Josh Giddey isn’t going anywhere.
Giddey reached a four-year, $100 million deal to return to the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday afternoon, the team announced.
Giddey, 22, averaged 14.6 points, 8.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists in 30.2 minutes per game for the Bulls last season, shooting 51.2% on 2-pointers, 37.8% from beyond the 3-point arc and 78.1% from the free-throw line. An optimistic observer would point out that the only other players to hit those per-game numbers last season while shooting as efficiently as Giddey did were Nikola Jokiฤ and Luka Donฤiฤ. A more pessimistic sort might note that those two dudes shot more efficiently while literally scoring twice as much as Giddey did โ a difference that, when youโre talking about high-usage ball-handlers and offensive hubs, is essentially all the difference in the world.
Advertisement
The sixth overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, Giddey spent his first three pro seasons in Oklahoma City, joining Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luguentz Dort (and later Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren) as part of a developing young core that climbed from the Western basement to the play-in tournament and all the way to the conferenceโs top seed in just three seasons. But after the Thunderโs maiden postseason voyage ran aground in the second round of the 2024 playoffs due partly to the Dallas Mavericks exploiting Giddeyโs inconsistent shooting and effectively playing him off the floor, the 6-foot-8 Australian found himself on the move, dealt to Chicago straight up for super-sub Alex Caruso.
The move clearly paid immediate dividends for Oklahoma City, with Caruso proving a more malleable and playable postseason option throughout the Thunderโs run to the 2025 NBA championship. The value proposition looked a bit murkier in Chicago in the early going, as Giddey struggled a bit to find his form on a Bulls roster that already featured several other players who operated best with the ball in their hands.
[Get more Bulls news: Chicago team feed]
In early February, Giddey was averaging just 11.3 points per game on 44.3% shooting, contributing with his rebounding and table-setting, but largely underwhelming in an offensive ecosystem that saw him sit a distant fourth in the Bullsโ starting group in usage rate, behind Zach LaVine, Coby White and Nikola Vuฤeviฤ. The trade that sent LaVine to Sacramento, though, bumped Giddey up Chicagoโs playmaking pecking order โ and his production followed suit.
Over the final two-and-a-half months of the regular season, Giddey averaged 20.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, 8.3 assists and 1.4 steals in 33.3 minutes per game on .619 true shooting. His 3-point accuracy and free-throw attempt rate both spiked; his assist rate rose while his turnover rate dropped. After the LaVine trade, the Bulls scored 117.8 points per 100 possessions with Giddey on the floor โ a top-five rate of offensive efficiency over the course of the full season.
Advertisement
Giddey flourished in a higher-usage role, leading the way in touches, time of possession and on-ball playmaking in a faster-paced system geared toward accentuating his grab-and-go attacking. (Chicago went from a bottom-10 team in transition scoring efficiency before the LaVine trade to a top-10 unit afterward, according to Cleaning the Glass, and was most efficient on the break when Giddey was on the floor.) That offensive uptick fueled a late-season run that saw the Bulls win 15 of their final 21 games to finish 39-43, land ninth in the East and return to the play-in tournament โฆ where they were smacked by the Heat. (Giddey finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds in the loss.)
How much stock the Bulls, and the league writ large, would put in Giddeyโs play during that closing kick loomed as one of the more interesting questions of this restricted free agency period.
Would that late-season surge โ during which, it should be noted, a number of Chicagoโs wins came over teams either ravaged by injuries or determinedly sinking down the standings in pursuit of improved draft lottery position โ lead to an early top-dollar agreement making it clear that either the Bulls or whichever team tendered him an offer sheet viewed him as their cornerstone No. 1 on-ball option for the next several years? Or would the combination of a relative lack of cap space in the market, the overall chilling effects of restricted free agency, and skepticism over Giddeyโs ability to maintain that level of production for one full season, let alone four or five โ and whether a team built around that production can aspire to much more than flirting with .500 and perpetual play-in appearances โ lead to a softer-than-anticipated market for a player whoโd reportedly sought a deal with an average annual value of around $30 million a year?
Advertisement
The answer, as often tends to be the case, is somewhere in the middle. Giddey doesnโt come away with the sort of monster max deal that his former colleagues–turned–champions landed this summer. He does, however, get a pact that represents a bet on his continued growth as a primary playmaker โ a wager that his year-over-year improvements in 3-point shooting and free-throw generation are real, that his increased block and steal rates suggest a higher defensive upside, and that ponying up for the pre-prime seasons of a huge point guard with fantastic court vision is a worthwhile investment. Itโs up to Giddey to prove that assessment right โ to continue ironing out the wrinkles in his two-way game, and to establish that what he showed post-All-Star-break was less a blip than a new beginning.
