Bulls guard Josh Giddey was riding high after the All-Star break — and the proof was in the near-triple-double he averaged in his first eight games back.
“He’s been really good at playing to his strengths,” coach Billy Donovan said of Giddey, who finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds in Monday’s 121-103 win over the visiting Pacers but left in the fourth quarter with an apparent ankle injury. “He’s really balanced his ability to pass the ball, and then his ability to score. The shots he’s getting and generating, the shots he’s looking to take, are higher-quality shots for him.”
Giddey has positioned himself deeper in the lane rather than taking tougher shots below the free-throw line. Donovan also attributes his improved scoring to catch-and-shoot opportunities behind the arc.
In Giddey’s first 51 games with the Bulls after arriving in a trade from the Thunder last summer, he was shooting 44.6% from the field and 34.5% from three-point range. Since the break, he was up to 50.8% from the field and 54.3% from deep entering Monday, with averages of 22.4 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. His scoring average since Feb. 20 is second only to that of Coby White (22.8), who had a 44-point game against the Magic last week.
Giddey becomes a restricted free agent after this season and has a chance to drive up his price over the next 17 games and into the postseason, should the Bulls (27-38) make it. Donovan said he hasn’t discussed Giddey’s status with the front office.
“I’ll let them handle that,” he said. “[I] certainly have had conversations with Josh about it. But I think the idea of trading for him and having him come here was going to be for him to be here on an extended period of time. . . . Everybody here feels good about Josh as a player — what he’s been able to do and hopefully what he can continue to do.”
The bigs
Center Nikola Vucevic and forward Patrick Williams were both available but on restricted minutes against the Pacers after missing extended time with a strained right calf and tendionosis in the right quadriceps, respectively. How to use his three bigs — assuming they all stay healthy — will be a task for Donovan for the rest of the season. Zach Collins arrived as part of the trade package for Zach LaVine shortly before Williams went down and became even more needed when Vucevic was held out shortly after the All-Star break, missing seven games.
With all three now available, Donovan is not leaning toward slowing the Bulls’ pace with two bigs on the court.
“We have to look at, ‘Are there teams we could potentially play where we need two bigs?’ ” Donovan said. “The only apprehension I would have with that would be, does it get in the way stylistically of how we play? I don’t know that, and I also don’t want to pass judgment on those three guys that two of the three can’t play together without even looking at practice or if a game presents itself. [But] I don’t see us playing extended minutes like that.”