NBA insider Jake Fischer reported on Friday<\/a> that the two sides \u201cremain far apart\u201d according to league sources, with Giddey\u2019s representation still after a $30 million ($A46m) annual salary while the Bulls\u2019 offers have been closer to $20 million ($A31m).<\/p>\nFischer also then went on to point out that Giddey had \u201cnoticeably been absent\u201d at Chicago\u2019s first two Summer League games despite being in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
That was in stark contrast to the courtside presence of teammates such as Coby White and Patrick Williams, despite the former being the subject of trade rumours this summer. <\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1752821289_626_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
ESPN\u2019s Bobby Marks had suggested earlier this month that Giddey and the Bulls were \u201cabout the Gulf of Mexico apart\u201d, while colleague Kevin Pelton wrote a \u201cstalemate\u201d could be on the cards.<\/p>\n
At this stage, it doesn\u2019t seem like there is a genuine market for Giddey at the $30 million annual salary he is after given the Nets, who entered the offseason with the most cap space, drafted a series of playmakers and also re-signed Ziaire Williams and Day\u2019Ron Sharpe.<\/p>\n
Any other team that has a genuine need at the point guard position just doesn\u2019t have the kind of money that Giddey is after, leaving the Bulls in a position of power.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, it looks like it may down to whether Giddey bets on himself and signs a $11.1 million ($A17m) qualifying offer, which would then see him become an unrestricted free agent next offseason, or settles for a lower amount than first hoped to stay in Chicago long-term.<\/p>\n
Giddey averaged 21.2 points, 10.7 rebounds and 9.3 assists in 19 games for the Bulls after All-Star break while shooting 45.7 per cent from 3-point land.<\/p>\n
That was in stark contrast to the early season Giddey, who was benched at one point in a loss to Cleveland after turning into a defensive liability.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters at his exit interview after his first season with the Bulls, Giddey said it took him \u201ca little while\u201d to settle into his new role at Chicago.<\/p>\n
Flagg scores 10 in Summer League debut | 01:23<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first half of the year it\u2019s a new situation, so naturally there\u2019s going to be an inclination to come in here and try to fit in,\u201d Giddey said at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was my initial mindset. I never wanted to come in and try, not ruffle feathers, but change the whole dynamic of the way guys played and the way the team played.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think it took me a little while to find my feet, and obviously, trade deadline happened when Zach got moved, and he was obviously such a big part to what we did here.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt kind of opened up avenues for other guys to step into. I saw that as an opportunity to take on a bigger responsibility on both sides of the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
The question, of course, is how sustainable Giddey\u2019s late-season production is considering the majority of Chicago\u2019s wins came against tanking teams.<\/p>\n
That remains to be seen, but Giddey told reporters at the end of last season that he felt like a \u201ccompletely different player\u201d to the one that struggled at the start of his Bulls tenure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say the second half of the year player is who I am,\u201d Giddey said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first half was just a completely different guy. Confidence was probably down. Aggression levels were probably down. Trying to fit in too much.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the second half of the year player is who I am, it\u2019s who I\u2019ve been, and it just took me a little while to get back to that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has been nearly three weeks since the NBA\u2019s free agency window opened and still Josh Giddey does…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-2456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}