Bulls vs Heat 7pm CT Apr. 9 2025

[DuckIII]

Damn, we really are gonna have to max Giddey aren’t we?

Oh well. I always liked him in OKC and liked the trade, but damn and holy shyte he’s good. Never saw this coming.

Credit where due: AK played the Caruso situation like a maestro. Signed Caruso to one of the best value deals in the NBA and then as his contract was expiring traded him for a 23 year old 6’8 pg playing like he’s third team all-NBA.

Giddey will never reach free agency.

I'm coming around to the idea that a 4Y/180 contract is what he'll get from us. It just outpaces the max he'd be able to get from Brooklyn.

We're gonna be a lot less rosy on Giddey and Coby when we're paying them $40M+ per year unless they play like this pretty much all the time.

At that price they'll have to lead us to non-play-in playoff appearances on a yearly basis to justify it.

Coby has to prove it for a whole other year. I’m not worried about him. He’ll maintain or decline. Easy peasy.

As for Giddey, he’s a perfect fit with Matas and you simply have to accept the risk and pay him due to his age and the absurdity of what he is doing now. Having another year like we have with Coby would be great, but alas. Just gotta take the plunge.

[BullChit]

I'm coming around to the idea that a 4Y/180 contract is what he'll get from us. It just outpaces the max he'd be able to get from Brooklyn.

We're gonna be a lot less rosy on Giddey and Coby when we're paying them $40M+ per year unless they play like this pretty much all the time.

At that price they'll have to lead us to non-play-in playoff appearances on a yearly basis to justify it.

Coby has to prove it for a whole other year. I’m not worried about him. He’ll maintain or decline. Easy peasy.

As for Giddey, he’s a perfect fit with Matas and you simply have to accept the risk and pay him due to his age and the absurdity of what he is doing now. Having another year like we have with Coby would be great, but alas. Just gotta take the plunge.

We gotta get an athletic defensive big to go with Giddey and Matas too...

[GoBlue72391]

Read on Twitter

Wow

Josh Giddey is a franchise player

It's fantastic that we've got 3 franchise players already!

This dude is miserable

All good, I remember when I first started posting on the Bulls board, I was a sarcastic ***hole too. Keep it up, you excel at it!

Nope, not miserable, just balanced and a realist. I've been really enjoying these Bulls of the past couple months and I like Coby, Giddey, and Matas a lot and think they're all very good players and I'm excited about their present and future. I'm also extremely wary about paying two of them max contracts and I'm not ready to label any of them franchise players yet, if ever. Both of those things can be true at the same time, it's not contradictory.

Maybe you have a lower bar for franchise player than I do.

Also, I've been here longer than you.

[GoBlue72391]

I'm coming around to the idea that a 4Y/180 contract is what he'll get from us. It just outpaces the max he'd be able to get from Brooklyn.

We're gonna be a lot less rosy on Giddey and Coby when we're paying them $40M+ per year unless they play like this pretty much all the time.

At that price they'll have to lead us to non-play-in playoff appearances on a yearly basis to justify it.

Coby has to prove it for a whole other year. I’m not worried about him. He’ll maintain or decline. Easy peasy.

As for Giddey, he’s a perfect fit with Matas and you simply have to accept the risk and pay him due to his age and the absurdity of what he is doing now. Having another year like we have with Coby would be great, but alas. Just gotta take the plunge.

I'm certainly not suggesting letting him walk. We have to keep him, but it's gonna be a huge risk and will make things a lot less fun when he's not putting up video game numbers. Can a core of Giddey/Coby/Matas lead to wins? It better because we're going to likely max two of them.

[kodo]

46 made shots on 33 assists, only 13 FTs. That's some very ethical basketball.

[GoBlue72391]

We're gonna be a lot less rosy on Giddey and Coby when we're paying them $40M+ per year unless they play like this pretty much all the time.

At that price they'll have to lead us to non-play-in playoff appearances on a yearly basis to justify it.

