For many fans of the Chicago Bulls, the Paris Olympics was their first chance to see Josh Giddey, who was acquired this offseason in a trade of Alex Caruso to the OKC Thunder.
While the Thunder may have underpaid in the trade, the Bulls got a 21-year-old talent who was a full-time starter on the best team in the Western Conference last season, a player who still has a lot of untapped potential.
If you look at Giddey’s game-by-game stats, he was mostly very good as the lead guard and emotional leader of the Boomers in the Paris Olympics.
He did have one dud game against Greece, but other than that, Giddey was excellent, averaging 17.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and six assists in the tournament while shooting 50 percent from the floor and 47 percent from long range, exactly what fans were hoping to see.
If Giddey puts up numbers anywhere near that for the Chicago Bulls next season, the Caruso trade will look like a big win and fans will forget that the Bulls weren’t able to pry a single draft pick from asset-rich OKC.
Giddey’s comments after their most recent loss to Serbia shows a guy who cares about winning, which is an attitude the Bulls need.
Josh Giddey is “heartbroken” after tough loss to Serbia
It’s tough to lose any close game in the Olympics, but this is one the Boomers probably should have put away, as they were up by as many as 24 points.
But they couldn’t stave off Jokic and the Serbians, who came all the way back to send the game into OT where they eventually won.
Here’s what Giddey had to say after the game:
"We had so many chances," Giddey said. "It's heartbreaking and it kills me that I have to wait 4 more years for another chance at this."
This is the kind of emotional response to losing you want from a player you are going to build your team around.
As good as Giddey was during the tournament overall, there were some big flaws on display, namely his turnovers. He averaged five per game for the tournament and coughed it up a whopping seven times in the loss to Serbia that knocked Australia out.
Giddey is sure to have a high usage role for the Bulls next season, so he will have to take better care of the ball. He will also need to shoot better from the line, as he only hit 53 percent of his free throws.
With his size and ability to get into the lane, free throws can be a weapon for him. He has improved his FT shooting every year and hit 80 percent last season, so hopefully this is just a small sample size and not a real issue.
But he did put some of the shooting concerns to rest and showed that he can lead a team, all good news for the Bulls.