It was an important night for Bulls veteran Zach Collins on Wednesday.
Simply because he played.
No small feat for the 6-foot-9 big, who had last played in an NBA game back on Dec. 27, 2025, before eventually undergoing season-ending surgery on his right toe. Just one of the injury issues that plagued Collins last year.
After a stellar start to his 2025 preseason, Collins fractured his left wrist and was lost until the start of December. He returned and was used as a double big in the Bulls’ lineup, doing so with some solid results. All Collins did in his 10 games was help the Bulls to a 6-4 record, averaging 9.7 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, but more importantly adding a physicality piece that the roster sorely lacked.
That’s why the new regime signed him to a two-year, $17-million deal on the first day of free agency, knowing he had injury issues.
He was slowed this preseason with a quad injury but finally came off the bench and got some run against Toronto, playing nine minutes and grabbing five rebounds. Call it easing Collins back into it with coach Tiago Splitter admitting the veteran was on a minutes restriction of 12-to-16 minutes for the time being.
“The tough part about Zach is he didn’t play yet,” Splitter said. “He didn’t play much last year, so we slowly want to put him there in the rotation and see those combinations, playing double-big or not. We’re going to have time to see it, have a small sample there, but we will try different combinations.”
King for a day
To further honor former Bulls broadcaster Stacey King in Wednesday’s opener, his broadcast partner Adam Amin wanted to call the first quarter by himself, leaving King’s chair empty. Robbie Hummel then joined the broadcast in the second quarter.
King died back in June after spending nearly 20 years as the color analyst for the Bulls.
The team also debuted their King patch that they will wear on their jerseys all season.
Rookie privilege?
Most NBA teams work the same when handling pregame shooting order during warmups. The veterans go last, while the rookies and deep bench guys get their work in early.
So it was a bit strange in the preseason that the Bulls’ Caleb Wilson was not only in the final group, but at home games even gets his own music played, usually the lyrics of Chicago rapper Lucki.
If this was some No. 4 overall pick flexing his muscle to get special treatment, however, Wilson put that to rest.
“Honestly, I don’t know how that happened, being in the last (pregame shooting) slot,” Wilson said. “I just told them give me whatever was available and then the (United Center) DJ, he’s cool, got the mohawk. I met him when we did media day and he knew my favorite artist was Lucki, so every time I come out, he plays him for me.”
And just to make sure Wilson was reminded he is still a rookie? Veteran Norman Powell made all the young guys use pink “Hello Kitty” luggage for the trip to Toronto.
Staying put
The traveling party was a bit thinner for this two-game road trip with rookie Dailyn Swain and guard Jordan Hawkins staying back in Chicago to deal with illness.
The Bulls play the Bucks on Friday so both players could possibly join the team in Milwaukee, but Splitter wasn’t going to force the issue, especially since Swain and Hawkins were on the outside looking in as far as the rotation.
