It's been rare 'Air' for Bulls guard Josh Giddey as triple-doubles mount
LOS ANGELES – Josh Giddey isn’t chasing it as much as it’s just finding him.
Call it the benefits of being a 6-foot-7, pass-first point guard who has always held an affinity to rebounding a basketball.
In once again filling up the box score during Friday’s loss to the Clippers, Giddey also found himself in rare air – as in Jordan. A 20-point, 11-rebound, 10-assist stat sheet was Giddey’s 29th career triple-double, passing Michael Jordan for 19th on the NBA’s all-time triple-double list. It was his 11th of the season, which tied him for second this season with Nikola Jokic (26) and Jalen Johnson (11).
Surreal territory. Just ask Giddey.
“I had no idea until (Bulls senior manager basketball communications) Josh (Schur) just told me,” Giddey said of passing Jordan in that stat category. “Anytime your name is mentioned with people like that, obviously it’s the upper, upper echelon of players so it’s pretty special and surreal, but I guess the game has changed and triple-doubles might not be what they are today, but anytime your name is mentioned with greats like that it’s always an honor and I don’t take it for granted.”
He shouldn’t especially with former Boston legend John Havlicek (31) next on the list for Giddey to run down, and 15 more games left this season to do it.
Considering he’s averaging a triple-double (19.5 points, 11.8 assists, 11.2 rebounds) in the six games he’s played in March, well, very doable.
“I’m a big guard so I’ve always loved rebounding,” Giddey said of his style of play and how he’s racking up those numbers. “That’s been the easy part for me. And I’m a pass-first point guard so my job is to get guys shots. When they’re going, the assist numbers go up. That’s just who I am as a player, I love rebounding, I love passing the ball, so those two things go hand-in-hand with things like that. I’m not trying to put up triple-doubles or anything like that. They just kind of naturally happen. As long as I’m rebounding, kicking the ball ahead to get guys’ looks.”
All well and good, but Giddey would trade those gaudy numbers for wins. Those have been few and far between since the Feb. 5 trade deadline, as the roster welcomed in seven new players and went winless (11 losses) for that entire month.
A purge that would leave most players lowering expectations. By the middle of that losing streak, however, it was obviously wearing on Giddey, as he was visibly frustrated after one home loss.
“The expectation to win is always there I guess,” he recalled of that streak. “When you’re going through the midst of an 11-game losing streak the frustration levels probably elevate. A loss (to the Clippers on Friday) is just as frustrating as any other loss we had all year, so as I said it’s been challenging trying to adapt seven new guys into a team midseason, but we’re not going to keep using that as an excuse of why we can’t win games, why we can’t close out games, and why we can’t do the little things to win games.
“I believe in this locker room that we have the personnel to be competitive and win games, but it’s got to be a full 15, 18, however many guys we have, effort. Offensively, our schemes are good and when we execute them we’re good, but just the little controllable stuff is where we’re lapsing right now. This has been a difficult stretch in terms of wins and losses, but I think we’re trending in the right direction.”
At least Giddey sure is.