4 Bulls Leaving Chicago in the New Year

Josh Giddey 

After the Bulls reportedly turned down trade offers that involved multiple first-round picks for Alex Caruso, they finally moved him to the Oklahoma City Thunder over the summer in exchange for Josh Giddey. This was a polarizing move at the time. Preferring Giddey, who has significant holes in his game, over first-round draft capital always had the chance to come back to bite Chicago. 

That is exactly what happened. In his fourth season in the NBA, the Australian guard failed to take that next step that was expected of him. If anything, he may have regressed in certain aspects of the game. 

Giddey is one of the best passers in the league, especially in transition. The combination of his size and vision is certainly intriguing but everything else in his game is still very much a work in progress. The shooting still hasn’t developed as he is hitting only 32.7% of his threes this season. This creates all sorts of spacing issues for the Bulls. 

The offensive ecosystem is favorable to Giddey. The Bulls have plenty of shooters and off-ball threats like LaVine and Vucevic to provide sufficient spacing for Giddey. The 22-year-old, however, is still struggling to put the ball in the basket, averaging 12.3 points per game in over 27 minutes of action. For the fourth straight season, he has below league-average efficiency. 

The frustrating part of it all is the fact that Giddey needs a new contract at the end of the season. Despite trading one of their most valuable players for him, the Bulls still haven’t agreed on an extension for Giddey. 

At this point, there may not be a number the two sides can agree on. The Bulls are presumably disappointed by Giddey’s production and they have the likes of Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu to be in their core going forward. Would they really willingly give Giddey a lucrative, multi-year contract around $25 million per year? 

This makes Giddey not only an offseason departure candidate but a sneaky trade deadline option as well.