Josh Giddey’s spot with the Bulls is getting harder to defend - and that’s before you even get to his defense.
Chicago is no longer in a holding pattern. It’s building toward what comes next, which means there’s less patience for a player whose offensive value has to do a lot of heavy lifting to cover for the other end.
Giddey can still help a team. The problem is that, for the Bulls, “help” may not be enough anymore.
At 23, Giddey has already shown he can score and create for others. In 2025-26, he put up 17.0 points, 9.1 assists and 1.9 three-point field goals made per game while shooting .448/.364/.763. That’s real production, the kind that keeps him in the conversation.
But the defensive side keeps pulling the conversation back. According to Basketball Index, Giddey ranked in the 16th percentile in perimeter isolation defense, following a year in the 17th percentile and two seasons after sitting in the 36th.
That lines up with what Bulls fans have seen: he’s not a reliable on-ball defender, and the issue goes beyond effort. He needs to rotate, get into contests, and stop giving away easy points in isolation.
The league doesn’t leave much room for this kind of imbalance. Giddey is not in the Luka Doncic tier, and that matters because there are only so many players who can survive being a defensive liability while still carrying enough offensive weight to make it worthwhile.
He was one of just three players in 2025-26 to average at least 9.0 assists per game. The other two were Nikola Jokic, who averaged 27.7 points, and Cade Cunningham, who averaged 23.9 points and ranked in the 84th percentile in perimeter isolation defense.
If you widen the group to players at 8.0 assists per game or better, Doncic and James Harden join the list. Doncic averaged 33.5 points per game, while Harden averaged 23.5.
Harden is the clearest example of a player who can live with defensive shortcomings and still start, but even that comes with major context. He helped the Cleveland Cavaliers reach the 2026 Eastern Conference Finals, and he did it alongside three other All-Stars in the starting lineup, including Donovan Mitchell, an All-NBA guard.
That kind of setup is nowhere near what Chicago can reasonably project right now. To suggest otherwise would mean banking on a chain of moves that hasn’t even started.
So Giddey’s path is pretty simple, even if the execution isn’t: he either becomes an All-NBA-level offensive force, or he changes how he plays. Right now he does a strong job of getting the most out of his possessions. That has to start showing up on defense, or his offensive burden has to rise even higher - with better efficiency to match.
And with Caleb Wilson arriving as a riveting rookie and Matas Buzelis continuing to rise, the Bulls can’t really afford to center things around a player who sets the wrong tone on defense unless he’s carrying the offense at a superstar level.
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