Giddey Calls Out The Bulls Missing Piece Big Losses | Who’s the REAL Closer on This Bulls Team?

Giddey Calls Out The Bulls Missing Piece Big Losses | Who’s the REAL Closer on This Bulls Team?

Still less than 10 games into the season, the Chicago Bulls have showed depth, effort, and balance so far on their roster. But the last two losses have showed exactly why the Chicago Bulls need real closers. And to quote Josh Giddy directly himself, the Bulls don’t have that give me the ball and move guy yet. And the Bulls Bulls get that. Is that guy currently on the roster or will they have to go and find it? We’re going to talk about all that plus more right after this. [Music] What’s going on, Bulls fans? Welcome to another episode of Chicago Bulls Central, your number one spot for everything Chicago Bulls related. I’m your host, Hayes, and today we’re going to be talking about something that uh I think is is looking at the team, right? And the team eventually does have to find and the question does become then too about is that guy currently on the roster for the Chicago Bulls. We’re also going to talk a little bit about Iotaumu and Kobe White and their future with the teams at Collins return and some other things. But let’s go ahead and jump into it, right? Uh, Bulls definitely need a closer, right? And you know, here’s the thing. Yeah, and this isn’t just overreacting to three losses. This is just typically what you see of every team, right? And I’m going to quote directly Josh Giddy after the game against the Milwaukee Bucks where he said this. Execution needs to be a lot better on both sides of the ball. When teams have number one guys, Giannis last night and Mitchell tonight, uh, they’re they’re the guys you want to get the ball out of their hands and not let beat you. Happened both nights. Offensively, we didn’t execute at all. I put that on myself as a point guard. We don’t have that kind of go-to guy where we’re throwing the ball in and going ISO. We have to do it collectively. And you know, Josh Kitty’s right. You have to do it collectively. And there’s been times in the in the Bulls last two losses where of course we just couldn’t do that, right? Between execution, not riding a hot hand, a number of things that went on to it. And of course, you’re looking at Kobe White and how much can Kobe help with that, right? And he is the team’s most individually talented scorer. He just is that, right? And that’s not to say that Josh Giddy can’t score. We’ve seen that. He absolutely. But he doesn’t do it in the ways and the rhythm in which Kobe White does it, right? And that’s not to compare those two. That’s why having them both in a back court is the is the plan for this team and this team’s build is to have both those guys that can do a little bit of that, right? That can do it and balance each other out. And so when you look at somebody who’s going to go out there and get tough shots and in close games is going to get be be the guy that teams have to zero in on which also helps other teammates get open and also help that as well. That’s what it is right now. question that the Bulls are going to eventually have to ask themselves is that between Kobe Modis, you know, Josh Giddy, uh, you know, whether it’s Io, Nicolus on this current build, do they have a guy that’s going to be able to do that consistently or there’s going to have to be a combination between one of those guys doing it every single night? And we’ll see, right? Like like Josh Giddy’s can score and but I think that his arsenal is a little bit more limited. Kobe White has a more versatile offense, but you know, the streakiness is there. Also, Modis, we don’t really know yet what Modest is going to be at that level. We have a lot of hope that he can be that guy because he has the right mindset. He has all the talent in the world to eventually turn into that guy. And then Nicolus can do it sometimes as well, but again, inconsistent. There’s going to be some matchups where he just doesn’t have it. That’s just the Nicolus experience, right? So, I know that a lot of people like to point with this team towards, you know, the Pacers. And the Pacers are probably the best example of this type of build of team, um, you know, being able to achieve high high levels of success. And by that I mean like as far as, you know, without having that one true just superstar, Tyres Hallebertton is the closest thing to that. And one could say that last season, the last couple of seasons, uh, of course he’s out all of this season, but the last couple of seasons have shown that Tyrese Hallebertton is right at that star level, but even then, he’s not that type of go-to guy that it’s like every possession, it’s on him. The Pacers have won lots of games with Tyrese Hallebertton scoring 16 points and stuff like that, right? because of the balance of that. But they are probably the best version of without that true true star and superstar, how far