't close with a rookie leap alone.

The preseason schedule offers a decent stress test: a road trip to Denver, a visit to Milwaukee, a home date with Minnesota, then the October 21 opener in Toronto. But the meaningful variable isn't the results — it's whether Claxton and Buzelis are on the floor by then. Wilson's development is the story of the season. How much of it happens next to the players he's supposed to grow with is the thing worth watching.