Triple threat is missing piece for 'All-Star' Giddey

• Josh Giddey signed a four-year $100m USD extension with the Chicago Bulls in September
• He averaged 14.8 points along with 8.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists for the Bulls last season
• Giddey was the No.6 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft

Josh Giddey's off-season was filled with uncertainty but what is certain is he must add an off-the-dribble three to unlock his NBA All-Star potential.

That is the view of Chicago Bulls beat writer for CHGO, Will Gottlieb, who has been covering the team for almost 10 years.

The 6'8" Australian Boomers point guard, who has been red-hot in the NBA preseason, was a restricted free agent this past offseason after spending one season with the Bulls following a trade from the Oklahoma City Thunder for defensive-stopper Alex Caruso.

Giddey enjoyed a breakout second half of the 2024-25 season, where he excelled alongside Coby White in the backcourt after Chicago traded Zach LaVine to Sacramento. He finished the year with averages of 14.8 points along with 8.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists for the Bulls, including a half-court game-winner against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in front of his home fans at the United Center.

Despite being a shining light in Chicago's season, both parties went through a free agency stalemate for months with neither side willing to budge.

That all ended in September, when the Bulls signed Giddey to a four-year $100m USD extension - signalling the famous franchise's desire to build around the No.6 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft.

Gottlieb, who previously worked for The Bleacher Report and The Athletic covering the Bulls, said the Melbourne Tigers product and Chicago appear to be on the same page after a cloudy offseason.

"I think there was maybe a little bit of like consternation about is there going to be bad feelings here, is Josh going to feel like the Bulls are short changing him," he told basketball.com.au.

"I can't speak to any of that behind closed doors, but certainly since he's been here, he's very much expressed that he understands the nature of the business. The Bulls are trying to do what's best for them, he's obviously trying to do what's best for him.

"He's been very consistent about his excitement to be back with the Bulls. We talked to him (on Monday) after practice and I think that he just feels this level of, like, comfort in his role in being with this team and knowing the players on the team, so I think that gives him sort of more confidence in himself and his ability to just go out there and play his style of basketball."

Giddey took significant steps forward with the Bulls last season in areas which found him playing limited minutes in past playoffs for OKC. Those included shooting the three-ball at 37.8% while also making strides on the defensive end.

And Gottlieb said, while improvements in those areas were still needed, adding a perimeter shot off-the-dribble could take Giddey to the upper echelon of point guards around the league. Especially when teams are content going under on his ball screens to prevent him from attacking the paint and bringing his exceptional passing ability into play.

"From my perspective there's a couple things. One is obviously the catch and shoot threes and spacing when other guys have the ball but I think him adding like an off-the-dribble three would really help as a lot of teams are still going under the pick and roll on screens and just kind of like leaving him out there," he said.

"If he can shoot over those, even if it's like not a tonne of volume but just enough to like put some fear into the defence, I think that really could help open up other elements of his game.

"Turnovers is is another really big one, I was actually talking about this with him... He's a very creative and daring passer, and I think when you're able to see over the defence the way that he can, there's passing lanes that are apparent to him that maybe wouldn't be to other guards, so he tries stuff.

"I think the Bulls kind of have to take the good with the bad there but as best he can sort of clean up some of those turnovers to just minimise them because they are going to be a part of the game and you don't want to take away the things that he does well, but you also want to just sort of perfect it as much as you can."

If he can make those improvements, Gottlieb believes Giddey could go from a player who rode the bench during the playoffs for the Thunder just two years ago, to potentially being an NBA All-Star.

"I think it's just like about the consistency, like you've seen at his peak, he can almost be an All-Star calibre player just with like the numbers that he's putting up," he said.

"I think like a lot of people would say 'oh it's empty calories or whatever' but the Bulls were winning when he was playing well. I think a lot of it comes down to how is the team performing when you are leading the way and how consistent are you at it.

"If he plays the way that he did for the last 20 games of the year, if he's able to do that consistently for the first 50 games of this year, I think he will be in the running for the All-Star game.

"I think it's much easier said than done to reach that level of consistency. He was shooting 47% on threes (towards the end of last season), that's probably not something that's sustainable over the course of a full season. But just the way that he was playing, attacking the the basket, drawing fouls, getting the free-throw line, making good plays and rebounding it really well - those are those were All-Star numbers.

"I think he can be in that mix if he's able to do it consistently."

But Giddey's rise with the Bulls also came with an adjustment in style of play from Hall of Fame coach Billy Donovan - something Gottlieb said somewhat emulated the way the Boomers play at the international level.

"I think based on like the way they ended last year... Josh played incredibly well, I think he really hit his stride playing you know the style that he really thrives in. I think it's probably a similar style to the one that you see more with the Australian national team, compared to you know how things went with OKC towards the end of his time there," he said.

"The Bulls the year before Josh came over, they were one of the slowest teams in the league, I think they were like 28th or 29th in pace. They were one of the lowest volume three-point shooting teams, they just didn't get a lot of those kind of shots up, it was very like ISO ball, everything revolved around DeMar DeRozan.

"Going into last year, they really overhauled that and started running and I think they were second in pace last year. They were moving the ball up the court, taking a lot more threes but generally just putting more pressure on in transition and I think that's like really where Josh thrives.

"He's a player that obviously, as a tall guard, he can see over the court, see over the defence and and make great reads as a passer. When you start playing that style, you're getting him on the move and that's where he can really put pressure on the rim and I think that's really the Bulls' whole offensive goal is to collapse the defence, get into the paint and make plays."

Gottlieb said he spoke to Donovan on their plans to dive head first into that up-tempo style of play.

"I actually asked Billy that early on in training camp and he said 'we're going to run as fast as our legs let us run'. I think that they are already maxed out in terms of their speed, maybe they can lean into it a little bit more, but I think the big buzzword for them so far has been physicality.

"When you think of physicality, a lot of times it's like just being sort of nasty and using your body, more on the defensive side, I think that's a big piece of it and but I think offensively too."

The Bulls tip-off their 2025-26 campaign against the Detroit Pistons on October 23 at 11am (AEDT).