{"id":932151,"date":"2026-10-18T03:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T03:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/932151\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T03:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T03:12:10","slug":"bulls-notes-giddey-claxton-collins-wilson-miller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/932151\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulls Notes: Giddey, Claxton, Collins, Wilson, Miller"},"content":{"rendered":"

Josh Giddey<\/a> hasn\u2019t relied much on the lob pass throughout his career, but he insists that it\u2019s mostly because of the big men he\u2019s been teamed up with, writes Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times<\/a>. That will change this season with the Bulls, who drafted Caleb Wilson<\/a> as the leader of a group of high-flyers that also includes Matas Buzelis<\/a>, Nic Claxton<\/a> and Noa Essengue<\/a>. Giddey is looking forward to showing off his alley-oop skills and getting plenty of easy baskets.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these bigs I\u2019ve played with have been really good in their own ways, but it\u2019s been good to have a different look where that gives me the ability to put the ball near the rim and have guys go get it,\u201d Giddey said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s wings or our fives, we\u2019ve got guys that can catch lobs all around. I\u2019ve got to get better at throwing them, but I think it\u2019s going to be good to have guys that I can kind of put it anywhere around the cylinder and they\u2019ll go take care of the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cowley notes that Chicago also acquired shooting this summer, bringing Norman Powell<\/a> and Buddy Hield<\/a> into what should be an improved offense. Giddey will be on the on-court leader who\u2019ll have to incorporate all the new weapons and execute head coach Tiago Splitter\u2019s vision for the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he has a lot of guys that can score around him, so he knows that,\u201d Splitter said of Giddey. \u201cHe\u2019s thinking about the game, he\u2019s smart about it, and hopefully game-by-game our vision starts to get a little more clear and he can help this team to be effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more from Chicago:<\/p>\n

Claxton, who\u2019s recovering from a hamstring injury<\/a>, may be the Bulls\u2019 only player who\u2019s not ready for opening night, per Jeff Agrest of The Chicago Sun-Times<\/a>. Claxton was doing light jogging at Friday\u2019s shootaround, and while he might return soon, he won\u2019t be rushed back. \u201cEvery day he does something else and more aggressive,\u201d Splitter said. \u201cBut \u2014 I\u2019m not going to stop repeating this \u2014 this is a very dangerous injury. The chances of redoing it are big. So we\u2019ve got to be careful.\u201d Splitter added that backup center Zach Collins<\/a>, who\u2019s dealing with a quad injury, has been cleared for full contact.
\nThe Bulls were encouraged to see Wilson embrace the spotlight during his first NBA preseason, according to Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune<\/a> (subscription required). Whether he\u2019s talking about something positive or negative, Wilson has been open and honest about his experiences. \u201cIt\u2019s never felt like it\u2019s too much,\u201d he said. \u201cThe best players to ever play had a rough start to their career, and my start isn\u2019t even rough. I feel like I\u2019m doing great out there. I just go out there and learn. I\u2019m a rookie. I\u2019m going against competition I haven\u2019t faced before and I\u2019m being asked to do stuff that I haven\u2019t been asked for before. I expect there to be mistakes and I should give myself grace to play.\u201d
\nLeonard Miller<\/a>, who was acquired from Minnesota in February, views Chicago as a potential long-term home (Twitter video link<\/a> from Will Gottlieb of CHGO Bulls). \u201cI love it here,\u201d Miller said. \u201cI feel like the time since I\u2019ve been here after I got traded has been amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josh Giddey hasn\u2019t relied much on the lob pass throughout his career, but he insists that it\u2019s mostly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,42292,169173,8642,237320,8639,167333,174027,85,205503],"class_list":["post-932151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-buddy-hield","tag-caleb-wilson","tag-josh-giddey","tag-leonard-miller","tag-matas-buzelis","tag-nic-claxton","tag-noa-essengue","tag-sports","tag-zach-collins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932151","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=932151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}