The Chicago Bulls' 2025-26 campaign has been a mixed bag. They started 5-0, tumbled over the next month to 11th in the standings, celebrated another five-game winning streak over the past few weeks, and are currently riding back-to-back losses. In the last few months, they've been labeled contenders, trade deadline sellers, buyers of a few superstars, and draft lottery-bound. Last night, they saw their two top players fall to injury, Josh Giddey and Coby White. This comes immediately after last week's report that the team would be the "biggest sellers in the Eastern Conference," according to Brett Siegel of Clutch Points. Today, Shams Charania, Senior NBA Insider for ESPN, provided an update on Giddey's injury and how it'll impact Chicago's plans.
Giddey Sidelined For Several Weeks
According to Charania, the 23-year-old point guard suffered a left hamstring strain. This comes at a critical time for the organization, which was in the midst of pondering whether to sell at the upcoming trade deadline, retool, or rebuild. With seven contracts set to expire this summer and a team destined for the NBA Play-In Tournament for a fourth consecutive season, Arturas Karnisovas has the seemingly easy decision of shipping those soon-to-be free agents off for assets before they walk in free agency, or holding onto the lot in hopes of a playoff push. In three of the last four years, he's chosen the latter. This injury may force his hand.
Chicago Bulls guard Josh Giddey has sustained a left hamstring strain and will miss at least a few weeks, sources tell ESPN. Tough injury blow as Giddey has averaged 19.2 points, 9 assists and 8.9 rebounds. pic.twitter.com/fH4KtEQjov
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) December 31, 2025
Giddey's offensive production and facilitating abilities are arguably the most essential aspects to Chicago's operation. Without his near triple-double figures nightly, they'll struggle to maintain pace, assist numbers, and efficiency on that end of the floor. The next few weeks could get very ugly, very fast.
Fire Sale Has To Be The Plan
Without their star point guard and possibly without White's services as well for the foreseeable future, the Bulls will likely slide in the standings outside of playoff contention. Regardless of whether or not they're in the top ten when the deadline rolls around, the choice is clear for Karnisovas. Shipping off assets like White, Nikola Vucevic, Ayo Dosunmu, Kevin Huerter, and others has to be the priority.
If Coby and Giddey are out for an extended period of time, Bulls could be looking at another long losing stretch
— Bulls Central (@BullsCentralYT) December 30, 2025
While a fan base rarely hopes for a slide in the standings, Bulls fans should want one. This would leave one option for Karnisovas at the trade cutoff, who would be unable to justify standing pat without a team close to playoff or play-in contention. The silver lining to losing both of their stars on the same night is that the Chicago Bulls might finally undergo a proper and complete rebuild.
