If you want an idea of just how good Josh Giddey has been this season, you only have to look at the MVP betting markets at the moment.
And such is his level of play; a star teammate appears a growing trade candidate.
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Giddey is currently ninth in the line of betting at Sportsbet, ahead of already established superstars like Donovan Mitchell, Jalen Brunson and Steph Curry.
Sure, there may be some level of Australian bias there, so how about we look at FanDuel Sportsbook instead.
There, Giddey is tied with Mitchell, Brunson and Curry but still the tied ninth-favourite for the NBA’s top honour.
Granted, anyone betting on Giddey to win MVP is incredibly likely to be throwing away their money given Shai Gilgeous-Alexander looks as good a bet as many to go back-to-back given Oklahoma City’s red-hot start to the year, while any of Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, Victor Wembanyama and Giannis Antetokounmpo will still be there to challenge for the award.
What’s more, Giddey extraordinarily sits No. 6 on NBA.com’s MVP ladder — behind only Gilgeous-Alexander, Antetokounmpo, Jokic, Wembanyama and Doncic — basically the consensus top five players in the world. And ahead of the likes of Tyrese Maxey, Mitchell, Curry, Brunson and Austin Reaves.
That really tells the story of how good the Aussie has been.
The sheer fact Giddey is being mentioned alongside names like Mitchell, Brunson and Curry speaks to the impact on winning he is having right now and if there is one award the Australian could take home this season it is Most Improved, with the 23-year-old guard the heavy betting favourite for the honour at the moment
Giddey’s latest statement game, which saw him become the first Chicago player to record back-to-back triple-doubles since the legendary Michael Jordan, has the NBA on notice.
Respected NBA commentator and former columnist Bill Simmons compared the Bulls’ Giddey windfall to a high-profile trade of an era past.
“The players who have impressed me; knocked my socks off the most to date (this season) … Giddey has to be number one,” he said on the renowned Bill Simmons Podcast on Friday AEDT.
“I’m so proud. So few of us liked the Giddey-Caruso trade for Chicago … one of the better trades, almost like that Kawhi (Leonard)-George Hill trade (in 2011).”
The six-foot-seven floor general is leading the Bulls, who’ve exploded early in the season despite being without one of their best players in recent years; Coby White, who remains sidelined with a calf injury.
Simmons believes White is now a trade candidate due to Giddey’s leap and Chicago’s overall productivity without the combo guard in the lineup.
“They’ve been really fun to watch … what’s interesting through all of it is they’re 6-1, Giddey’s been basically a triple-double this season, they’re shooting the lights out, they have actual defence on the swing spots now … and the guy that hasn’t played yet is Coby White, who is in the final year of a US$12 million deal,” continued Simmons.
“You know who needs a point guard? … I would say Minnesota is leading the way (in terms of teams in need).
“Chicago has a big-ass trade exception that can make some funkiness with their trades in a good way. They’re one of the few teams that, with these modern rules, they can get pretty creative.”
Going back to Giddey, Simmons effectively said the Bulls were in the driver’s seat with regards to trading, given the Aussie’s impact early this season.
And Simmons’ mind is made up on White, given the 25-year-old’s expiring contract status and likely demand for a lucrative new deal.
“If I’m Chicago, I’m now in a ‘car keys’ situation. Like, I’ve struck oil with Josh Giddey. This is not a sample size. This guy is dominating games,” Simmons concluded.
“He’s getting where he wants on the court and creating what shot he wants. You’ve got something really special happening here.
“I don’t want Coby White — I’m not paying him next year, I’d rather put my chips into the Giddey basket, and I would try to trade him (White).”
The Giddey-led Bulls have surged to a stunning 6-1 start to the season that now has them sitting ahead of Eastern Conference favourites New York and Cleveland in top spot.
Regardless of whether you buy into this new version of the Bulls or not, this confident, aggressive version of Josh Giddey looks like it is here to stay — and it has the entire basketball world talking.
In fact, Gilbert Arenas is going out on his own show declaring that he would take Giddey over $315 million Charlotte Hornets star guard LaMelo Ball if he was building a new team.
“The reason you give me Giddey is I don’t have to be a smart general manager,” Arenas said.
“If I have Giddey and I say, ‘Alright, let me get Maxey’. He’s going to mesh with him. He knows how to play with a guy like that. If I say, ‘Give me Garland’, who is more of a point guard, he’ll figure it out.”
