NEWS: Bulls coach Billy Donovan feels guard Josh Giddey is investment worthy

Guard Josh Giddey (sprained right ankle) was still in street clothes for the game against the Bucks on Monday, but there was progress to report.

He did some shooting and some more work on the court but is “still not at a place where he can play,” coach Billy Donovan said.

The hope is Giddey can ramp up that rehab work and have a clearer timetable by next week. That’s the small picture. But has Giddey shown enough for the Bulls to feel comfortable enough to invest in an extension?

The Sun-Times reported last month that Giddey was initially looking for a Jalen Suggs-like extension after the Magic guard was signed to a five-year, $150.5 million deal in October. Giddey is a restricted free agent, so the Bulls can let him test the market, get an asking price, then decide if they want to match it.

Donovan was asked before the game if Giddey had shown enough to warrant consideration as a foundation piece. Despite some shaky moments from Giddey early on, Donovan gave a thumbs-up to that idea.

“I think like any player, coach, we all need to get better, so I’ll just start there,” Donovan said.

“But I really felt like there was a learning curve with him with our team because one of his greatest strengths is his passing. The defensive part for him, I think he’s gotten better as time has gone on. The thing for him the last five or six games before he got hurt, I thought he was really impacting our team in a positive way as he started to figure things out, so I definitely think without question that he can be an important piece for us.”

Donovan did have a point about Giddey’s December before his ankle betrayed him. The Bulls went 4-2 in his six starts that month, and Giddey upped his scoring average to 12.5 points but really flashed in other ways with 7.8 rebounds, 7.8 assists and 1.7 steals per game in that span.

He’s still a poor individual defender at times, especially against athletic guards, but even that part of his game was improving.

“Like I said, before the injury, he was generating a lot of good looks for Coby [White], Zach [LaVine], [Nikola Vucevic], a lot of our guys on the perimeter,” Donovan said. “But I do think when you’re a guard where your skill set is to pass the ball, coming into a new situation entirely, I think it does take time for players to adjust to him, him to adjust to players.

‘‘There’s a pretty big sample size, and I’ve been encouraged to see his growth.”

No thanks

There’s not a lot that Donovan hasn’t done in basketball, and that’s why he’s eligible for the 2025 Hall of Fame class.

One aspect of the game that doesn’t capture his interest is moving into the front office.

“No, not right now,” Donovan said. “I don’t know enough about that. I really don’t. Like my whole life has just been around the coaching aspect of it.

‘‘It’s not something I wouldn’t mind learning about, but I’m probably not equipped to do that. When it comes to the salary cap and all that stuff, it would probably have to be a specific role for me to be effective.”