The Chicago Bulls never tried to hide how much they value Josh Giddey. The Bulls acquired Giddey in a one-for-one trade for Alex Caruso coming off the first real benching of his career with the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2024 NBA Playoffs. Once the Bulls got Giddey in the building, they set out to cater their entire offense to his strengths, leaving behind the slow-paced, mid-range heavy scheme captained by DeMar DeRozan the previous three seasons for a super high-tempo system that encouraged Giddey to drive-and-kick and everyone else to bomb away from the three-point line.
The early returns were pretty discouraging: the Bulls were 14 games under .500 in the first week of March, and Giddey was occasionally getting pulled in crunch time for sloppy turnovers and spotty defense. That’s around the time the Bulls seemed to find themselves in the wake of the Zach LaVine trade: Chicago went 15-5 in their final 20 games, a stretch powered by Giddey’s vastly improved play and an incredibly hot shooting run from backcourt mate Coby White.
The clock struck midnight on the Bulls in their play-in tournament debut, but for the first time in years, it felt like they had a real identity and some upward mobility. At the same time, Chicago’s hot stretch coming in March and April when most teams were either tanking or resting their starters ahead of the playoffs started a debate over just how real the whole thing was. The limp play-in exit to Miami where Giddey was targeted defensively and White struggled offensively only lended more credibility to the skeptics.
All of this was only going to make the Bulls’ offseason negotiations with Giddey on a new contract even more tense. Giddey reportedly wanted a contract worth $30 million per year, comparable to the deals signed by Immanuel Quickley and Jalen Suggs in recent summers. That’s about the going rate for a solid starting point guard these days, and Giddey very much sees himself as that after the way he closed the season. The Bulls knew they had leverage as Giddey entered restricted free agency: only the Brooklyn Nets had real cap space, and it quickly became clear they weren’t going to use it on Giddey when they drafted four ball handlers in the 2025 NBA Draft.
The Bulls and Giddey have been at a stalemate ever since. Chicago started negotiations at $20 million per year; Giddey held firm at $30 million. With training camp now less than a month away, it’s coming time for the Bulls and Giddey reach a conclusion on their negotiation. ESPN’s Bobby Mark reported earlier this week that the Bulls have increased their offer to Giddey at $22 million per year, likely for a total of $88 million over four years.
This seems like a pretty easy agreement for both sides: the Bulls are inching closer to Giddey’s number, which he can claim as a win. The only other recourse Giddey has is playing on the qualifying offer, a one-year, $11.1 million deal that would allow him to become an unrestricted free agent next season. Is Giddey really going to cut his paycheck in half next year and walk away from an additional $77 million guaranteed just to try to get $30 million per year in 2026? It was would be an extremely risky move on his part even with around 10 teams expected to have cap space. This feels right for both sides.
It’s important that Chicago’s front office, led by Arturas Kanisovas, holds the line here. The suggestion that the Bulls should meet in the middle at $25 million or $26 million per year just doesn’t make sense for the team.
The Bulls have the leverage here. Even raising their offer by $2 million per year is an act of good faith toward Giddey, because they really don’t even have to do that. The Bulls could theoretically offer Giddey five years, $100 million and say take it or leave it. That’s $89 million guaranteed more than the qualifying offer for a player who has only made $27 million in his career so far. There’s “betting on yourself” and then there’s being reckless with your own financial well-being. Any deal Giddey takes from the Bulls now gives him generational wealth. That’s hard to walk away from.
Why is it so important for the Bulls to hold the line on the Giddey negotiation? Right now, Chicago is in a position to have a ton of flexibility next season, with a projected $80+ million in expiring contracts. The Bulls have another big negotiation ahead of them next year with White that will eat into that space. Nikola Vucevic, Kevin Huerter, Zach Collins, Jevon Carter, and Ayo Dosunmu are also coming off the books.
Chicago needs all the flexibility it can get. The difference between the Bulls and other teams is that the Chicago doesn’t have anything currently resembling an elite player. On The Ringer’s NBA top-100 list, Chicago’s highest-rated player is White at No. 71 overall. The Bulls can dream about Matas Buzelis eventually developing into a top-50 player or better as he enters his second season, but even that will require a lot more help. The Bulls’ eternal play-in foe in Miami has three players in the top-60 of The Ringer’s rankings, and they still got blasted in the first-round of the East playoffs. The Hawks, another hallmark play-in team, also have three top-60 players right now. It’s hard to build a great team, even in the JV conference that is the East.
There’s a case for some mild Bulls optimism right now for the first time since Lonzo Ball’s knee ruined Chicago’s last promising arrangement in 2021. Buzelis has a chance to be as good as anyone taken ahead of him in the 2024 draft. This year’s first round pick, Noa Essengue, was productive in a pro league last year despite a Dec. 2006 birthday that will make him the second youngest player in the NBA next year behind Cooper Flagg. Buzelis and Essengue are each athletic 6’10 forwards who should thrive playing in transition, which Giddey can help orchestrate as a playmaker. Essengue is particularly brilliant in the open floor after posting insane 84 percent true shooting in transition last year with Ulm. His open floor speed is his defining quality, and that works very well for a Bulls team that had the shortest average length of possession last year. Buzelis is more skilled in the halfcourt, and should be in prime position to take a nice leap this season in his second year.
Giddey’s playmaking and ability to throw hit-ahead passes in transition can help Buzelis and Essengue become the best versions of themselves. If you squint hard enough, Chicago just might have something resembling a coherent plan after years of mediocrity. An optimist can say the Bulls landed two top-5 prospects in the last two drafts despite picking outside the top-10 in both years. Of course, that’s all speculation for now, and the next few years will tell the true story. The fact that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Tyrese Haliburton — the three biggest stars from the 2025 NBA Finals — were each drafted at No. 10 or No. 11 in recent years shows it’s possible to hit gold outside the top-10 of the lottery.
The one thing we knew for sure about the Bulls is that they do not want to tank. If they get off to a bad start again, it will be hard to resist increasing their lottery odds in a loaded 2026 NBA Draft led by the strongest top-3 since 2003. Duke’s Cameron Boozer, BYU’s A.J. Dybantsa, and Kansas’ Darryn Peterson are all elite prospects that could go No. 1 overall in any given draft. To have three guys like that in one class is unheard of. Hey, the last two winners of the draft lottery came from the No. 10 and No. 11 spots in the odds. There’s a scenario where Chicago can win close to 40 games and still land a franchise-changing top-3 pick that can really alter their future outlook for the better.
The Bulls have so many options right now. They have all their draft picks going forward. They only have one bad contracts on the books with Patrick Williams’ five-year, $90 million deal (buyer’s remorse on that one sure seems like they reason they are playing hardball with Giddey). They have two promising young forwards in Buzelis and Essengue, and they have a clear identity as an extremely up-tempo team that hunts rim attempts and threes.
The Bulls just aren’t good enough to paint themselves into a corner yet. Finishing off the negotiations with Giddey by not budging over $22 million per year is a great place to start.
