Subscribe
Follow Us
Josh Giddey has reportedly been displeased with the Chicago Bulls' offers during their negotiations for a contract extension. However, there seems to be a growing consensus around the NBA on how much Giddey is truly worth.
Value, particularly in professional sports, is naturally relative and subjective, with the high or low cost of one's contract truly only a matter between the two parties that sign it. However, rival executives and owners are always wary of players being paid “too much” because it could set a precedent that they are unwilling to follow with their own players.
For that reason, anonymous front-office employees may sometimes float the idea of a particular player being worth less than their purported value. Others take the opposite route in hopes of driving up the cost and stakes of a rival's contract negotiations.
That does not appear to be the case with Giddey, though. The 22-year-old Australian Bulls guard certainly has his detractors, most of whom focus on his 3-point shot, which had never broken 34% before this past season, in which he reached a career-high 37.8%.
But most anonymous front-office people polled by The Athletic seem to be believers in Giddey — for a certain price, at least.
“Of the four remaining restricted players, Giddey inspired the most consistent contract suggestions. Respondents were most comfortable giving him money,”Fred Katz and Joel Lorenzi wrote.
“Fourteen of the 16 participants proposed an average annual salary between $20 million and $25 million. (His mean average yearly value in the poll came to $22.3 million a year.) One executive pinned him as an $18 million player. Another, a front-office staffer who admitted he would be far lower than the consensus because he wasn’t a fan of Giddey’s game, suggested $50 million over four years, $12.5 million a year — less than the midlevel exception for a player who put up 14.6 points, 8.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists in 2024-25 and who averaged nearly a 20-point triple-double over his final 19 games.”
Katz and Lorenzi focused their attention on the length of the proposed deals — four years — which they say only three of 78 free agents this offseason have signed this offseason. Additionally, they said that while Giddey's annual value maxed out at $25 million (lower than the $30 million reports indicated Giddey wanted), that figure proved to be the most common among those polled.
Whether the Bulls decide to pay Giddey that number remains to be seen. He is still a restricted free agent and, if he cannot come to an extension with Chicago or work out a trade, he can sign his qualifying offer anytime before October. If he does so, he will become an unrestricted free agent next summer.
