Josh Giddey is quickly becoming a fan favorite on the Chicago Bulls. He’s an exceptional downhill dribbler, adept at probing the paint, setting teammates up, and being a world-class Timothée Chalamet doppelganger is a positive trait in 2025.
However, in recent weeks his scoring output has also seen an uptick. Two days after Giddey had his Himothy game, tallying a season-high 29 points in a win over the Indiana Pacers. Giddey is in the final year of his four-year, $27 million rookie deal this season, and is entering restricted free agency, and the 22-year-old’s play this month has created a sense of urgency within the organization to lock him in long-term. On Tuesday, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst sounded off on the Bulls point guard receiving Chalamet money next season.
“The going rate for a starting point guard in the NBA is around $30 million,” Brian Windhorst told ESPN Australia. “He is their starter. If you look at a guy like Immanuel Quickley, he got five years and $162 million. That’s about $32 million per year a year ago. I’m sure Josh Giddey is hoping for something like that. He’s not quite the scorer or defender Quickley is, so maybe something a little less.
Windhorst’s comments corroborate Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times’ reporting that a deal in line with Jalen Suggs’ five-year, $180 million deal was the ideal framework for a possible Giddey extension.
“I expect them to try to do something with Giddey. It has been puzzling why they kept his role narrow early on. I’m not sure that was a long-term strategy play,” added Windhorst. “But I know this: I will bet on Josh Giddey and I will bet on him getting a very good contract whether he gets it this year or he has to wait another year and become an unrestricted free agent.”
If you’ve been paying attention to Giddey this season, you won’t be completely surprised by how optimistic his outlook is. Before the season, Windhorst also reported that Giddey’s extension would not be addressed until the 2025 offseason. That time is coming and the price may be rising.
Giddey is a much more bespoke fit as a primary distributor on a Bulls team perpetually stuck in the Reinsdorf ‘spinning pinwheel of death’ mode than when he was on an ascendant Oklahoma City Thunder roster that pushed him to an off-ball. He still isn’t a reliable shooter, but he’s getting it done in other ways.
Josh Giddey is on Cloud 9
Giddey’s recent hot streak began in the aftermath of Zach Lavine’s trade to the Sacramento Kings. For the past month, he’s demonstrated more assertiveness, averaging 20.6 points, 9.3 boards, and 7.3 dimes per game. His PER of 25.3 in nine games since the All-Star break is a significant increase from his 15.2 in 51 games prior games. How sustainable his run is remains to be seen, but the Bulls need something to look forward to.
For his part, Giddey also admitted that the extension talks are on his mind.
‘‘I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about it,’’ Giddey told the Sun-Times. ‘‘Every player in the league thinks about it, but I don’t let it impact what I do on the floor. I don’t come out here with any preconceived ideas of how I want to play or the numbers I want to put up to earn X amount of dollars or whatever it may be.’’
One aspect a forward-thinking franchise should consider is that Giddey’s play has not translated to the win-loss columns. The factors for general manager Marc Eversley include should be that Giddey is a foundational player or another obstacle to the Bulls’ ability to bottom out and escape the .500 carousel they’ve been stuck on for almost the entirety of the Billy Donovan era.
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