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There is truly no need for preseason NBA games. The season is already too long with an eternal 82-game regular season slate, followed by four more months of the most intense basketball possible for a team to run all the way to the championship. Yet, there’s still about five more preseason games for every team despite the league’s long history of stars playing themselves into shape and pacing their bodies for the eventual postseason run.
Preseason is mostly useless, but it does often allow young players to get an audition for extended minutes they otherwise wouldn’t be seeing until injuries hit in the regular season. A few younger role players have already made a strong case for themselves during the preseason. Now we wait to see if it will translate to when the games start to matter for real with opening night coming on Oct. 20. Check out our list of NBA breakout candidates for more thoughts on the league’s most promising young players.
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Here’s a short list of young NBA veterans who have impressed in the preseason so far. It will be interesting to look back on this list at the end of the year and see which performances were real, and which only happened because it was preseason.
Leonard Miller, F, Chicago Bulls
Chris Finch never gave Leonard Miller a chance at real minutes during his first three years in Minnesota. It’s hard for any second-round pick to earn minutes on a contender, and Miller’s shaky outside shooting made him a particularly rough fit in a Wolves front court that already had spacing issues with Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle. Minnesota didn’t hesitate to part with him to acquire Ayo Dosunmu at February’s trade deadline, and that’s when his career finally started to tick up. The Bulls gave him a shot while they were tanking down the stretch, and Miller immediately proved to be productive, well-rounded player who knows how to use his big 6’10, 220-pound frame on both ends of the floor. Miller continues to impress in the preseason as an opportunistic scorer around the basket, a menace in transition, a quality rebounder, and an improved three-point shooter. Miller knows how to extend…
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Publish date : 2026-10-13 12:00:00
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