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The Chicago Bulls and their restricted free agent point guard Josh Giddey have been engaged in complicated negotiations for over a month.
The 6-foot-8 pro, acquired in a straight-up trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder for All-Defensive Team guard Alex Caruso, really blossomed into an appetizing triple-double threat after Chicago offloaded the contract of two-time All-Star shooting guard Zach LaVine at the trade deadline.
Down the home stretch of the season, following the NBA's February 8 afternoon trade deadline, Giddey averaged a whopping 20.0 points on .492/.453/.803 shooting splits, 9.9 rebounds, 8.5 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.0 blocks per bout.
That output improved his stats on the year to 14.6 points on a .465/.378/.781 slash line, plus 8.1 rebounds, 7.2 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.6 blocks in 70 healthy contests.
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It didn't, however, improve the Bulls' postseason fortunes much.
With LaVine's deliberate offense and ball-hogging gone, Chicago head coach Billy Donovan was able to expedite his offense. The quicker pace helped Giddey, guard Coby White, and then-rookie forward Matas Buzelis to really take off as transition threats.
But Chicago still finished with a mediocre 39-43 record and the No. 9 seed in the Eastern Conference, before falling to the Miami Heat in their lone play-in tournament bout.
So how much of Giddey's production was the beneficiary of playing late in the season, against teams — both good and bad — who were choosing to rest players while jockeying for playoff strength or lottery positioning?
Per Keith Smith of Spotrac, a deal should get done eventually between Giddey's representatives and the Bulls' front office — but the two sides are, for now, still a bit split.
It's #NBAugust but that's no longer a dead month on the NBA calendar. There's still a lot to be decided around the league. For @spotrac I took a look at the big outstanding topics:
🏀RFAs
🏀Vet FAs
🏀Teams who have to add
🏀Teams who have to cut
Read more:https://t.co/mmAHmSi2n1
"Josh Giddey and the Chicago Bulls seem the most likely to stay together, but are reportedly apart on contract terms," Smith writes. "Both years and dollars seem to be an issue here. Still, both sides here don’t seem to be so far apart that they can’t get there. This one mostly seems to be a lack of urgency on the part of either party."
Chicago's edge in negotiations is that there are no teams with cap room this side of the inscrutable Brooklyn Nets. Granted, clubs could look to add Giddey via a sign-and-trade, but no chatter of such a transaction has yet to emerge.
"The Bulls know that no one is signing Giddey to an offer sheet. Giddey feels strongly enough about his value as a player that he’s not pressed to come down from his ask," Smith notes. "Expect something to still get done here that sees Giddey in Chicago long-term."
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