you can go wi with a with a build being around a team. Now, we also saw how that came crumbling down, right? Um for that team and then they had to move off that build. Miles Turner is gone now. So, even when Hallebert Hallebertton does come back, they’re going to have to find different ways to do it. And so, that becomes one of the other things that this Bulls team has to figure out, right? And things aren’t all figured out. We aren’t on the final build of this team. We have tons of cap space coming in here. We got draft picks. We got a young player, Noah Essen, who’s going to develop over time. Modest is still very much, you know, not in his final form yet as a player. You have all those things. All those things are all adding into trying to figure out exactly who this team is going to be, right? Um, but it is clear that you do need that guy and in close games, teams that do have that guy have the advantage. It doesn’t mean that you can’t beat those teams, but teams that have that guy that just can go into a different level and put the team on their back, they are they are going to have the advantage in those situations as the game gets closer. Um, just by the nature of how the NBA works, especially with getting star calls and all those type of things, uh, you know, and and players playing off that star. So, the Bulls are going to have to this season figure out how to do it as a community. And that’s really what we’ve done as a team up until this point is everything that we’ve done has been based off the team as a whole and how things fit and how we can get better out of out of them. The individual pieces would have you believe that we could and there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s exactly I think where you want to be with this current build of team as it stands right now in a time period where you have tons of assets coming in this off seasonason. You got expiring uh uh salaries, no long-term bad salary on this team as things stand right now either. One could say PE will is the closest to that, but at $19 million, that’s not really hurting your team a lot. But a big part of this, and I know a lot of more people have been talking about this recently, is exactly how this team looks with Kobe White and IO Dumu back on it and also Zack Collins. Now, Jaylen, Jaylen played a hell of a game last game. Damn near a perfect defensive rating. Damn near a perfect offensive rating. Shot the ball perfectly from the field and Billy Donovan sat his ass, which still going to bother me, but it is what it is. But as we go forward into this tough stretch where I think now it becomes tantamount that the Bulls win uh two out of their next three at minimum, right? They got to win the week this week. Um you know and and the Bulls will find out what what they are and as we go through this discovery still finding out who we are as a team and how how we really can compete and contend in this Eastern Conference and even with the Western Conference teams as well. Some of those answers are going to become more solid, are going to become more fluid as we go through it. And you know, the Bulls, you know, the last couple of games have taken a hit to to where their their their numbers were. Uh, you know, over the last, you know, four games, we have a defensive rating that’s bottom five in the league. I don’t expect that to happen. This team, you know, I’m I’m not we’re not going to do the knee-jerky thing where people like, “Oh my god, have has people figured out this team? Oh my god, it was all a mirage. All my We’re not going to do that.” Now, one could I’m not going to say that that success is guaranteed either, but I do think with the way that this team has competed, with the way that they have fought over the course of this season, it still feels like like a lot of those things are going to be legitimate in how they contend this season. And we’ll just see how that goes. But the Bulls do need a go-to score. They do need that guy that’s going to close out games and, you know, they still can do it by committee because even when when you look at, for example, Giannis, it wasn’t just Giannis down the stretch. It was also my own Sterner, right? and how those that’s why I say it’s about how you play off those guys of having them as well. So even when Kobe White comes back, it’s not still just on Kobe. It’s off how Giddy and Kobe play together. How modest Trey Jones, IO Dumu, Isaac Aoro, right? How they play off those guys in those tight moments as well. But it’s about having a guy with that gravity and how that affects how defenses have to guard you and have to prepare for that. And Kobe’s going to have his things that he has to prove when he gets back, too. Fitting within the system, getting to the free throw line. And some of these things are things that he showed at the end of last year. I think people kind of like to put by the wayside, for example, because they just want to doubt