You wouldn’t call what the Chicago Bulls did during the 2024 NBA offseason starting from scratch.
Not when Zach LaVine and Nikola Vučević are still on the roster, or when the front office’s unending belief in former No. 4 Patrick Williams was made clear once again, this time via a five-year, $90 million contract commitment.
The Bulls did, however, at least halfway embrace an overdue rebuild. The project is far from finished, obviously, but at least trading away Alex Caruso and letting DeMar DeRozan depart in free agency sent the message that status quo finally isn’t cutting it anymore.
Their focus has clearly shifted forward, which perhaps eases whatever win-now pressure this core could’ve felt the past few seasons. There remains some particularly pressure-packed situations for a few players, though, like the following three.
It’s hard to knock the numbers Josh Giddey has posted since the Oklahoma City Thunder made him the sixth overall pick in 2021. He not only paces the draft class in assists (1,200), he also holds top-six rankings in points (2,920, sixth) and rebounds (1,534, fourth).
Yet, with limitations as both a shooter and a defender, he proved hard to keep on the floor during playoff time. Too hard, in fact, for the Thunder to keep him around, though the idea to leave the Sooner State came from him during a conversation with general manager Sam Presti.
“I said to him, ‘Look, coming off the bench at this point in my career, it’s not something I’m trying to do and take a reserve role,'” Giddey told reporters. “He got it. And we worked together through the whole process, and he got me to a great spot.”
Giddey clearly views himself as an NBA starter, so it’s reasonable to assume he’ll want NBA starter money when he signs his next contract, which will surface at some point between now and next summer. By making Giddey the sole piece of their return from the Caruso trade, they’ve proven they’re committed to Giddey’s development and should give him every opportunity to prove himself.
If he can’t answer opportunity’s knock, though, that will hang an ominous cloud over his venture into restricted free agency.
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