Coby has to prove it for a whole other year. I’m not worried about him. He’ll maintain or decline. Easy peasy.

As for Giddey, he’s a perfect fit with Matas and you simply have to accept the risk and pay him due to his age and the absurdity of what he is doing now. Having another year like we have with Coby would be great, but alas. Just gotta take the plunge.

We gotta get an athletic defensive big to go with Giddey and Matas too...

We've been needing that guy ever since we shipped off Gafford.

[Muzbar]

It's fantastic that we've got 3 franchise players already!

This dude is miserable

All good, I remember when I first started posting on the Bulls board, I was a sarcastic ***hole too. Keep it up, you excel at it!

Nope, not miserable, just balanced and a realist. I've been really enjoying these Bulls of the past couple months and I like Coby, Giddey, and Matas a lot and think they're all very good players and I'm excited about their present and future. I'm also extremely wary about paying two of them max contracts and I'm not ready to label any of them franchise players yet, if ever. Both of those things can be true at the same time, it's not contradictory.

Maybe you have a lower bar for franchise player than I do.

Also, I've been here longer than you.

I've got to agree with you about labelling players franchise players, yes, Giddey has been playing some phenomenal basketball as of late and hopefully it continues for the remainder of his career, but it's been half a season, pump the brakes a tad.

That said, Giddey has been playing consistently great for a while now, he's definitely a foundation piece that I've been harping on about for a while, hopefully Matas is too.

[Dresden]

I'm just a casual fan of the Bulls these days, but I don't get the hesitation to pay some of our young guys the market rate. Because what's the alternative- let them walk and then be right back to hoping that whoever we draft each year becomes as good as those guys we just let walk away? If you have a young player who is worth 40M on the open market, then either you have to pony up, or admit you're a second rate franchise who will only pay guys market rate if they happen to be the second coming of MJ or Kobe?

Maybe you don't pay ALL of them, but having two guys each making a lot of dough is what most teams have, isn't it?

[GoBlue72391]

This dude is miserable

All good, I remember when I first started posting on the Bulls board, I was a sarcastic ***hole too. Keep it up, you excel at it!

Nope, not miserable, just balanced and a realist. I've been really enjoying these Bulls of the past couple months and I like Coby, Giddey, and Matas a lot and think they're all very good players and I'm excited about their present and future. I'm also extremely wary about paying two of them max contracts and I'm not ready to label any of them franchise players yet, if ever. Both of those things can be true at the same time, it's not contradictory.

Maybe you have a lower bar for franchise player than I do.

Also, I've been here longer than you.

I've got to agree with you about labelling players franchise players, yes, Giddey has been playing some phenomenal basketball as of late and hopefully it continues for the remainder of his career, but it's been half a season, pump the brakes a tad.

That said, Giddey has been playing consistently great for a while now, he's definitely a foundation piece that I've been harping on about for a while, hopefully Matas is too.

Foundational piece? Absolutely.

Franchise player? As you said, pump the brakes.

[Clocian]

Read on Twitter

Wow

Josh Giddey is a franchise player

It's fantastic that we've got 3 franchise players already!

Nope, we need to trade Giddey, Coby, and Matas for picks.

Ok, let me go back to reddit. Good seeing yall but I'm back out of here

[League Circles]

Damn, we really are gonna have to max Giddey aren’t we?

Oh well. I always liked him in OKC and liked the trade, but damn and holy shyte he’s good. Never saw this coming.

Credit where due: AK played the Caruso situation like a maestro. Signed Caruso to one of the best value deals in the NBA and then as his contract was expiring traded him for a 23 year old 6’8 pg playing like he’s third team all-NBA.

Giddey will never reach free agency.

I'm coming around to the idea that a 4Y/180 contract is what he'll get from us. It just outpaces the max he'd be able to get from Brooklyn.

