Josh Giddey’s Star Audition | Chicago Bulls Season Review

Josh Giddey’s Star Audition | Chicago Bulls Season Review

Let’s talk about the rest of the Chicago Bulls. Josh Giddy, Patrick Williams, Mats Bzales, and of course, I know you’re waiting for it, Talon Horton Tucker. Thanks, Josh. It’s Michael Bolton here, and it’s time for another episode of the Locked On Fantasy Basketball Podcast. Let’s get to it. Let’s get to it indeed. You are Locked on Fantasy, your daily NBA fantasy podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Hello and welcome to the Locked On Fantasy Basketball Podcast, brought to you by Basketball Monster. My name is Josh Lloyd and this show is either a Jojo Siwa fan show or it’s a Jojo Sua hate show depending on which side of whatever is going on that you want to be on. I’m also the lead fantasy analyst at basketballmonster.com and today’s episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use the code lockdown NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. Thank you also for making lockdown fantasy basketball your first listen every day. We are free and we are available on all platforms. So you know what you can do? You can thumb up and you could subscribe and leave all that info. Not info, just subscribe and you never miss a show. We did the early one talked about V and Kobe White fan pants. uh every other million point guard on this team. So, go and check that out earlier on today. We’re here to talk about the rest of the Chicago Bulls as they strive again to lose a playin game for the uh 14th season in a row. We’re just going to get straight into talking because this is one of the most intriguing players I would say in the NBA and in fantasy and it is of course Josh Giddy. Giddy was bad to start the season. I ridiculed the Bulls trade giving up Alex Caruso for Josh Giddy uh without getting anything from the Thunder at all. And yes, Josh Giddy is very obviously younger than Alex Caruso, but you’ll notice that one team got smashed in the plane and one of those teams is in the NBA finals. And is it because of Caruso? Well, it’s not not because of Caruso. I think that still was a bad trade and I don’t believe it was a win-win. It’s a win-win in the same way that a Dantis Sabonis for Tyres Hallebertton trade was a win-win in that it wasn’t. So Giddy comes across now to Chicago and struggled. Yes, he started all season, but he was routinely benched for the first two to three months of the season, wouldn’t play in fourth quarters, didn’t really Billy Donovan would not trust him and it was bad. And then in the second half of the season, multiple players got hurt andor traded and Giddy did so much more. And he did the thing, which is one of the traps we have to be very careful about in fantasy. He did the thing where he turned increased opportunity because Dumu and Lonzo were out. Vu missed a little bit of time. Zack Lavine was traded. All of those things happened at the same time. He he paired that with a run of shooting 50% from three with like two steals and 1.2 blocks a game or something crazy along those lines. And that all happened at the same time. He played 40 minutes a night. The usage went up. He shot the lights out. He brought defensive stats and post trade deadline, Josh Giddy was the 10th ranked player in category leagues. 10th. He was 85th before the trade deadline. And I think before about January the 20th, he was like 130th or 120th. So he definitely improved as the season went on. He’s still young. He’s got he has got improvement in him. There is no question about that. He shot 38% from three overall, which again seems good, but it required like a 45% run for 6 weeks to get him to that. His free throw numbers decreased from where they were last season down to 78%. 1.2 steals and 6 blocks is fine. That’s not it’s not great, but it’s fine. He’s still not a good defender. What is really interesting when you look at the advanced stats on Giddy Drip Delta 93rd percentile Darko still looked at his impact and I I even though he improved over that 6 week period I still don’t I think Giddy was still not very good for most of the year and Darko has him in the 34th percentile in terms of delta which has him about level slight decrease. His passing volume 97th percentile offensive load 92nd percentile. So, while we can look at these numbers with his 23 usage and go, “Yeah, look, he probably can increase next season with Lavine not there all year, he was still in a pretty high ball in his hands um role for the totality of the year. He averaged seven assists and eight rebounds. It is and and 14 points in his 30 minutes a game. It is probably likely that he will play 34 minutes a night if he’s on the Bulls. It is probably likely that he will get to 17 points with nine rebounds and maybe eight and a half assists. He will probably be a top 50-ish fantasy player. That is probably