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Josh Giddey locks in $100M deal with Chicago

Written By

Peter Brown

basketball.com.au

Josh Giddey locks in $100M deal with Chicago
Josh Giddey locks in $100M deal with Chicago

Australian Josh Giddey attends the NBL26 Season Launch at Courtside on September 2, 2025 in Melbourne. Photo: Morgan Hancock/Getty Images for NBL

Josh Giddey re-signs with Chicago Bulls on a four-year, $100M contract as a restricted free agent.

Australian guard Josh Giddey has signed a four-year USD $100m contract with the Chicago Bulls ending an off-season stalemate between the restricted free agent and the six-time NBA champions.

ESPN's Shams Charania reports: "Restricted free agent Josh Giddey has reached agreement on a four-year, $100 million deal to re-sign with the Chicago Bulls, agent Daniel Moldovan of Lighthouse Sports Management tells ESPN."

The deal is worth $152M AUD. Giddey might not have landed the $30M USD he was after but $38.3M AUD per season looks like it got the job done.

Spotrac reports: "Josh Giddey signed a 4-year, $100M contract with the Chicago Bulls, including $100,000,000 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $25,000,000. In 2025-26, Giddey will earn a base salary of $22,321,429, while carrying a cap hit of $22,321,429 and a dead cap value of $22,321,429."

Giddey, 22, is coming off his four-year $27.2M rookie deal he signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder after being drafted in 2021. He earned USD $5.9M in his first season and in 2028, his eighth in the league, he's expected to earn USD $27.6M bringing his career earnings to a staggering USD $127.2M — or AUD $193.3M (at today's exchange rate).

Five-time NBL MVP Bryce Cotton said he was happy for Giddey but understood why the contract negotiation was glacial.

"I would probably keep it simple and say, first of all, sports is a business, so just as much as the players are trying to get the most bang for their buck, teams are gonna try to get a bargain for their talent as well, and I’m happy to hear that Josh actually got the contract he was looking for because you hear the horror stories where it goes the other way," Cotton said on SEN Radio in SA today.

Josh Giddey contract situation explained

  • Josh Giddey was a restricted free agent. It meant he could negotiate with any team in the NBA for the best contract he can secure for himself.
  • The Chicago Bulls had the option to match that deal and Giddey would remain a Bulls player.
  • But a vast majority of NBA teams didn't have the salary cap space to accommodate Giddey's salary expectations, which means his ability to drive the outcome was diminished.
  • It allowed Chicago to present a "team friendly" deal to Giddey ... code for less money given the lack of market demand.
  • Giddey's primary negotiating tool was to play for his $11.1M (USD) qualifying offer and then become an unrestricted free agent in 2025-26, which then meant he could negotiate with any NBA team for the best deal.
  • Giddey's camp was looking for $30M per season and the Bulls $20M
  • The two camps met in the middle at $25M.

It was a free agency saga that has dragged on since the end of the 2024-25 season with both camps unable to find the middle ground given the cap space issues of potential suitors not driving the demand for Giddey's salary expectation.

Starting NBA guards are being paid about $30M per season and the Bulls presented unders to the Giddey camp given the lack of a market for the 22-year-old.

What is "Dead Cap Value"

  • Dead cap value = guaranteed salary that sticks to the cap even if the player is gone.
  • It limits a team’s flexibility because that money can’t be used for other players.
  • Examples:
    • The Los Angeles Lakers carried dead cap hits for Luol Deng even after waiving him.
    • The San Antonio Spurs stretched Pau Gasol’s contract, creating dead cap charges across multiple years.

In short: Dead cap is like paying for a player’s contract on your books without the benefit of having him on the team.

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