I never ever consider it likely, nor would I ever criticize a player for not doing it, but I could see him agreeing to a little less than Brooklyn’s max to stay. This dude wreaks of “oh my god I’m so lucky and happy to be here.”

And don’t underestimate how much being loved by the fans might mean to Giddey after the B.S. he endured from fans last year.

Tonight was the end of uncertainty. He won’t hit the open market.

Yeah I can see something like a little good will on both sides. For example, something like:

Bulls concede by: paying Giddey up front each season, and giving him a PO 5th year
Giddey concedes by: maybe starting at the 25 % max but staying flat or something like that?

[GoBlue72391]

Read on Twitter

Wow

Josh Giddey is a franchise player

It's fantastic that we've got 3 franchise players already!

Nope, we need to trade Giddey, Coby, and Matas for picks.

Ok, let me go back to reddit. Good seeing yall but I'm back out of here

I'd be down with selling high on Coby since he's the one I'm most unsold on. Giddey and especially Matas are definite keepers. Paying Giddey $40M+ per year would be a lot easier to stomach if we were to trade Coby and let someone else take that risk, as much as I do like him.

[Red8911]

Big win and season sweep against the Heat but will probably have to play them again for the play in unless the hawks lose 2 out of 3 and bulls win all. Could happen but wouldn’t bet on it, we most likely looking at another heat-Bulls rematch.

Got to love how Matas keeps growing, that dagger shot was sweet. Huerter after that slow start in Chicago has become a very important player for the bulls, 22 pts for him.

Giddey with another incredible performance. I don’t think anyone expected him to be this good after having an average first half of the season. I don’t think he even expected this lol.

Thank goodness the bulls traded Zach! What a great trade that turned out to be for so many reasons. If you think about it if Fox had never asked out of Sacramento then maybe the bulls wouldn’t be able to move Zach again.

[GoBlue72391]

I'm just a casual fan of the Bulls these days, but I don't get the hesitation to pay some of our young guys the market rate. Because what's the alternative- let them walk and then be right back to hoping that whoever we draft each year becomes as good as those guys we just let walk away? If you have a young player who is worth 40M on the open market, then either you have to pony up, or admit you're a second rate franchise who will only pay guys market rate if they happen to be the second coming of MJ or Kobe?

Maybe you don't pay ALL of them, but having two guys each making a lot of dough is what most teams have, isn't it?

What happens if you max Giddey and Coby and it turns out they can't keep up their current levels of play and revert back to solid yet streaky players?

You're looking at a crippled franchise for the foreseeable future. I get it, you gotta pay guys to keep guys, gotta do what you gotta do, but I don't understand how people can be so gung-ho about it and not be anxious/nervous/uncertain of doing that.

It's like...yeah, do it if you have to, but I'm going to be biting my nails while we do it, not shooting off fireworks in celebration. I think we should explore selling high on Coby during the offseason/next tradeline before being forced to most likely max him. If there's no deals worth taking, pay the man...begrudgingly.

Also, how do you know we'll pay them the market rate? When has AKME done that? We didn't pay Pat or Vuc the market rate, we bid against ourselves and overpaid them and gave them more years than what was logical. Just another thing to be uncertain about.

[Red8911]

Shout out to Vuc too. We don’t talk about him because he has not future here, but he’s playing well.

Yup he’s been overshadowed by Giddey,Coby, Matas but Vuc has been getting the job done consistently again.

He had a bad stretch right after the trade deadline, didn’t seem interested since it seemed like they were tanking and got an injury but after these young’s guys picked up their game and started winning he too is back to good ol Vuc.

Also we don’t know if he has a future here or not. He could very well stay until the end of his contract.

[bullskokie]

Shout out to Vuc too. We don’t talk about him because he has not future here, but he’s playing well.

Yup he’s been overshadowed by Giddey,Coby, Matas but Vuc has been getting the job done consistently again.

