PHILADELPHIA – It is a very fair question to ask, and Josh Giddey doesn’t mind you asking it.
How much is the Bulls point guard worth if he hits the open market this summer?
He thinks about it himself.
“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.”
Because the truth is Giddey knows someone is going to be paying him.
He’s a 6-foot-8 point guard, he’s still just 22 years old, and he’s arguably playing the best all-around basketball of his NBA career. There’s a price for that and what remains to be seen is how that price is determined.
The Bulls and Giddey stepped back from the negotiating table in the fall when Giddey and his representation were looking to match the Jalen Suggs extension of $30 million per year for five years, according to a source.
Because he will be a restricted free agent the Bulls can let him test the market, get an offer from any team, and then decide to retain him by matching it.
Giddey isn’t sure how that will all play out but continues to make it known where he wants to be moving forward.
“I’m happy with where I’m at,” he reiterated.
That doesn’t mean he’s happy with his game. Not yet.
Even in Monday’s throttling of the 76ers, Giddey had a monster stat line of 25 points, 16 rebounds and six assists, but ask him what numbers he took the most pride in and he’ll point to the three blocks and a steal.
Giddey knows he’ll never be an elite defensive stopper, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be an above average defender that uses his positional size to his advantage.
That’s been the focus ever since he was pulled from a loss in Cleveland back in November in which he looked more like a turnstile than an NBA player.
“I remember Cleveland when I spoke about it, and I was pretty down that night, and a lot of it was on that side of the ball,” Giddey said. “I kind of made a promise to myself that it wasn’t going to happen again. I’ve tried to take that on.”
That he’s done the last month, averaging 1.2 blocks per game (fifth best among guards), and willing to be put on the opposing team’s better scoring threats.
“Like against Golden State (two weeks ago), I had Jimmy Butler,” Giddey said.
A scenario that would have never played out when he was with the Thunder. As much criticism as Giddey has gotten for his defense the last few years, it didn’t help that he was on a team full of elite defenders in Oklahoma City.
He wasn’t asked to focus on that side of the ball because he was surrounded by buffers.
“With the team I was on, we had such an elite defense that sometimes it was just by default that I would relax on that side of the ball because I knew I had such great defenders around me,” Giddey admitted. “Where as here we might not have that same type of personnel around me, so it’s got to be a group effort. That’s why I’m taking on bigger challenges. That’s the only way to get better, by testing yourself to take on these top guys across the league.”
A 6-8 point guard who rebounds, passes, is shooting 52.2% from three-point range the last month, and turning into a willing defender?
Now ask yourself how much is Giddey worth?
That answer is coming, because Giddey’s right about one thing: Someone is going to pay him.