Now, you could argue back that Giddey isn’t guaranteed to fit alongside any other NBA player in the backcourt. After all, it was the reason it didn’t work in Oklahoma City with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
But the fact this debate is even taking place speaks to just how rapidly Giddey’s stock in the league is rising.
For what it’s worth, and to offer a different perspective, Chandler Parsons said on FanDuel’s ‘Run It Back’ that he still values Ball as a talent over Giddey.
“LaMelo Ball is a franchise-type player, Josh Giddey isn’t,” Parsons said.
“Josh Giddey is a very good point guard. He’s having a very good year. He’s not that talented, highly-touted guy that LaMelo Ball is.”
But Parsons did concede that Giddey is the “better point guard right now”. If the debate was just on sheer talent alone though?
“It’s not even close,” Parsons said.
“LaMelo Ball has so much more talent than him. But if you look at production at the beginning of this season and what you can do for a certain team, I get his point that I would take Josh Giddey at the starting point guard position.”
While most people agreed that the four-year, $100 million ($A154m) contract Giddey signed in the offseason was a fine deal considering the 23-year-old’s talent and age, there were some concerns with how Chicago could build around a more limited guard like Giddey.
Limited in the sense that there were still major question marks over both Giddey’s shooting and defence from his time in Oklahoma City and the early stages of his Bulls tenure.
Those are never going to be the biggest strengths of Giddey’s game but based on early returns this season, they don’t look like they will be glaring weaknesses either.
In fact, Bulls icon and broadcast analyst Stacey King went as far as to claim Giddey “has a chance to be arguably the best point guard in the league”.
His former teammate at Oklahoma City probably has something to say about that, but it is hard to argue with everything else King said about Giddey on the ‘Gimme The Hot Sauce Podcast’.
“He’s the real deal,” King said.
“He’s got a chance to be a multiple-time All-Star. He’s got a chance to be arguably the best point guard in the league.
“His defence has gotten better, that’s been one of the knocks. Three-point shooting when he came in was one of the knocks, he’s not a good three-point shooter. He can’t guard anybody.
“Well, he’s doing all those things now. He’s shooting close to 45 per cent from the three-point line. He’s going out and guarding people. He’s rebounding the basketball like a power forward, which takes pressure off Vooch and all these other guys… and he has a great feel for the game.”
To that point earlier about the MVP race, while Giddey won’t end up winning the league’s top gong, All NBA Podcast’s Adam Mares said the Australian has to be on the shortlist.
“I mean honestly if you were making a list, it’s seven games (and) I know this is silly. But if you were making a list of MVP candidates, he’s on the list because they’re 6-1,” Mares said.
“He’s the motor behind it, his numbers are insane — he’s almost averaging a triple-double.”
Mares went on to call Giddey “an All-Star for sure” and considering the NBA’s All-Star Game will reportedly feature one World team this year, that only has to increase Giddey’s odds of being selected given the depth of guards that the USA teams have to pick from.
Sure, Gilgeous-Alexander and Doncic would be locks while Jamal Murray is also playing at high level to start the year in Denver, but Giddey is one of the most in-form international guards in the NBA right now.
And yet, Mares’ co-host Tim Legler said he still doesn’t think Giddey is getting enough credit.
“Very few guys in this league have been better than Josh Giddey to start the year,” the former NBA player said.
“You can’t pound this point enough. The reason that you can go up and down their roster and talk about the positive contributions of all their guys, the reason is because of the connection ability of Josh Giddey.
“That is to me the centrepoint of their entire team. Josh Giddey makes you want to play a certain way offensively because you’re going to be rewarded and you’re going to be included.
“The definition of making your team better, that’s kind of what Josh Giddey is doing right now.”
Giddey is currently averaging career-high marks of 23.1 points, 10.0 rebounds and 9.1 assists per game, sitting fifth in the league for assists only behind Jokic, Ball, Cade Cunningham and Austin Reaves.
But his passing and ability to read the floor has long been a standout trait of Giddey’s game. It is the consistency with which he is getting to the rim and either finishing or drawing fouls, however, which has caught the eye of NBA analyst Tim Cato.
“The physicality has absolutely stood out,” Cato said on the ‘CHGO Bulls Podcast’.
“Obviously the way he gets defenders behind him and just kind of really picks out spots very methodically. That has absolutely been astounding.”
And just to lend one more voice to the campaign, Cato agrees too: “He is playing at an All-Star level right now.”
Originally published as America loses its mind over Josh Giddey as MVP market says it all
