{"id":76757,"date":"2025-08-12T08:33:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T08:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/76757\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T08:33:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T08:33:20","slug":"bulls-picked-a-horrible-time-to-finally-learn-how-free-agency-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/76757\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulls picked a horrible time to finally learn how free agency works"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Bulls seem to have learned their lesson<\/a> after the disaster that was the Patrick Williams extension, but the Josh Giddey situation isn’t the time to do a complete 180.<\/p>\n

Vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karni\u0161ovas handed Williams, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, a five-year, $90 million contract last offseason. Williams’ deal to remain in the Windy City was one of the first moves announced when free agency kicked off. <\/p>\n

The Bulls had until October to agree with Williams on an extension.<\/p>\n

Then 22 years old and coming off a season in which he only played 43 games and averaged just 10.0 points and 3.9 rebounds, the idea of giving Williams $90 million before Karni\u0161ovas got a chance to gauge his market will go down as one of the most questionable<\/a> (at best) decisions he’s made during his time at the helm in Chicago.<\/p>\n

The move looks even worse a year later. Williams scored 9.0 ppg in 2024-25 and was eventually relegated to a bench role once rookie Matas Buzelis replaced him in the starting lineup. <\/p>\n

Based on the still-ongoing negotiations between the Bulls and Giddey — which have already lasted more than two months longer than those between the team and Williams — Karni\u0161ovas appears to have learned from his mistake. That’s a good thing. <\/p>\n

What’s not so good is that Chicago actually needs Giddey. It didn’t need to keep hold of a draft bust like Williams.<\/p>\n

Bulls are picking the wrong time to be stubborn in restricted free agency<\/p>\n

Dating back to last summer, when Chicago acquired him from the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Alex Caruso, Giddey and his camp were looking for a contract extension worth $30 million per season. The Bulls declined and instead let the then-21-year-old play out the final year of his rookie deal.<\/p>\n

After a so-so start to the year, the 6-foot-8 point guard from Down Under became the driver of head coach Billy Donovan’s revamped offense centered around pace, 3-point shooting and transition opportunities. <\/p>\n

After the all-star break, Giddey averaged 21.2 points, 10.7 rebounds and 9.3 assists, leading the second-best offense in the league over that time and guiding a group that won 17 of its final 27 regular-season games. He went from being a 31.0 percent 3-point shooter over his first three seasons to hitting 37.8 percent of his triples last year. He proved himself to be a crucial piece of the Bulls’ future.<\/p>\n

Giddey is still holding out for that $30 million per year extension. Chicago is staying strong with an offer worth $20 million annually. The team offered their starting floor general<\/a> a four-year, $80 million deal, according to NBA insider Jake Fischer via The Stein Line substack.<\/p>\n

It’s great that Karni\u0161ovas isn’t repeating last summer’s Williams error. It bodes well for a front office that needs to change. And with every bit of leverage in negotiations, the Bulls shouldn’t cave<\/a> to Giddey’s $30 million demands. But at some point, it’s time to stop being inflexible and find a middle ground<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Williams isn’t essential to Chicago. Giddey absolutely is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Bulls seem to have learned their lesson after the disaster that was the Patrick Williams extension,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-76757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}