Guard Josh Giddey <\/b>(sprained right ankle) <\/b>was still in street clothes for the game against the Bucks on Monday, but there was progress to report.<\/p>\n
He did some shooting and some more work on the court but is \u201cstill not at a place where he can play,\u201d coach Billy Donovan <\/b>said.<\/p>\n
The hope is Giddey can ramp up that rehab work and have a clearer timetable by next week. That\u2019s the small picture. But has Giddey shown enough for the Bulls to feel comfortable enough to invest in an extension?<\/p>\n
The Sun-Times reported last month that Giddey was initially looking for a Jalen Suggs<\/b>-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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think like any player, coach, we all need to get better, so I\u2019ll just start there,\u201d Donovan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut 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\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donovan did have a point about Giddey\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s still a poor individual defender at times, especially against athletic guards, but even that part of his game was improving.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike I said, before the injury, he was generating a lot of good looks for Coby <\/b>[White<\/b>], Zach <\/b>[LaVine<\/b>], [Nikola Vucevic<\/b>], a lot of our guys on the perimeter,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cBut I do think when you\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018There\u2019s a pretty big sample size, and I\u2019ve been encouraged to see his growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s not a lot that Donovan hasn\u2019t done in basketball, and that\u2019s why he\u2019s eligible for the 2025 Hall of Fame class.<\/p>\n
One aspect of the game that doesn\u2019t capture his interest is moving into the front office.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, not right now,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cI don\u2019t know enough about that. I really don\u2019t. Like my whole life has just been around the coaching aspect of it.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018It\u2019s not something I wouldn\u2019t mind learning about, but I\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lonzo Ball <\/b>missed his 18th game of the season, but thankfully it had nothing to do with his left knee or the right wrist he injured last month.<\/p>\n
Ball was dealing with illness, so he was expected back for the game Thursday in Atlanta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Short term, Giddey is still recovering from a right ankle injury. Long term, however, the Bulls have to start deciding if they want to invest in an extension for the restricted free agent-to-be. Donovan made his feelings clear on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"\n