A different version of Josh Giddey came back to the Chicago Bulls after the All-Star break.
That was by design. Giddey was frustrated and wasn’t shooting the ball well. His flashiest assists were offset by foolhardy turnovers. Opposing teams were still targeting him as a defensive liability. His plus-minus rating (-4) was one of the lowest on the team.
So Giddey used the break as a reset. He flew to Cancun with a few friends and took time to rest, golf and lift — but he didn’t touch a basketball for five days. This hiatus gave him a renewed sense of comfort when he returned for the final push of the regular season.
“I really do think it helped — just getting away from the game a little bit,” Giddey said. “I think I really needed that.”
Since the All-Star break, Giddey is sixth in the NBA in both assists (8.6) and rebounds (11.1) per game. And after shooting only 34.5% from 3-point range for the opening stretch of the season, Giddey has picked up his efficiency to 51.6% behind the arc. His plus-minus rating has skyrocketed to 7.9 — nearly a 12-point swing from before the All-Star break.
It’s hard to assign one specific factor as the sole cause for Giddey’s shift. The break surely didn’t hurt. But this sudden improvement was also deeply impacted by the exit of Zach LaVine, whose absence gave Giddey considerable breathing room to create more on the ball.
Still, Giddey’s transformation is the result of consciously molding himself into what the post-LaVine Bulls need out of a guard. One key change came at a price — cutting down on his floater.
Giddey has a clear favorite shot, a running one-handed floater that he often pulls out after initial contact by a defender when driving to the rim. It utilizes his length to elevate over a defender with a quick release. It is also — unfortunately — one of his worst shots.
“The floater is obviously the least efficient shot in basketball,” Giddey told the Tribune. “And I know that.”
Throughout the season, Giddey made an effort to minimize the shot. But after LaVine was traded, coach Billy Donovan made it clear to his guards that prioritizing shots at the rim would be crucial if the team was going to draw any fouls.
Giddey took the message in stride. Since the break, he is averaging a team-high 5.9 free-throw attempts per game, more than double his 2.2 attempts per game through the rest of the season. Forcing himself to the rim meant ditching his comfort zone shot, but it was a necessary casualty for both Giddey and the Bulls.
“He’s done a good job of changing his shot profile a little bit,” Donovan said. “That not only has helped him, but it’s helped us. If you look at the numbers since the All-Star break, we’ve gotten to the rim a lot more and he has been a big part of that.”
Giddey’s teammates often argue that he can’t be classified as a point guard; after all, he stands 6-foot-8 and leads the Bulls in rebounding when starting center Nikola Vučević isn’t on the court. Some fans and pundits have reassigned him as a “point forward” to reflect his balance between rebounding and playmaking.
But Giddey only sees himself as a point guard. It’s the only position he’s ever played. Until he turned 16 — which was only six years ago — Giddey was used to being a smaller guard. He shot up six or seven inches that year, a sudden transformation that redefined his stature without changing his mental approach to the game. And no matter where the Bulls place him, Giddey said he still thinks like a point guard.
Donovan, for his part, isn’t too worried about defining Giddey’s position. And in a stretch of the season when the Bulls have been uniquely undersized due to injuries to bigs Vučević, Jalen Smith and Patrick Williams, Giddey’s adaptability has been crucial to keep the roster on track — and another factor in his increased usage.
“He’s like a Swiss Army Knife in a lot of ways,” Donovan said. “He can rebound, he can start the break, he can play off the ball, he can screen. We put him on multiple different kinds of guys to defend. He’s done a lot of different things for us.”
Giddey’s sudden flurry in this final stretch has been a catalyst for a young Bulls roster that is scrapping for a place in the NBA Play-In tournament — and perhaps a first-round series in the playoffs.
It also puts the Bulls in a difficult position.
The Bulls acquired Giddey on an expiring deal and opted not to offer him a rookie extension. Once the season ends, the guard will become an unrestricted free agent — forcing the Bulls to immediately make a long-term monetary decision based on a season defined by two very distinct halves.
Giddey knows his improved play will help his standing with the Bulls, but he doesn’t want that to be a factor in his style of play. He avoids conversations with his agents and family about his upcoming free agency. And on the court, Giddey is trying to shut out the looming possibility of a new contract.
“I know it’s a contract year,” Giddey said. “I’m not going to lie to you and say I’m not thinking about it. Any player in a contract year would try to come out and prove their worth and prove what they can give to a team, but I’ll always let the game dictate how I need to play. The contract will take care of itself.”
This might be the best stretch of Giddey’s career. It’s also only been eight games. Even if he sustains it through the play-in tournament — heck, even if the Bulls take the No. 1 Cleveland Cavaliers to a seven-game series — this stretch will tally fewer than 50 games of a four-year NBA career.
Is this streak an anomaly or a new normal? Is Giddey worth a full-on investment as a piece of the Bulls’ young core? And is it worth the risk of another expensive — and lengthy — contract to lock down such an unknown quantity? The Bulls front office will have to answer those questions themselves this summer.
But Giddey knows what he wants. Last summer, he left the Oklahoma City Thunder looking for a better fit. Giddey feels he has found that in Chicago — a franchise where he is valued and a team where he could be a building block for the long term.
“I love it here,” Giddey said. “I feel like I fit in pretty comfortably. I know what’s asked of me. I know what I need to do to help the guys.”
