It's becoming increasingly clear that Josh Giddey can't be the centerpiece of a competitive Chicago Bulls team. After a hot start, the team has fallen on hard times and is currently on a league-worst 7-game losing streak. Things won't get any easier for Giddey soon, as the Bulls may have to rely on him even more if they trade away leading scorer Coby White.
Josh Giddey isn't having a star-level impact
Despite filling up the stat sheet, Giddey isn't leading the Bulls to wins as the star point guard. Even in the last 7 games, he's averaging 20. points, 8.4 rebounds, and 7.1 assists per game while shooting 50.5 percent from the field and 41.0 percent from three. And yet, the Bulls are losing to some of the worst teams in the NBA.
It's clear that the Bulls will need to acquire more complementary talent around Giddey to build a winning team. But even that might not be enough to create a true championship contender. In Giddey's minutes, the Bulls have an offensive rating of just 111.1. That would rank 27th in the NBA, just behind the downtrodden New Orleans Pelicans.
Even though Giddey is surrounded by an offensively talented roster, he is unable to elevate the Bulls from a below-average to an elite offense. Although he racks up points and assists, Giddey isn't impacting the team as a proper star should. If the Bulls continue to build around Giddey, they might be sealing their fate as a perpetually mediocre team—just as they have been for years now.
As Bulls fans know all too well, this is arguably the worst position for an NBA team. A fully tanking team can at least hope to get promising young talent through the draft that will one day lead them to contention, but Giddey's Bulls might be just a bit too good for that. Still, they are not currently even good enough to make the play-in field in a depleted Eastern Conference.
Fortunately, it's not too late for the Bulls to shift paths. They signed Giddey to a substantial 4-year, $100 million contract last summer, but that's not necessarily a salary cap killer in today's NBA. They can still find other ways to acquire a future superstar if they accept that Giddey can't lead them to a competitive team anytime soon.
Giddey could function well as a secondary option next to a true superstar in the future. But getting that superstar could be incredibly difficult for the Bulls. They might need some great draft lottery luck, or they'll have to find a risky trade that pays off. Either way, it's important for Bulls fans and management alike to accept that Josh Giddey cannot be the superstar of their next great team.