{"id":98651,"date":"2025-09-10T07:02:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T07:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=98651"},"modified":"2025-09-10T07:02:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T07:02:18","slug":"josh-giddey-contract-grade-is-bulls-guard-worth-100-million-over-the-next-four-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=98651","title":{"rendered":"Josh Giddey contract grade: Is Bulls guard worth $100 million over the next four years?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Josh<\/p>\n

The long standoff between the Chicago Bulls and restricted free agent guard Josh Giddey ended suddenly on Monday afternoon after\u00a0ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the parties had come to an agreement on a four year, $100 million deal. The deal is fully guaranteed and contains no player or team options.<\/p>\n

Bulls critics will note that Giddey was one of the last meaningful free agents remaining on the market, and there weren’t any teams who could have paid him what Chicago offered. He did have some leverage on his side too though. He could have taken a one year, $11 million qualifying offer and entered a much friendlier free agency landscape next summer where a third of teams (including the Bulls) will have cap space to spend. Had he gone that route, Chicago would have taken on a very real risk of losing him for nothing next year.<\/p>\n

Were the Bulls too concerned about that doomsday scenario? Here’s how I think each party did.<\/p>\n

Josh Giddey contract grade<\/h2>\n

Did the Bulls squeeze Josh Giddey enough?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Bulls had the leverage to squeeze Giddey harder than this, but give them some credit for at least learning from their previous mistakes and playing hardball to start.<\/p>\n

Lead executive Arturas Karnisovas faced a similar situation last summer with restricted free agent Patrick Williams. There were very few potential suitors with the cap space to sign him. That didn’t stop Karnisovas from coming to a deal on the first day of free agency, giving Williams a five year, $90 million offer with an average annual value of $18 million per year (I would have sign-and-traded him or given him no more than $12 million per year). One year out, Williams’ deal looks like one of the 10 worst in the league.<\/p>\n

This time around, Karnisovas made Giddey sweat for over two months. That got him down from his reported $30 million annual asking price, settling in at a $25 million average annual value. He will be the 81st highest-paid player in the league and the highest-paid on the Bulls this season in a statistic that is the most important to owner Jerry Reinsdorf.<\/p>\n

The Bulls still had some time get Giddey down to a lower number. The Warriors and Sixers are following that strategy with their own restricted free agents, Jonathan Kuminga and Quentin Grimes, who remain unsigned.<\/p>\n

Paying out $25 million for an average starting point guard isn’t a bad deal in the grand scheme of things. The question then becomes this: Does Giddey meet that bar?<\/p>\n

What is Josh Giddey worth?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Giddey does have obvious strengths. He’s a good passer, he was vital in facilitating the transition attack that the Bulls rode to a somewhat miraculous 39-43 record last year, and he improved his shaky 3-point shooting tremendously during the regular season, hitting 37.8 percent from deep.<\/p>\n

He also has glaring weaknesses. He’s a good regular season player, but there are legitimate concerns on how well his game translates to the playoffs. The Thunder won a championship by discarding him for a much more playoff-tested contributor in Alex Caruso. Giddey was benched in the postseason in his last year with Oklahoma City because of how ineffective he was on both ends of the floor.<\/p>\n

Those same issues re-emerged in the highest pressure Bulls game of the season, an embarrassing 109-90 dismantling in the Play-In Tournament against the Heat. Giddey was “guarded” by center Bam Adebayo, who mostly played in the paint and gave the Aussie guard a wide cushion to launch away.<\/p>\n

Giddey shot poorly from outside against that coverage and became gun-shy about letting it rip. His\u00a0defensive issues were also made apparent as the Heat clearly focused their gameplan on attacking him relentlessly.<\/p>\n