Josh Giddey pushes back on the Bulls’ 29.5-win projection

Josh Giddey has heard the number Las Vegas put on the Chicago Bulls, and he is not buying it. With the sportsbooks setting Chicago’s win total at 29.5, the point guard says this group is good enough to compete every night, even if he stops short of promising a playoff run.

That projection is a blunt verdict on a franchise that spent the summer rebuilding its front office, hiring Tiago Splitter as coach and turning over much of its roster. Giddey, starting his third season in Chicago, answered it the way a lead guard usually does. Speaking to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, he said, “it’s our job to go out there and try and win all 82 games.”

A quiet preseason for the Bulls’ playmaker

Giddey’s own October was more about setting others up than scoring. Across five preseason games he totaled 45 points, 16 rebounds and 31 assists, which works out to 9.0 points, 3.2 rebounds and 6.2 assists in roughly 22 minutes a night. He made 11 of his 30 field-goal attempts and 5 of 16 from three. His best passing night came in a 125-104 win at Milwaukee on October 14, when he handed out nine assists and finished plus-11. Chicago went 3-2 overall and closed with a 133-116 win over Minnesota.

The sample is small and the minutes were managed, so the more useful baseline is last season. In 54 games in 2025-26, Giddey averaged 17.0 points, 8.3 rebounds and 9.1 assists with 56.2 percent true shooting. His assist average ranked third among the 582 players tracked on his whynba player page. The one number he will want to bring down is turnovers: his 3.6 a game ranked sixth-highest.

The Bulls highlighted his vision during that Milwaukee win:

Why the size matters to his case

Giddey’s argument rests largely on the frame of this roster. Chicago has stacked length around him, from rookie Caleb Wilson and Leonard Miller to Matas Buzelis, and he has already said he expects to throw more lobs than at any point in his career. Wilson, the No. 4 pick, said the locker room is not paying attention to the betting line, though he admitted the low number gives him a chip on his shoulder. Wilson averaged 15.8 points in the preseason.

Splitter was more measured, saying his team is not where it needs to be yet. The gap between that honest assessment and Giddey’s confidence is the story of Chicago’s season: whether a young, long roster can turn a projection in the high 20s into something closer to the play-in race.

What comes next

The Bulls open the regular season at the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday, October 21, at 7:30 p.m. ET. Follow it live in the Game Center.