Josh Giddey Talks Early Struggles, Learning Bulls' New Offensive System

Josh Giddey's second season with the Chicago Bulls saw significant growth, as he nearly averaged a triple-double and flirted with All-Star consideration prior to suffering a hamstring injury. Four games into the 2026-27 season, the 24-year-old point guard hasn't lived up to the billing.

Under new head coach Tiago Splitter, Giddey is averaging 7.0 points, 7.3 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game while shooting just 33.3% from the field and making two of his 13 three-point attempts. He and Matas Buzelis have both struggled as newcomers Caleb Wilson and Norman Powell have emerged as the Bulls' two leading shot-takers.

The Bulls' offense as a whole has been disappointing amid the team's 1-3 start. Chicago is getting to the free-throw line more than anyone so far (34.5 attempts per game), but is also shooting a league-worst 40.6% overall and 23.8% on threes. Giddey is a believer that the Bulls will eventually improve from a shooting standpoint.

"We're probably shooting the ball as bad as anybody in the league right now," Giddey said on Tuesday. "We're generating really good looks. Obviously, the averages will start to balance out eventually. We're not gonna shoot this poorly for the entire season... When we get in the paint, we kick it out, we dump it off, we get good looks. We're just not making them at as high a clip as we'd probably like right now."

On wide-open three-point attempts this season (nearest defender at least six feet away), the Bulls are shooting just 22.7%, the worst in the NBA. Giddey, a pass-first guard, is paramount in spreading the ball around and setting his teammates up to take good shots. That focus has been thrown into disarray, though, with Splitter's emphasis that all five players need to crash the glass.

Giddey has been a good rebounder throughout his career, averaging 7.6 boards and 1.6 offensive rebounds per game prior to this season. But the Bulls seriously lack size with center Nic Claxton injured, and Splitter's answer seems to be that a collective effort from everyone on the floor will make up for that. That has put Giddey and others in new positions on the court from where they're used to, which will take time to get comfortable.

"Everything here is new — coaches, front office, players — we're all learning and adapting," Giddey said. "I'm speaking for me; I'm still trying to figure it out. I'm still trying to figure out how I can be effective, how I can make other guys effective on the court. These things take time, and it's been four games. I'm not gonna say we're starting to figure it out like we've got all the answers, but I think we're getting better every day. We're looking at positives from games. Obviously, when you lose by 30, there's probably more negatives than positives to take out of it, but these are the types of experiences you need to go through as a team and individually to get better as players."

In the 30 games before his hamstring injury last December, Giddey was averaging 19.2 points, 9.0 assists and 8.9 rebounds per game while shooting 46.6% overall and 38.6% on threes. Chicago had a 15-15 record. In the 24 games he played afterward, Giddey's ability to attack the paint effectively was diminished. He put up 14.3 points, 9.3 assists and 7.3 rebounds per game on 42.0% shooting and 34.1% from three as the Bulls went 6-18 down the stretch.

Giddey's lack of individual success post-injury has made it easier for defenses to give him space, as well as harder for his teammates to get as open as they were previously.

Nonetheless, the Bulls are just four games into the 82-game season and there is plenty of time for things to turn around. That may not come in the next few weeks, as Chicago plays nine consecutive games against 2025-26 playoff teams, but the odds that the Bulls' two best players from a season ago play as poorly as they have been for the remainder of the season are statistically improbable.

"My job is to try to make everyone around me better, and I don't think I'm doing nearly as good enough a job as I should be at that," Giddey said. "We've got to figure it out collectively. I've got to do a better job of organizing that group offensively. I think we'll be alright. As I said, we're four games in. There's a lot to look at, and we'll get better as we keep playing."