the way it goes. But but the level that he was playing at is just not a realistic expectation. And I would say the majority of people would would accept that. That’s that’s of course. All right. Of course. But he’s in that spot that I talk about a lot is that he is going to be put into position most likely and it’ll be very interesting to see what they do with Lonzo and Dumu and what happens if Trey Jones is brought back and Kevin Herder and Kobe White and how they manage those rotations and those minutes and how it goes when Giddy is actually you trying to do this against teams that are trying a lot harder than they were in March and April and then what happens with that shot if he can develop into a consistent 39% three-point should have then it changes a lot of things. The the problem is and I think again most reasonable fans understand that he’s not a first round player. I I would I would think that the question is going to be will people take him in round two? No, they shouldn’t. Round three also don’t believe they should. Round four, I get the argument and I actually think that if the Bulls keep him in this role and he plays 33 minutes a night, round four would make complete sense. He’s going to get points, rebounds, assists, some okay steals, and some threes. But the problem always to me is a player like this, if you’re in a dynasty format, you might be seduced by the age is that teams will again look at this and go, I don’t think we want him running the show. We want to be better. As with every evaluation of players, I could easily be wrong on this. Maybe he turns into a good defender. Maybe he is a 40% three-point shooter and he actually leads the team like it can be an offensive engine that leads a team into great success. I don’t think he will. And I think that what we saw was 38 minutes, 46% three-point shooting, incredible defensive numbers out of nowhere that turned him into a top 10 player for a 6 to 8 week period. And that just is not a realistic position to move forward. So you would always be receptive to a trade in dynasty or you should always be looking for that on some I believe on someone like Josh Giddy. I think he is serviceable enough. He will put up big counting numbers if he is given those 33 minutes a night. But again it is worth remembering that he was bad for three and a half months of the season. He was continually benched by the same guy who is the head coach now. And we don’t know what they’re going to do with Dumu and with Lonzo and how it all is going to fit together. We just don’t know how they’re going to run that. And I don’t think that that six week period from Giddy should change our opinions on whether he is now um this go-to future allstar point guard. I don’t believe that. And that’s again we will that will be proven out either way right or rightly or wrongly over the next three seasons I think. And I know that I’m going to have a negative reaction to what happens to him in free agency. I know that’s going to happen. We’ll see. Speaking of negative reactions in free agency, Patrick Williams signed a 5year $90 million contract and he’s terrible. Like he’s bad. He was a top pick, top five pick, fourth overall. Um he’s been given every opportunity to start over multiple seasons. It seems like once you once a year Billy Donovan benches him cuz he’s terrible and then someone gets hurt and he steps back up and he still offers us nothing. Nine points a game for Patrick Williams. One of the worst advanced metric droppers all season. Third percentile dark drip. He’s a 36th percentile in offensive load. He’s he used to be a much better defender. I think that dropped off as well. He doesn’t contest shots or get deflections as much. He shot under 40% from a field as a power forward. 35% on threes, two assists a game. He has struggled in the past to even scale up when players are out. I think it’s relatively clear that he is just not as good already as much as Bzalis and he’s a bench player. Now again, I could Bzales and Williams play together at the three and the four. I don’t think so. I think you want both those guys at the four and Williams really should just be a backup. But we are five years in now to this with Patrick Williams and have we even seen like any level of improvement? I know for fantasy we don’t really get anything. 