He had a bad stretch right after the trade deadline, didn’t seem interested since it seemed like they were tanking and got an injury but after these young’s guys picked up their game and started winning he too is back to good ol Vuc.

Also we don’t know if he has a future here or not. He could very well stay until the end of his contract.

I like Vuc and I believe he wanted to stay. Guys like that are great at the locker as well…

[Dan Z]

I'm just a casual fan of the Bulls these days, but I don't get the hesitation to pay some of our young guys the market rate. Because what's the alternative- let them walk and then be right back to hoping that whoever we draft each year becomes as good as those guys we just let walk away? If you have a young player who is worth 40M on the open market, then either you have to pony up, or admit you're a second rate franchise who will only pay guys market rate if they happen to be the second coming of MJ or Kobe?

Maybe you don't pay ALL of them, but having two guys each making a lot of dough is what most teams have, isn't it?

I don't think anyone has an issue with paying Giddey/Coby, but they've only played at this level for part of a season. The question is: Will they continue playing like this next season? Or regress back to the players they were last season?

If I told you, before the season started, that Giddey/Coby are worth 35+ million a year you'd probably say I was crazy. Now...not so much.

Also, the team still needs more talent even with those two (plus continued improvement from Matas) so having some financial room to worth with helps (even if it's just to do things like avoid the tax or sign a minor player).

[Dan Z]

I'm just a casual fan of the Bulls these days, but I don't get the hesitation to pay some of our young guys the market rate. Because what's the alternative- let them walk and then be right back to hoping that whoever we draft each year becomes as good as those guys we just let walk away? If you have a young player who is worth 40M on the open market, then either you have to pony up, or admit you're a second rate franchise who will only pay guys market rate if they happen to be the second coming of MJ or Kobe?

Maybe you don't pay ALL of them, but having two guys each making a lot of dough is what most teams have, isn't it?

What happens if you max Giddey and Coby and it turns out they can't keep up their current levels of play and revert back to solid yet streaky players?

You're looking at a crippled franchise for the foreseeable future. I get it, you gotta pay guys to keep guys, gotta do what you gotta do, but I don't understand how people can be so gung-ho about it and not be anxious/nervous/uncertain of doing that.

It's like...yeah, do it if you have to, but I'm going to be biting my nails while we do it, not shooting off fireworks in celebration. I think we should explore selling high on Coby during the offseason/next tradeline before being forced to most likely max him. If there's no deals worth taking, pay the man...begrudgingly.

Also, how do you know we'll pay them the market rate? When has AKME done that? We didn't pay Pat or Vuc the market rate, we bid against ourselves and overpaid them and gave them more years than what was logical. Just another thing to be uncertain about.

AK isn't going to rebuild through the draft so what other options are there? Might as well pay Giddey, let Coby play out next season (to see if he can continue his current level of play) and add to the team any other way you can.

It's not great, but better than where the team was headed a year or two ago.

Also, I agree with you about AK and letting the market decide. He hasn't done that and I worry that he won't even try it with Giddey.

[Chi town]

Giddey was the best player on the court tonight.

He controlled the game.

He showed another gear of intensity, IQ, and leadership while directing the floor on both ends.

He’s damn good.

[GoBlue72391]

Shout out to Vuc too. We don’t talk about him because he has not future here, but he’s playing well.

Yup he’s been overshadowed by Giddey,Coby, Matas but Vuc has been getting the job done consistently again.

He had a bad stretch right after the trade deadline, didn’t seem interested since it seemed like they were tanking and got an injury but after these young’s guys picked up their game and started winning he too is back to good ol Vuc.

Also we don’t know if he has a future here or not. He could very well stay until the end of his contract.

I like Vuc and I believe he wanted to stay. Guys like that are great at the locker as well…

He absolutely cannot stay beyond his contract, and even that is too long. If the team is going to be built around Coby and Giddey you cannot, under any circumstances, have a C like Vuc as the starter.

Then again knowing AKME, who knows, maybe he'll be here til he retires.