Kobe White. But I think Kobe’s going to prove some of those things when he gets back on the basketball court right away, he’s going to have to get himself back in rhythm of getting on the court. But we are only, like I said, if this ends up being if Kobe White ends up coming back by that Utah game, which is kind of what around the time that he mentioned, you know, that they have pinpointed for him to make that return, that means we only got two more games without Kobe White. three more maybe at the max, right? And so it’s coming and you know, we’ll talk about Zack Collins and the update on his return here in a second, but getting Kobe White back on this team, seeing how he looks, seeing how he fits with these players, I just can’t wait to see that cuz then we can stop talking about the theoreticalness of it and talk about what we’re seeing on the basketball court. And what’s the thing that I always like to say? If people deny what they’re seeing on the basketball court and that objectively is is being shown to you at that point that’s that hate is just on you, right? So, you got to see if Kobe White can play into that. And there’s been a number of things that people have had to realize, hey, that hate that’s just on you. Uh, and we’ll see what what what what comes of that next, right? But one of the questions that a I’ve been getting a lot of questions about and I know it’s because Kobe hasn’t been in I know it’s because Io’s been playing and you know even though he missed some games too is that it it comes down to this thought that people think that you have to keep either Kobe or IO Dumbu and I just don’t agree with that. Right. I I I think when you when you look at IO, especially now that IO consistently has been playing three positions on this team, um I think when you look at that, right, he can play some point, he can play some two, he can play, he can play some wing, and you know, I know people that don’t like to hear that didn’t like to, but his size, oh my god. And he guards the all three of those positions pretty damn well, right? When you look at it, 95% of of Iumu’s minutes so far this season are coming at at the wing, the two or the three. when you go down to last season, 86% of his minutes came at the two or the three, right? And so, you know, that just just goes to show you that IO can play those three positions and Billy Donovan feels comfortable playing him in those three positions. So, positionally, it’s not down to IO or Kobe. I think when you also get into the benefit of the fact that because you did sign Josh Giddy to such a teamfriendly deal, uh only 25 million to where you know that’s that that’s, you know, that’s good money, right? really good money, but it’s still not the level of money that it restricts you from being able to keep all the guys that you want to keep. Now, you may have to decide, is keeping Kobe and IO going to worth some of your debt? And let’s just say you don’t you’re not able to have as deep of a team with some of the people that are free agents because of it. And that’s what you got to prove over the over the course of it. But this team friendly deal that Josh’s on also allows the Bulls to keep IO and to keep Kobe, right? And so with Kobe reportedly in search of an a contract that annually is going to get him around $30 million and we’ll see if like like how he performs is going to be a big part on how easy it is for him to to get that money. Right. But we’ve seen the need for Kobe which him and his agent are definitely going to use. Right now when you look at Io Dumu and what what IO is already proven to be fools and that is a player that when his presence when he’s not out there that presence was missed. We noticed that IO Dumu wasn’t out there because the energy felt different. IO has established himself this season so far in the NBA as being somebody that can come in and change the pace and the tone of a game, be it offensively or be it defensively. A player that’s that’s efficient, right? So, he doesn’t need a lot of shots. I never averaged double digit shots in his NBA career because he’s so efficient. He’s he’s every season, but last year he’s basically shot 50%. And then even when he didn’t do that, it was 49.2%. Right. And he’s now shown himself this season to be a a 46% three-point shooter. He was 32% last year, 40% the year before that. The truth probably lies somewhere consistently in between the middle of that. He rebounds, he gets assist, especially out in transition. He’s always averaged right around a steel per game as well. He doesn’t turn the ball over. So I sumu’s game because it can fit in really any type of system and scheme. It really doesn’t come down to that either. The money is not going to be a problem, right? And so I think it does come about until we see other otherwise it’s about keeping both those guys. And so for I get it why people are worried about it. Make no mistake about it. I understand