251st ranked player. He got worse after the trade deadline despite players not being there. It’s cuz Bzalis did more. He’s a 18 usage player that needs to like to be useful be an elite level defender and good three-point shooter. And I don’t think those things are there. Like not a bad defender but not a not a great one. And I think part of the reason we’re getting or he’s been getting the opportunities that he has is largely just draft stock and draft capital invested by this team plus the nonsense contract that they gave him. I don’t think there is any real hope for him to become an impact player in fantasy or in the NBA. And I would hope and I I I get that vibe that they are done with him as this starter because there is someone that we’re going to talk about coming up in a sec that is going to be better in that position. And we’ll come back and talk about Metals Bzalis in a second. Today’s episode though is brought to you by Monarch Money. You check your bank account and you go, “Where did the money go?” Between dining out and online shopping, entertainment, it could be easy to lose track. And that is where Monarch Money comes in. It’s your personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money isn’t just a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track all of your accounts and investments and your spending in one place. So, stop just managing your money and start building wealth instead of juggling through multiple apps. 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I don’t actually remember where I had him in last year’s draft, but to me after the draft was complete, I thought that Bales had a chance to be one of the top five fantasy impact guys immediately as a rookie cuz I was like, surely the Bulls don’t think that Patrick Williams is the answer. And unfortunately for us, they did think that until about halfway through the season. Now, Buzzales is a rookie and it was a bad rookie class. We know that he struggled at times and Billy Donovan is going to be a hard ass on rookies and so any sort of sign of something, Bizalis would get benched. He’d have his minutes pulled back and he wasn’t given that many opportunities to flourish. Post trade deadline 143rd. Now again I’ve been telling you especially in these bull shows don’t read everything into the second half of the season with rookies it can be different and context is always important cuz he pushed into a role ahead of Patrick Williams. So I I think what we look at with Bzalis is that with that you know increased trust that we saw it’s important the numbers and the rank not really the increased trust we saw still not there right but the full year of experience should put him in the box seat to be the opening day starter at power forward next season and what does Bales bring shot blocking he is a power forward who played 19 minutes and averaged a block a game he’s in the 90th percentile in terms of contesting shots at the rim. impressive offensive load very small 31st percentile he was at 19 12% usage I think that we could not necessarily his usage will increase that much but I actually think he’s got more ability offensively than anything we saw it might take until year three to even see some of that poke through but he played 19 minutes I think you can 50% that for next season put him up to 29 a night so 12 and 7 1 threes is 1.5 blocks, expect a 47 field goal. That’s probably a top 100 player. So, while I do deride this draft class and I think fairly, I think Bzalis has has a chance to be a guy that sticks as a one of those players that we like or I like a power forward who protects the rim, defends, can do a bit with the ball, maybe can pass somewhat, but also maybe can shoot. Now, all that stuff isn’t guaranteed. It hasn’t all come into that level, but it was incredibly encouraging to me. And I think out of this draft class, if I do a reddraft, and I probably will at some point, just to give you changed my opinions on things, he will move up a bit. I think that even though again, Giddy had some big moments, Voodoo shot the lights out, Kobe White rediscovered form at the second half of the year. I think that Bulls fans, if they want to be like serious about where this team is going, the thing you take out of this last season is that Bazelas looked like genuinely a starter. And to get genuinely a starter at pick 11 out of that draft class is one of the biggest W’s you can find. So shout out to local lad Lithuanian legend Matas Bzales. All that nepotism adjacent stuff worked I think pretty well and I think the Bulls actually hit it. Now is he a future start? I don’t think so. But I also think he can be a future fantasy you not not Shawn Marin that’s a top five player. Not even Paul Milsap who’s a top 20 player. But that sort of type of player can have I think multiple top 60 seasons and I I think there should be quite a lot and I don’t really think there’s been that much because again we saw him move to the starting lineup Bales and then be like a little bit mid but a little bit mid with that level of improvement as a rookie and young rookie. I think you should be pretty and like I I I know that he will be drafted in all standard leagues next season and rightfully so and I think he’s got a chance to be the guy that’s picked at 130 that ends up at 80. He already could be house. I don’t know but I think that speaking of house Taylor Norton Tucker I I just don’t get it. Probably up in the