Josh Giddey’s presence during the 2026 edition of Chicago Bulls media day projected a composed state of maturity.
Entering his sixth NBA season, Giddey’s poise in addressing the media is profound as he steps into a new era in the Chicago Bulls franchise that no longer contains the executive who traded for Giddey, Arturas Karnisovas, nor the head coach who redesigned a whole basketball offensive philosophy around maximizing Giddey’s strengths while minimizing his weaknesses, Billy Donovan.
On top of critical leadership changes in the franchise, Giddey presumably will take the floor with a radically different starting lineup relative to the Bulls’ 2025-26 NBA season that was a starting lineup in transition as the last two principal starters of the Karnisovas-led Bulls regime, Nikola Vucevic and Coby White, rode off into the sunset of new NBA homes at the conclusion of the 2026 NBA trade deadline.
Josh Giddey is a cool customer going into the 2026-27 NBA season, and for good reason, as he delivered his remarks during his media day press conference.
The combination of Giddey’s penchant for running fast breaks, combined with Tiago Splitter’s offensive emphasis on speed (in basketball decision-making) and pace (maximizing offensive possessions), and a wing tandem of Matas Buzelis coupled with Caleb Wilson easily projects to be the most dynamic offense that has surrounded Giddey in his Bulls tenure.
Unlocking the Josh Giddey combination
The key in this budding offensive ecosystem for Giddey is to balance ball-handling responsibilities with Buzelis and Wilson, and to Giddey’s credit, he knows the value in divvying up the ball-handling with his wings and allowing that dynamic to take his offensive production to another level.
By Giddey’s own admission during his media day press conference, Tiago Splitter has not yet installed half-court offensive principles for his team. However, there are a few straightforward modern NBA offensive concepts that Splitter can and should install to maximize Giddey’s offensive contributions off the ball.
“Get” actions should be a staple for Josh Giddey during the 2026-27 NBA season, and the action is really just a traditional give-and-go action that allows Giddey to pass to another player (like Wilson or Buzelis) and then relocate himself to get the ball back from that same player.
“Get” action should be something the Bulls lean on to get Giddey in downhill attacks to the rim and to also boost his catch-and-shoot three-point volume.
Giddey should also function more as a ball-screener for either Buzelis or Wilson, and this would become another opportunity to boost Giddey’s catch-and-shoot three-point volume as a pick-and-pop guy after setting a ball screen.
If Splitter stays true to his EuroLeague basketball roots, then Bulls fans should see Iverson cuts spammed in a lot of Bulls’ half-court offensive possessions, and Josh Giddey should get a healthy share of those Iverson actions, which would keep Giddey moving off-ball in a manner that either creates an advantage for the offense to attack or results in Giddey finding an open spot for a shot attempt.
Perhaps the most counter-intuitive off-ball Josh Giddey offensive attack Splitter should lean into is to also spam old-fashioned pindowns for Josh Giddey, in which Nic Claxton sets a screen that Giddey runs off of to find an open catch-and-shoot three-point attempt.
Josh Giddey could potentially find himself in NBA All-Star territory if Splitter adds any one of these actions, or all of them, to Giddey’s offensive repertoire during the 2026-27 NBA season.
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