CLEVELAND — With 4.6 seconds left on the clock against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, Josh Giddey hesitated.
It’s not a normal feeling for Giddey. He likes to take risks, to make passes that no other player on the court could even visualize. And as Zach LaVine curled around a screen from Nikola Vučević to charge up the paint completely unmarked, Giddey already had pulled the ball back over his head with both hands in preparation to whip a lob to the backside for a game-tying dunk.
And then he second-guessed himself.
Giddey watched it back again and again — on the bus ride back to the hotel, in a film session the following day after the one-point win — and every time he saw the same thing. LaVine was open. Wide open. Karl-Anthony Towns didn’t even turn his head to slow the guard down on the way to the rim. Mikal Bridges tripped off Vučević’s screen, planting one palm on the court as he scrambled to stay upright. And LaVine even jumped half-heartedly at the low block, head turned in anticipation for a pass that never came.
At any other point in the game, Giddey would have thrown the pass. If he had turned it over, fine. He could live with it. But with 4.9 seconds left on the clock, there was only one reason Giddey could find for not making the pass: doubt.
“I just didn’t want to risk the game on that,” Giddey said. “Watching it on film, it was easy to see. And we ended up winning the game, so I can’t even be that mad about it. But if we had to run the play again and Zach was that wide open, I’d throw him the ball every time.”
Like Giddey said, it all worked out. He inbounded the ball instead to Coby White, who drew a foul while shooting from behind the arc and sank the three ensuing free throws necessary to win the game. The Bulls snuck out with a well-earned win.
Giddey doesn’t like to linger on any individual play for too long — that type of hindsight is poisonous to a point guard. But this was one of his first clutch opportunities with the Bulls. And he missed it. And in that moment, his hesitation highlighted a key concern for the offense.
The Bulls are not taking care of the ball. Even as they continue to find meager success through their heightened pace and almost exaggerated 3-point shooting growth, the offense is consistently hampered by the burden of self-inflicted mistakes. The Bulls are averaging 16.6 turnovers per game on the season, the eighth-highest number in the NBA.
Losing Lonzo Ball to yet another injury only worsened the problem. The turnover tally has only grown as the season progresses, with the Bulls averaging 18.6 in their last five games — the second-worst number in the league trailing only the Portland Trail Blazers. At this rate, the Bulls will land among the bottom five teams in a matter of weeks.
Giddey characterizes many of these mistakes as “carelessness” that could be avoided. Yet despite averaging 2.7 turnovers per game on his own, the guard doesn’t want to be weighed down with concern.
His current turnover tally is an uptick from last season — he averaged 2.1 per game — but that feels natural in a heightened role as a starting point guard and primary playmaker. Giddey has already made major strides in his facilitation with the Bulls, where his average assists have skyrocketed from a career-low 4.8 per game last season up to a career-high 6.9 per game.
While he’s dependable to make simple reads on boilerplate plays, a bulk of Giddey’s assist-rate is predicated on risky endeavors — one-handed skip passes, full-court heaves, savvy behind-the back slings.
“I’ve always loved throwing tough passes,” Giddey said. “The passes that I see, they don’t seem as tough to me. To the eye of a fan or somebody watching the game, they might seem like it’s an impossible pass. But the way I see it is like — I can make that play.”
But Wednesday night’s hesitation? That’s a greater concern to Giddey than any overly ambitious pass or mistimed lob.
After being benched by Oklahoma City in last year’s playoffs — primarily for his defense, but also for diminished 3-point shooting — Giddey wants to develop into a reliable clutch performer for the Bulls.
“I trust myself to make those types of plays,” Giddey said. “And sometimes that can be deemed careless — and they can be — but I guess we just can’t live and worry and play the game safely. I think that’s the one thing I’ve always done. I’ve always taken risks. Sometimes they pay off, sometimes they don’t, and I’m willing to live with that.”
Giddey is determined of one thing: next time the Bulls are in a clutch game, he won’t hesitate.