top three of my least favorite players to watch in the entire NBA. But he is one of those guys and I will give him some credit. Some of his on-off stuff in the past has been putrid and this season it wasn’t as bad. He was a running joke for me at times this season. But what he is is a player a little bit like Dano Banton in Portland that needs the ball in his hands and he will have the ball in his hands and there’ll be times when that happens and he’ll have a game where he shoots seven of seven for 18, eight and six with two steals and every everyone gets excited. But if the ball is not in his hands, he is useless. And if your team is running with Taylor Horton Tucker with a guy as the guy with the ball in his hands, well, you’re going to win single-digit games. So yeah, look, his fantasy numbers aren’t dreadful. I mean, they’re pretty bad. 12 fantasy points, but he played 12 minutes a night. He’s 24. He had 23 usage. He averaged 1.4 assists. He shot 34 from three. But he just shouldn’t be on an NBA roster at this point. He tailon Horton tuckers the game when he’s out there and that is just not a good thing and just another player on this team that needed the ball in his hands. I don’t really get the purpose of it. So that’s probably enough of me talking about Talon Horton Tucker. The Bulls young Talon Horton Tucker is Dalon Terry, a player that I really did not like this profile coming out of the draft. A point guard with incredibly low usage in college is a gigantic red flag to me. and Terry being one of the shining examples of that I think proved it pretty correct. He is what we’re three years in now for Dalen Terry. And I I don’t He played more this season. Yes. 14 minutes a game in 73 games. But sixth percentile in DPM Delta, bro. You’re 23 in year three. You need to be improving. Not getting worse. Horrific. I He’s a decent steals generator. I’ll give him that. Not a reliable shooter. Not a strong passer. Can’t score. Low usage. If I was the Bulls, I I wouldn’t be picking up team options. I wouldn’t be keeping I don’t see the point of him. He’s not a point guard. He can’t really play the three. He can’t shoot. I I Does he defend? There were there were some better signs, but again, you need to be doing way more than that at this point in your career. And Terry did not. I have zero faith that Dalen Terry is ever going to be any sort of reliable rotation player. I just don’t see how that happens. He’s got the size. I’ll give him that. But I don’t see him being any level whatsoever of a reliable rotation guy. Sorry. The last guy, well, not the last guy. The last guy is not a two-way guy we’re going to talk about is Julian Phillips, who was a second round pick, early second round pick, very raw coming out of Tennessee two years ago. He really didn’t do anything as a rookie. He couldn’t really shoot coming out of Tennessee, but very athletic, which is something the Bulls normally don’t go for. He’s still pretty young. He’s 21. He got a few opportunities this season, was in the rotation, 79 games, played 14 minutes, played nearly every night, but four points, 13 usage, 33% from three, which honestly for him, not bad. He shot well from the line. He averaged half a steal in his 14 minutes. He protected the rim, okay? But look at that fourth percentile offensive load, 10th percentile passing creation volume. Now, I actually agree with both the Drip and the Darko numbers saying that he was one of the more improved players in the league. He was cuz he was unplayable as a rookie. And that’s fine because he was a very raw second round pick who was like 19 or something. He I would have way more faith in him than I do in Dalen Terry. And honestly, I think it is possible that Phillips turns into a better player than Patrick Williams, but turning into a starter caliber player. I’m not going to rule it out. I think there’s a there is something there, but this is year three. This is what we need to see. The problem being of course is that Patrick Williams and Matis Bzalis are both still on the team and Williams theoretically plays the same position. He’s probably best as a four. Although unlike Williams and Bzalis, I I think that um Phillips could play the three. What’s his like hang your hat on skill? That’s where we get into the problem. I think it could be defense, but I’m not really sure about that. I don’t think it’s going to be offense or shooting or passing. And I don’t know the defense is good enough to get there. Yeah, he’s a he shot okay. 33% not good. 44% from the field. Not good as a three/4 who’s a low usage player. He like it was better. There were glimpses, but I’m not I’m not really sure that we’re gonna get somewhere, especially because now if Williams wasn’t there, I’d say, “Yeah, like Philip should be the backup for and we see where it goes from there.” And he had a couple of flashes. But in the end, I think I