'No one's saving us': Giddey boils as Bulls crash

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“Cerebral” Australian Chicago Bulls point guard Josh Giddey is frustrated.

Giddey, 23, was averaging a near triple-double before suffering a hamstring injury on December 30, 2025, against Joe Ingles’ Minnesota Timberwolves.

Since then, he’s missed double-figure games and is being managed by the Bulls’ medical staff while the Eastern Conference franchise made significant moves before the trade deadline. The Bulls have also lost 11 straight.

“It's frustrating, but I understand it from a medical perspective,” Giddey said.

“It's just different. It's hard playing five-minute stints, four-minute stints.

“It is hard to get the rhythm, but it's no excuse. Obviously, I got to be a lot better. We've got to be better. We have to find ways to start winning games because what we're putting up right now is not good enough.

“I feel good. As I said, I get it from a medical standpoint, but no, I don't feel anything.”

Before December 29, 2025

• ‍Games Played: 32
• ‍Record in Starts: 17–15
• ‍Double-Doubles: 18
• ‍Triple-Doubles: 7

Production (First 32 Games)

• 30–39 minutes: 24 games
• 20+ points: 15 games
• 10+ rebounds: 13 games
• 10+ assists: 15 games

Best Stretch (Oct 22 – Nov 7)

Over his first seven games:

• 19 points, 11 assists
• 21 points
• 18 points, 13 rebounds
• 20 points, 12 assists
• 32 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists
• 23 points, 12 assists
• 29 points, 15 rebounds, 12 assists

His season shooting splits through December 29:

• 45.3% FG
• 36.4% 3PT
• 76.2% FT

After Return – Inconsistent Rhythm

From January 22 onward:

• Minutes dropped into the mid-20s
• Efficiency fluctuated
• Assist totals remained solid, but scoring is inconsistent.

Post-Injury Line (9 Games Played)

• 21.25 MPG
• 11.1 PPG
• 6.0 APG
• 4.8 RPG
• Shooting volatility (1-of-7, 2-of-10, then 10-of-16 outburst vs Detroit)

The February 21 Detroit game flashed the old Giddey: 27 points on 10-for-16, 5-for-8 from three.

But the next two games: 6 points and 8 points.

The burst was there – the consistency wasn’t.

“I'm trying to stay warm, do different things, timeouts, end of the first, end of the second, whatever end of the quarter it is, stay warm,” Giddey added.

“I’ve got a hot pack on my hamstring the whole time. As I said, I get it from a medical standpoint, but it's different, and it's been something I've had to adjust to.”

Bulls Deadline Activity

Key Departures: Nikola Vučević; Ayo Dosunmu; Coby White; Mike Conley Jr.; Julian Phillips; Dalen Terry; and Dario Šarić.

Key Additions: Collin Sexton; Anfernee Simons; Rob Dillingham; Leonard Miller; Guerschon Yabusele; Nick Richards; and Jaden Ivey.

Draft Capital Added

• Eight second-round picks (2026–2032 range)
• One protected first-round swap (via Detroit deal)

Chicago has 11 straight losses, is 5-15 in its last 20 games, and sits 12th in the conference at 24-36, four games outside the Play-In.

“I think staying together is very important,” Giddey said.

“It's easy to do when you're winning, everything's going well, but when things aren't going well, like they're not right now, that's when you see the real character of a group.

“We've got to come together as players and figure out how to get out of this kind of hole. No one's going to save us. We can only keep using the excuse that it's a new team put together for so long.

“We're beyond that point now. We've had enough time together for everyone to be familiar with the offence, the defence, what we're doing, and how we want to play.

We're way past that point now. I don't know, eight, nine, 10 in a row, whatever we've lost.

“We're not that bad a team that we should be losing that many in a row.

“We've got to find ways to be way more competitive. I guess it starts with that first unit. We've got to set the tone, and the second unit comes in and keeps that flow effect going.

"We've got to find ways, one through 15, to get this thing on the right track because the season goes quickly. There's 25 games left, and we're kind of sliding down the standings right now.

“Everyone in this locker room wants to win games, and it's up to us. No one's saving us, no one's going to come and do it for us. It's up to us players. Coaches can only prepare us so much, so we have to go out there and execute.”

Bulls head coach Billy Donovan knows Giddey is frustrated with his stop-start minutes, which impact his ability to drive the Bulls' offence.

“I don't want to necessarily speak for him,” Donovan said.

“I think he's, this is just my gut, I think he's frustrated. Not with anybody or anything, I think it's more just he's a competitive guy, and he wants to be out there.

“I think when he's getting in the flow and getting in the rhythm in the game, and he's got to come out, it's hard. His rotations have got unfortunately these huge gaps in them because we're trying to keep at least some experienced guys that have been here that can help some of these new guys.

“You get caught in the situation where he starts, and a lot of times, he's not coming all the way back until the start of the second quarter. Then he's sitting through the whole thing, he's sitting all through halftime. It's hard. He's going to have to find his way through this.

“That's what you worry about, these recurrence things. Certainly, I want to do what medical's asking me to do. They've asked me to try to keep those guys inside of 24 minutes. I'm trying to do the best job I can. I went a little bit over last night.

“I know Josh wants to be out there, and so does Trey, but they also understand what we're doing here.

“I would imagine it's probably hard for him to find a rhythm with the way his rotations have been, quite honestly.”

The Bulls have 24 games left in the season to work it out after the team that started the 2025-26 season now looks completely different.

“Obviously, it's part of the business,” Giddey said.

“Those decisions are made that none of us players has control over. Our job is to go out and perform and win games every night. That's what we get paid to do, irrespective of who's on the floor with us. We've got to do that.

“It's different. As I said earlier, we're not going to keep using the excuse that it's a new team for as long as we can. We're past that point now.

“It is frustrating because you build so much continuity with the team that you have, and then it just gets torn apart within a couple of days.

“We've got (24) games left to get this new team together. As I said, we've had so much time now for everyone to get familiar with what we do and how we play. Four in a row now, and none of the games after the deadline have been even close, I don't think. Tonight was probably the closest.

“We've got to find ways to get out of the hole and figure it out as a group.

“Nobody's feeling sorry for us. There's no asterisk on the stat sheet that says it's a new team together. It's on us players to figure this out.”

Donovan backed Giddey to work it out.

“I think with Josh, he's very cerebral, he's very smart, and he's a very instinctive player,” Donovan added.

“I always think when you're a guy that passes the ball the way he does, it takes time to get to know people and get the right spacing on the floor where he can kind of get downhill and create and generate things for others.

“I think that's been, quite honestly, a struggle for us from the beginning. We're getting better.

“I don't want to say we're not, but the spacing part's got to be better for all those guys to be able to attack and get downhill and play in the paint, and that's obviously his strength. You want to be able to help him do that.

“I do think that Josh is probably like a lot of our guys, getting to know all these guys.

“He's got to work on a pairing with Nick (Richards) at the five spot. Nick's different. Vuch was a pocket player. Nick's more of a roller, lob threat.

"Even when (Guerschon Yabusele) is at the five spot, those are different combinations of screening actions.

“He's used to being in actions with (Alex) Caruso, but all these things are going to take a little bit of time for him to get acclimated and familiar with these guys. When you're having a rotation like he's having, sometimes it's hard to do that.

“If you look at us shooting really for the entire year, not since the trades, we have not been a great finishing team at the rim. We're really at the bottom of the league.”