Is Josh Giddey any good?
The answer to this is both yes and no. He started 80 games for one of the best teams in the league last year and is only 21 years old, so he can obviously play. We likely haven’t seen the best of Giddey, who was sharing a backcourt with another ball-dominant guard.
If you just look at the numbers, his 12.3 points, 4.8 assists and 6.4 rebounds per game on 47/33/80 shooting splits are not bad. He’s a big playmaker who is a nice fit with Cody White potentially and still has not reached his peak. The Bulls could look back on this trade as the thing that turned their franchise around if Giddey is good.
The downside is that he looked like a defeated player in the playoffs after getting benched. The Mavericks targeted him relentlessly on both ends to the point he couldn’t say on the court, and it definitely looked like a blow to his confidence.
He also had troubling off-the-court issues that will not endear him to fans, so Giddey is going to have to be great right away or risks getting booed by Chicago fans because of these allegations. He has an uphill battle to be sure.
If the Bulls are getting the Giddey who sulked on the bench for OKC, this is a disaster waiting to happen. If Giddey fulfills or even exceeds his potential, then maybe you could justify what the Bulls turned down for Caruso, but if not, it’s a garbage return, especially because it could have a ripple effect.