look at someone like Justin Edwards in Philadelphia, who I think’s probably got more hope than Julian Phillips as being that sort of a player. But that’s maybe the sort of guy that Philip should be trying to develop into, which is a bit weird to say about a guy in his second year developing into a guy from his first year who was a two-way contract player. But yeah, we’ve only got three more guys to get into. And mainly this is for their families and for completeness because I like I said um I think in the earlier show, the first show we about this might be the biggest group of NPCs that exist in the league. These are the Bulls three two-way players. And this guy, Emanuel Miller, is probably the biggest MPC in the NBA cuz we get all of our graphics and photos from USA Today Sports. So, type in Emanuel Miller. There was not a single photo of Emanuel Miller playing for the Chicago Bulls. He had his media day photos for the Dallas Mavericks and one or two photos of him playing for Dallas. Not a single photo. There was one photo that was labeled Emanuel Miller and it was actually Trey Jones. There was not a single player photo of him on the court. He played 24 minutes for the season. He’s already almost 25. He like he was a guy that I didn’t mind when he came out of college, but we should have zero hope there. And he’s probably the most wellknown of these two-way guys because who knew that Jir Young played for the Chicago Bulls on a two-way contract. Jir Young, obvious at least I’ve got photos of him on the court playing for Chicago. He played 30 minutes for the season. He had a 10% usage. He was outside the top 500 in fantasy. He shot 80% from the field. That means absolutely nothing in those minutes that he played. Just someone where again he’s like almost 25, like not even a super young 2-way contract player and just never got used. Didn’t the Bulls I guess just didn’t want to see if there was anything there. the last guy who’s maybe this guy’s the least of an MPC because EJ Liddell I thought could be a first round pick when he came out of the draft out of Ohio State. He had pretty good numbers. Then he tore his ACL in summer league. He was drafted by the Pelicans. He didn’t play at all in his rookie year. Came back on a two-way deal and hasn’t shown anything at all. He played under 50 minutes as well. So they’re three two-way guys played under 50 minutes total for the season each. not not together, but under 100 minutes together for the three two-way guys. So again, this is he’s the youngest of these three. Um Liddell maybe is the guy that that could develop into a back end better than Taylor Horton Tucker rotation player. He had an ability to be a rebounder and passer with some steel numbers um at Ohio State and not bad blocks as like a power forward, but the Bulls have young power forwards. I don’t really know where Liddell is going to fit there, but I wanted to be complete and talk about Jir Young, Emanuel Miller, and EJ Liddell. So, I did. And that is the Bulls. That is the Bulls preview done tomorrow. Review, sorry. Tomorrow, we’re going to be doing some more NBA draft prospect scouting. I think Kaman Malawak is one of the guys coming up tomorrow. Let me double check that. Who is actually on the docket for tomorrow’s show? Jorgo Demen. Um, oh no, not Malawatch. My bad. It is Egod Demon, uh, Adu Theoro, Will Riley, um, who else are we talking about in that show tomorrow? I don’t know. I’ll figure out who the other one is when we get back to you. So guys, subscribe, hit the thumb up. We are done here. Thank you so much for listening, everyone. See you. [Music]

NBA Fantasy Basketball: Chicago Bulls roster breakdown. Josh Giddey’s late-season surge, Patrick Williams’ contract concerns, and Matas Buzelis’ promising rookie campaign. Josh Lloyd, host of Locked On Fantasy Basketball and lead analyst at Basketball Monster, dissects the Bulls’ key players and their fantasy impact.

Lloyd critiques the Chicago Bulls’ trade for Giddey, analyzes Williams’ $90 million deal, and highlights Buzelis as a potential fantasy sleeper. He also evaluates Talen Horton-Tucker’s struggles, Dalen Terry’s uncertain future, and Julian Phillips’ development. The episode covers two-way contract players Emanuel Miller, Jahmir Young, and E.J. Liddell, assessing their limited roles.

Get crucial insights on the Chicago Bulls’ roster for your fantasy draft. Should you target Josh Giddey as a top-50 player? Is Matas Buzelis worth a late-round flier? Find out now and gain the edge in your NBA Fantasy league!

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0:00 Introduction
2:04 Josh Giddey’s statistical analysis
4:06 Giddey’s future prospects
7:40 Patrick Williams evaluation
10:14 Matas Buzelis potential
13:49 Talen Horton-Tucker assessment
16:21 Dalen Terry and Julian Phillips
18:23 Two-way contract players
22:59 Outro and next episode preview