Bulls guard Josh Giddey is an upcoming restricted free agent, and it will be interesting to see how his market pans out. While appearing on an episode of Nothing But Net with ESPN’s Kane Pitman (Twitter link), Brian Windhorst pointed to **Immanuel Quickley**‘s five-year, $162.5MM contract as something Giddey may be hoping to get.
While Giddey likely won’t get quite that much money, $30MM annually seems to be about the going rate for starting point guards in the league now. We previously wrote about how Giddey would likely be seeking $30MM+ in his extension.
However, his restricted free agency status might not play out that simply. Per Windhorst, if Giddey doesn’t earn an offer sheet from an outside team he thinks is worthy, the Bulls could potentially play hardball and have him sign a one-year deal to hit the market again the following year as an unrestricted free agent.
Windhorst also points out that the Bulls recently re-signed Lonzo Ball to an extension, so he’ll be a point guard option for them heading into next year. However, since the Bulls traded Alex Caruso for Giddey, it probably means they see him as part of their future. After having a similar situation play out last year with Patrick Williams, all signs point toward an extension of some kind.
Since Giddey received an expanded role, he’s averaging 20.7 points, 8.7 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 1.1 steals and 0.9 blocks in his last 15 games.
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Giddey is currently day-to-day with an ankle injury. According to coach Billy Donovan (per Chicago Sports Network’s K.C. Johnson), Giddey will travel for the start of the six-game road trip while continuing rehab on his ankle. In a follow-up post, Johnson reports that Giddey said he’s happy with how his recovery is going and that there’s optimism he’ll return on the trip.
Coby White scored a career-high 44 points earlier in March and his last couple impressive seasons have come as a result of evolving into a multi-layered scorer, writes Darnell Mayberry. “*From where I was with him, from his first year to now is amazing,” Donovan said. “He deserves all the credit because he is a guy who never points fingers, never blames, always looks internally, ‘How do I get better?’ He’s really made a strong investment to himself [and] the game.*” His arsenal of shots has expanded since he entered the league as primarily a shooter.
After missing a few weeks due to injury, Nikola Vucevic came off the bench for the Bulls’ Monday game against the Pacers. He returned to the starting lineup on Thursday, according to Johnson, but he’s currently on a minutes restriction between 28 to 30. With Vucevic back in the lineup for the past two games, Jalen Smith has been the odd man out of the five rotation, per Johnson (Twitter link).
Julian Phillips was the first man off the bench, in front of Williams, in the Bulls’ Thursday win over the Nets. He responded with a career-high 16 points to go along with seven rebounds and five assists while playing as part of the closing lineup, Johnson observes in a seriesoftweets. The Bulls are on a four-game win streak.