it. Fans, we’re going to worry about stuff. It is what it is. That’s part that’s the nature of the game. But money isn’t a problem. Fit isn’t the problem. Um you know need on the team isn’t a problem. You need both those guys. And the thing that I hate that that that some Bulls fans do is they like to make it either or. They like to play Bulls players against each other. You don’t have to do that. It’s about how things fit. People did it with Kobe and Giddy last year. Uh people are trying to do it now with with Giddy and Kobe again, but then also Giddy and I mean Kobe and Io, it’s about the fit, right? And this team can fit together and those pieces can fit together. And while you have guys that like this is why getting value out of your rookie contracts is important as well. when you have guys like Modis on a rookie scale deal that can perform for you. Hopefully sometime this season we learn and and see how Noah is going to be able to perform for us on a rookie scale deal. But when you’re able to get value out of those rookie scale deals or mid-level exceptions for that matter, it increases your chances and your opportunities to keep those guys that are that are going to get raises. So, you know, that’s just really what it comes down to. Now, it may end up being a shorter deal, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Bulls try to make it to where like Kobe, IO, and Giddy’s deals all come off the board around a year within each other or something like that. Um, so that may mean a four-year deal for for IO and Kobe. Um, which would align then with with Noah around the time Noah gets his extension, which would be really good, right? So, you got to you got to think about all those things. And we got to see if AK and Eversley are thinking that much forward ahead. They should be considering they have this young team and they know the contracts that are coming up. But the Bulls are are in the best financial situation of my lifetime. I’m 38 years old. This is the first time where the Bulls have this much cap flexibility with the with the paired with the number of draft picks and trade exceptions. They’ve never been this assetri before and having this much spending power in an off season. We just got to see what the Bulls are going to do with that. Overall, like I said, don’t worry too much about it. I think we’ll be all right. But Zack Collins is getting close to his return as well. Billy Donovan provided an update in regards to that to the Zack Collins will have a CT scan this week and that will be pretty telling in regards to his timeline. Right. Uh he has been working out of form shooting given his offh hand is the one that’s still in the cast, but he’s not passing or catching with with the hand that’s in the cast as it stands right now. You know, he’s been aggressive in his recovery efforts as well. Um, but it looks like there may be another week or so until Zack Collins is out there, which still fits within the the original timeline that they gave us for Zack Collins. But Zack Collins is getting closer to a return, which is really good because we do need him out there on the court for the Chicago Bulls. With that, the Bulls do take the court today against the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs are coming into this one with a 7 and2 record on the season. Um, and this has been a team that’s been playing really well. Uh Wimy’s coming in averaging 24 points, 13 rebounds, three assists, one and a half steals, and four blocks per game. Tough. Garren Fox who made majors return on Friday came in and immediately gave them 24 points, three assists, three rebounds, and a steal as well. You got Stefon Castle averaging 18 points per game heading into his second year. Um Devin Vel is averaging over double figures. This Spurs team has eight players averaging over double digit scoring. So again, this is a team that does it with their depth like we’ve seen a lot of teams this season kind of focus on depth and the Bulls are going to have to wait to to worry about that. But where are the Spurs weak at? And here’s the thing, I’m going tell you right now, they don’t have a lot of weaknesses early on in this season. Um, I think that we’ve seen teams slow down Wimby by putting a wing on him and kind of forcing him to disrupt him a little bit and how that disrupts this team, but with them having as many different double- digit scores as what they do have, you can only get into that for for a little bit, right? The Spurs have been controlling games because they control the boards, they control points in the paint, and they control the paint on on defense as well. being able to control those things, which is three of the most efficient areas in the game of basketball puts you in a spot where you’re going to be you’re doing a lot of really good things out there, right? So, uh this is a Spurs team where the Bulls are going to have to be on attack mode early. They’re going to have