At the start of the 2025-26 season, it looked like Josh Giddey was finally turning into something bigger—real stardom, the kind teams circle on the calendar. With the Chicago Bulls, he was flashing a mix that always makes highlights: a little punch in the scoring, a lot in the passing, and then rebounds showing up too.
Through the first two months of action, he posted ridiculous averages of 19.2 points, 9.0 assists, and 8.9 rebounds on 46.6 percent shooting from the floor and 38.6 percent shooting from deep. But basketball doesn’t stay kind forever. Injuries and on-court inconsistencies eventually stopped the momentum, and the second half turned into the kind of correction fans sometimes dread—Giddey’s numbers dropped back down, and Chicago has now been forced into a painful realization. It’s also the primary reason the Thunder ditched him in the first place, at least according to what the production is starting to show.
The second-half numbers really do tell a different story. After that tremendous 30-game start, his offensive production—especially scoring—seemed to fall off a cliff in his final 24 outings on the year. He went on to register a mere 14.3 points per game on just 42.0 percent shooting from the floor and 34.1 percent shooting from deep.
And then there are the shot-quality details, the ones that make people lean in. Perhaps most astounding of all was his drop-off in off-the-catch shooting: he went from cashing in on 41.0 percent from deep and boasting an overall effective field goal percentage of 61.4 percent on such attempts to an abysmal 34.6 percent and 52.4 percent, respectively. You can feel the rhythm change there—less “set and rip,” more trying to solve problems while defenders already know what’s coming.
Misryoum newsroom reporting points out that these latter metrics look incredibly reminiscent of his efficiency while with the Thunder. Back then, he shot at a 31.0 percent clip from deep and just 34.4 percent in catch-and-shoot scenarios during his OKC tenure. Fans are well aware that inefficiency was a major factor in Sam Presti and company opting to part ways with him. Or maybe it’s simpler than that: if you’re not reliable off the catch, your whole offensive map gets smaller—no matter how good your reads are.
Still, Chicago’s situation is not one where they can just shrug and move on. Unlike his stint with Oklahoma City, where he was still attached to his rookie-scale deal, the Bulls are in no position to part ways with him any time soon, as they just signed the 23-year-old to a four-year, $100 million guaranteed contract last summer. On top of that, following their recent front-office purge, it’s not as if Chicago has the brain trust required to even attempt such a complex move.
So what does the team do now? The simple reality is this: after finishing with the fourth-worst record in the East at 31-51, all the Bulls can do is try to find the pieces necessary to make up for their hoped-for franchise point guard’s offensive inabilities. Despite all of his elite intangibles, Giddey’s lack of efficiency in the scoring department severely hinders his upside as a player. It took the Thunder three years to figure this out for themselves. Now, come the conclusion of the 2025-26 season, it seems the Bulls are coming to this same realization in year two—and, honestly, you could hear it in the quiet after a missed look, that small, uneasy pause in the arena—like everyone’s waiting for the next thing to prove the point wrong. Maybe it will. But the second half already answered it once.
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