The Chicago Bulls are still looking to resolve their restricted free agency problem, and there’s still a chance for a twist.
The Bulls have been waiting out this summer, hoping that Josh Giddey will eventually cave and take the offer they’ve provided. That deal has been reported to be around four years for $80 million.
Considering Giddey is searching for something around $30 million per year, the two sides are still struggling to get a deal done. With the Bulls being unwilling to cave to Giddey’s demands, there might not be a guarantee that the four-year, $80 million deal is on the table forever.
With that in mind, Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey recently wrote about some of the likeliest outcomes for Giddey’s free agency, which included signing an offer sheet with another team. While restricted free agency doesn’t often get to a stage where a player signs an offer sheet with an opposing team, it’s in the realm of possibility.
As Bailey noted, the Brooklyn Nets are the only team with any real cap space to provide a deal near Giddey’s liking, and they’ve already loaded up on young playmakers. That would leave Giddey to search for a deal in the mid-level exception range around $14 million, as Bailey wrote.
Considering the Bulls would seemingly be fine getting Giddey back on a deal around $20 million per year, a discount on that would make matching any offer sheet an easy decision. It would also do nothing to truly help Giddey unless Brooklyn is ready to take the risk, so this is still a possibility, but it’s probably pretty unlikely.