to do it as a team. They’re going to have to be on their P’s and Q’s. The Spurs are averaging 119 points per game while giving up 110 per game. So, it’s not like that margin is super huge there, right? So, you’re going to have to look out for that. This is also a team in the San Antonio Spurs that uh has bucked the trend. Isn’t taking a whole lot of threes out there, but they’re hitting it at a decent percentage. They’re about middle of the pack at about 36% three-point shooting uh attempt as a team. And again, when you got Wimby, how much of that are you going to have to do? They’re only taking 35 three-point attempts per game as well. You got to look out for that one. Um and this is also a team that when you look at it is susceptible to getting some turnovers at some time. So, the Bulls got to look at trying to take care of that. The Bulls have to play. And I’m not saying they have to play a perfect game, but they have to be on their execution. Execution is what has hurt the Bulls in the last two losses. They got to be on their execution tip. If they can do that, this is going to be a game where they can be in. And that’s really what it comes down to for this Bulls team. And we’ll see how well they can lock in and get that done. With that said, I’ve got two voicemails that are overflow from this weekend. We got one from Shay and one from Reginald. We’re going to go ahead and get into this first one. This one is from Reginald. Hey, this is Reginald. Just calling after that Bulls loss. Uh, usually I wait a day, but I just couldn’t. Uh, the collapse in the fourth quarter. I got to blame mostly on Billy, especially the last like 3 to four minutes because there were things we all could see that he refused to like boot struggling. Uh this was one of the rare occasion was Jaylen Smith was outperforming him and Billy took him out with like seven or eight minutes left in the game and we all thought okay he’s going to get a couple of minutes rest he going to be back out there but he never got back in. let Boo once again was struggling the entire game offensively and defensively stay in when you need a stop and I just don’t understand it. And yes, the refs are trash. They’ve been trash every game we’ve seen them in. And even though they get part of the blame, that still doesn’t excuse Billy from taking out the hot hand in order to go with what he’s comfortable with. That’s a mistake he was making for the last four years. Going with guys who he trusts instead of going for guys who are getting him the win. But now after losing three of our last four, hopefully a lot of Bulls fan will wake up and, you know, not think, okay, this is the year we’re going to make a deep run into the playoffs. The best team in the East like that, it’s only been like, it hasn’t even been 10 games, you know. But like I said, with Giddy banged up, you’re going to have to sit him for a minute, you know, because you’ll need him for later on. IO still on minute restrictions. So hopefully Trey Jones can get himself together, play more consistently. But tonight was a hard loss and it shouldn’t have happened. But it is what it is. Move on to the next game. Thanks for hearing me out. The Cavs lost, you’re 100% right. I mean, Billy Donovan leaving not leaving Jaylen Smith uh in the in the game. um you know when when he needed to play Jaylen at that point and I think about what that does we talked about it the basketball-wise yesterday but just what that does to a player that is already coming off your bench that already knows when Zack Collins coming back Zack Collins is going to come cut into their minutes he plays a damn near perfect game and then you leave him out and I think even this like like Billy Donovan’s reluctance to play Jaylen Smith I said Jaylen Green Jaylen Smith at the at the forome too is also something that that is a little bit concerning because even if you wanted V out there because of his veteran leadership. Um, Modis wasn’t playing well, right? He wasn’t in there. So, you could have played Jaylen at the four, which which would have played into what Cleveland does with their double bigs. Anyway, it’s just a number of things that raise concerns about the way that that Billy Donovan managed that. But, like I said, it it was one game. It was really the first game of the season I could think of. He didn’t put the hot hand back in the game. So, I’m not going to overreact to it. And let’s just hope Billy Donovan has learned from that and we’re better going forward. All right, let’s get into this next one. Man, this one is from Shay. You know what? What’s up, P? This is Shay. I’m getting tired of all these people talking about the Bulls ain’t been relevant since Jordan. Well, the Bulls, the one time y’all had some spark was with Derek Rose or like and then you hear like it’s franchises that only won one title or just started to get good. Like I’m listening to a Cleveland Cavaliers fan say, “Oh, we ain’t