Opinion: Josh Giddey may not deserve to be the Bulls highest paid player

The Chicago Bulls made NBA headlines on Tuesday by the signing of point guard Josh Giddey of Melbourne, Australia to a four year contract worth $100 million. Giddey was a restricted free agent, and will keep him in Chicago through to the 2028-29 NBA season according to Matt Guzman of Sports Illustrated. 

By signing the contract, Giddey will be the highest paid player on the Bulls this season according to spotrac.com. He will be making $22,321,429. Second on the list is center Nikola Vucevic of Morges, Switzerland, who will be making $21,481,481. However, one must make the serious question, if Giddey is worth almost $1 million more than Vucevic? I argue he is not from a statistical perspective.

The contracts make sense when you factor the ages of Giddey and Vucevic. Giddey is 22 years of age and has more future potential moving forward than the 34-year-old Vucevic.

However, in a game where you need to factor what have you done for me lately, Vucevic deserves to possibly be paid a little more than Giddey, when you factor in the statistics of the 2024-25 NBA season.

For the 11th time in his career this past season, Vucevic averaged a double-double in a season. He had 18.5 points per game and 10.1 rebounds per game. Vucevic also had 3.5 assists per game, with a field goal percentage of .530, with a three point percentage of .402, and a free throw percentage of .805. Giddey, meanwhile averaged 14.6 points per game (3.9 fewer points per game than Vucevic) with 8.1 assists per game, 7.2 assists per game, and 1.2 steals per game, with a field goal percentage of .465, three point percentage of .367, and a free throw percentage of .781. Now it is challenging comparing the statistics for a point guard versus a center, but points per game and shooting percentages should mean something. Vucevic is a better and more consistent shooter than Giddey, but is not paid as much.