To impress new Chicago Bulls coach Tiago Splitter, Josh Giddey needs to get more simple.
It’s an interesting task for a point guard known for his flash. On paper, Giddey appeared consistently productive last season. He averaged 17 points, 9.1 assists and 8.3 rebounds and shot 36.4% from 3-point range. His 13 triple-doubles were second in the league to Nikola Jokić’s 34.
But Splitter wants Giddey to minimize his nights with empty stats. During training camp, the coach has brushed off the triple-doubles to focus on his main concern — improving Giddey’s efficiency as a facilitator.
“I don’t need him to be cute,” Splitter said. “I need him to be effective.”
That sentiment hits home for Giddey, who values his creativity. Passing is the cornerstone of his NBA career, the aspect of his game that most stands out. But while Giddey’s assist average last season was a career high, he also racked up a career-high 3.6 turnovers per game.
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The value that a turnover detracts from a team’s momentum is greater than that provided by an assist. And Giddey wants to be a plus-value player this season, even when the Bulls are suffering the growing pains of a rebuilding season.
“I have a tendency to sometimes do things that probably are too cute,” Giddey told the Tribune. “Whether I fit the ball through a tight window or get loose in my handle, it’s just things like that.
“It’s exactly what (Splitter) said: It doesn’t matter how it looks as long as it gets done. If you want to be the guy with the ball in his hands, you have to be able to take care of it. That’s the message and I completely agree.”
Criticism of a point guard’s moments of over-optimism often suggests a level of selfishness. Giddey knows he sometimes gets caught chasing the most beautiful play — but it comes from an honest place.
He always has seen himself as moving a step ahead of every other player on the court, giving him a preternatural ability to anticipate movement and create opportunity through his passing. In camp last week, Giddey swore he saw Buddy Hield open on the backdoor, only to launch a pass that sailed in the opposite direction from where his teammate chose to cut.
For Giddey to become truly efficient, he knows the ratio of flash to function needs to change.
“I don’t think it comes from selfishness,” he said. “I really am always trying to make the right play. But it’s about cutting down on the hard plays, making the simple play and the easy play and the right play. That base has to be there.”
Splitter already is challenging Giddey — but after a year of tumult in Chicago, this is the type of pressure the point guard is eager to receive.
At the trade deadline, Giddey hit a low point. He was exhausted by losing. His body hurt. Almost half of his teammates and close friends had been traded. And he couldn’t wrap his head around the team’s trajectory.
The Bulls went into the season with a goal of winning. With those trades, however, the front office had clearly abandoned any attempts to make the playoffs. Giddey felt directionless — and confused about the future in Chicago.
He lingered in that frustration for longer than he would have liked. He needed to be the team leader alongside the few remaining veterans such as Tre Jones, but it was hard to muster the enthusiasm to buoy a locker room of mostly strangers to finish the season strong.
“It just felt like I was getting into a hole that was getting deeper and deeper, both individually and as a team,” Giddey said.
The offseason cleared the air. Giddey returned to Australia, where he dived back into the comfortable social life of his home. At the end of the 2025-26 season, he had gotten cooped up. He spent too much time on PlayStation and YouTube, leaning on self-isolation as a crutch for managing his disappointment. But a summer spent with friends and family, eating big meals and watching Aussie football, broke Giddey out of that shell.
He also underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right ankle during that time, a routine operation that didn’t limit him for training camp. When he returned to Chicago for optional preseason training in September, he felt back to himself — and prepared to take the point for the Bulls again.
“I feel good,” Giddey said. “I feel healthy. It was really refreshing coming back to being among everyone. It was really cool to be back here early in the summer and just being around the group and starting to build that camaraderie again.”
This season will function somewhat like an audition for players such as Giddey, who are too old to fully fit in the “young core” built around Caleb Wilson and Matas Buzelis.
Giddey, who turns 24 next week, is entering the second year of a four-year, $100 million deal that is both affordable for the Bulls and likely a slight overpay from Giddey’s market value. To earn a long-term role in Chicago, Giddey will need to prove he can elevate his teammates in a system built around other players.
He’s embracing the challenge of that first impression. And Splitter, for his part, aims to give Giddey as clean of a slate as possible to work with under his system.
“I like to approach every player, every situation, as a fresh start,” Splitter said. “Not just Josh but for everybody, I don’t like to take those contexts from the past. I try to do it differently.”