Josh Giddey entered Christmas as one of the NBA's breakout players. He was averaging a career-best 20.0 points per game, as well as 9.3 rebounds and 9.1 assists, all the while shooting at an efficient clip of .479/.402/.745.
Unfortunately, the second half of the 2025-26 season revealed a truth that the Bulls can't afford to simply assume will resolve itself: Giddey is poorly suited for the role of a featured scorer.
From Christmas Eve until the end of the 2025-26 regular season, Giddey looked like a shell of the player he was through Dec. 23. To make matters worse, he did so in an equal number of games, playing 27 before Christmas Eve and 27 after.
During the latter stretch, Giddey saw his scoring numbers and efficiency plummet to 14.0 points per game on .409/.331/.795 shooting.
Giddey continued to excel as a playmaker and rebounder, but his drastic decline in scoring production and efficiency was impossible to overlook. In the blink of an eye, he went from looking like a potential go-to offensive player to operating at a level that suggests Chicago needs multiple scoring options ahead of him if it hopes to compete for a postseason appearance.
Giddey could potentially rectify this issue by improving during the 2026 offseason, but the Bulls must operate under the assumption that there's a void in the backcourt as far as scoring is concerned.
Bulls need new talent to address Josh Giddey's regression as a scorer
Giddey being overburdened as the team's primary scoring threat and playmaker was arguably unsustainable from the start. That simply doesn't excuse a sharp decline of 6.0 points per game, as well as 7.0 field goal and 7.1 three-point field goal percentage points.
Even with the rise of Matas Buzelis as a promising young wing scorer who can take pressure off of Giddey, the fact remains that the Bulls need a guard who can put points on the board.
Ayo Dosunmu and Coby White were traded, thus eliminating their proven capabilities from the equation. Collin Sexton played well individually, but did so while the Bulls were collapsing as a team—and he'll be an unrestricted free agent this coming summer.
The same goes for Anfernee Simons, who played just six games for the Bulls and never seemed to click with his new teammates during his limited time on the court after the February trade.
Thankfully, the Bulls could have two invaluable opportunities to address this issue at the 2026 NBA Draft. They're currently in line to have the ninth-best lottery odds with their own first-round draft pick and could have a second first-rounder if the Portland Trail Blazers reach the playoffs via the Play-In Tournament.
Free agency could also provide answers, but regardless of how the Bulls choose to address the need for reliable backcourt scoring, they can't be irresponsible enough to simply assume Giddey will fix his fatal flaw.
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