been good since Jordan. We ain’t been rolling since Derrick Rose.” Do y’all realize Cleveland, although a good team and they had finals credentials, y’all do realize y’all ain’t necessarily been hot since LeBron was there and left and came back. That’s the only time y’all have ever touched the final is when he’s been on that team. And I get and not only those franchises, but I be getting so tired of franchises like the Milwaukee Bucks talk about talking about, “Oh, we own Chicago.” [ __ ] do you realize we’ve been whooping y’all ass since the Derek Rose years? Y’all just started to get get good like recently now that Ghana has came into his own or you hear or what be getting me mad is teams like the New York Knicks. Oh well, y’all ain’t been relevant since the y’all ain’t won champions since Jordan. Hold up. You [ __ ] ain’t won one period. Maybe y’all may have won one before back when NBA was was known as the ABA, but y’all ain’t won one NBA championship since. Okay, the point I’m trying to make is granted our recent success, we not necessarily going to get a championship this year. But for all y’all franchise talk about some win a been good since Jordan or a been relevant since Dererick Rose, it may be true. But some of y’all franchises, y’all just starting to get good now. Shut the hell up. Anyway, hey, tell me what you think. Peace. Listen, let’s not worry about what other franchises how they like to talk. Fans of other franchises talk about the Bulls. Like, it is what it is. The Bulls are going to have to go out there and show and prove. And I I think you got to let people talk because people have to find the angles of what they do. And then you just look at them after we bust them in the face and just be like, “All right, now how do you feel?” Right? And that’s just really what it comes down to. They’re going to be trolls. There are going to be people that doubt the Bulls. They’re going to be people that have some legitimate doubt because of what we have or have not done over the last decade. But at the end of the day, if you want you want that to stop, you got to win basketball games. And the Bulls just got to go out there. They got to win games. They got to punch teams in the mouth. And if they do that, you know, that narrative will start changing. We’ve already seen a little bit of that start changing if that matters to you. Like I say, I [ __ ] the national media sometimes and it is what it is. You just got to let it go. But, you know, let me know what you guys think on that down below. But in closing, Chicago is still figuring out its identity. It’s closer and and the and the the long-term core that it looks like we’re building on this team, it’s good. And that’s what the season was all about is that again, evaluating for long-term fit. Direct quote from AK. And I think we’re doing that. The growth of this team is real. The talent is real. And more help is coming on the way with Zack Collins and Kobe White. But make sure you guys are following us at Bull Centralod. You send us any feedback, questions, comments, concerns. Bullropodgmail.com. And lastly, if you want to leave a text message and or voicemail for the mailbag, the number to do so 773-270-2799. We are the number one spot for everything Chicago Bulls related, but that is thanks to you lovely and beautiful people. And like I like to end every episode on go Bulls. Love you guys. See you ready for King y’all. Peace. This has been a presentation of the Break Media. [Music]

The Chicago Bulls are discovering something every good team hits eventually: you can win with depth, but you advance with stars. After back-to-back losses to teams with closers like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Donovan Mitchell, Josh Giddey didn’t sugarcoat the truth — the Bulls don’t have a clear No. 1 option in the clutch, and it’s showing.

In this episode, Haize breaks down why Chicago must eventually identify a true go-to scorer, whether that’s Coby White, Giddey himself, or a future version of Matas Buzelis. We also look at what contenders like Indiana have proven: depth matters, but elite players still separate great teams from good ones.

Next, we dive into why Bulls fans shouldn’t view Ayo Dosunmu vs. Coby White as an either/or situation. Thanks to Giddey’s team-friendly deal and massive upcoming cap space, Chicago may be able to retain both guards long-term if contracts align.

We also provide an update on Zach Collins, who is nearing a return pending a CT scan but still wearing a cast. A December comeback looks realistic.

Finally, we preview Bulls vs Spurs — a matchup featuring Victor Wembanyama’s monster start, San Antonio’s 7–2 record, and the keys to slowing down a team with eight double-digit scorers.

Plus, listener voicemails on Billy Donovan’s rotation decisions, Jalen Smith’s minutes, and why Bulls fans shouldn’t waste energy on outside noise.

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