How far apart are Josh Giddey and the Chicago Bulls on reaching a deal?
“About the Gulf of Mexico” according to ESPN front office insider Bobby Marks, with the Australian guard still yet to come to terms on a new contract.
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Giddey is a restricted free agent, meaning he can sign an offer sheet with any team but Chicago will be able to retain him if they match the terms of that offer.
The problem for Giddey is that he hasn’t receive any offer sheets from rival teams by all reports, which isn’t necessarily a surprise given the Nets were the only franchise with the salary cap space to afford him.
They have since made a series of moves that make it look increasingly unlikely that they will extend Giddey an offer sheet, which ESPN’s Kevin Pelton wrote means we may be looking at a “stalemate”.
While the Bulls have made the mistake in the past of bidding against themselves, most notably when it came to extending Patrick Williams, it appears they learned from that experience and are willing to sit tight in the hope of getting Giddey to agree to a team-friendly deal.
Chicago may be in a position of power, but as Pelton went on to add Giddey’s “strongest leverage” is playing for his $11.1 million ($A17m) qualifying offer, which would essentially mean betting on himself since he would then become an unrestricted free agent next offseason.
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“That would mean leaving a lot of guaranteed money on the table,” Pelton wrote.
How much? Well, multiple reports ahead of free agency suggested Giddey was seeking a deal in the range of five years and $150 million ($A228m).
The problem for Giddey and his camp is that without any competition for his signature, the Bulls don’t really have any incentive to pay that full amount unless they think it is too risky to let him play on the qualifying offer and potentially lose the Australian next summer.
Speaking on the CHGO Bulls podcast, lead Bulls writer Will Gottlieb said he doesn’t expect Giddey to sign with another team but conceded there is a “small chance” he could play on the qualifying offer.
“Just because he might really want to bet on himself and that’s fine, more power to him,” added Gottlieb.
“I think at the end of the day if you can get him below 25 million, you’re in good shape just because 20 million dollars right now is more than anybody else can offer him and if they could get him on that, I think that’d be great. That’s probably where his value is.
“That’s where it would be a value contract for the Bulls, but if you have to go up a little bit above that it’s not going to kill them.”
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Further working against Giddey is the fact fellow restricted free agents Jonathan Kuminga, Cam Thomas and Quentin Grimes are also yet to come to agreements this offseason.
“That’s because the money that they’re looking for is just not out there, so that’s why the Bulls are in a position to squeeze him a little bit,” added Gottlieb.
“You don’t have to piss him off and say, ‘You’re getting one dollar more than the mid-level exception or else you’ve got to take your qualifying offer’. I don’t think they necessarily need to go that hard.
“But they are in a position to get him on a deal that is much lower than the offer that he wanted.”