Bulls point guard Josh Giddey exited Monday’s win over Indiana with over seven minutes left in the fourth quarter after rolling his right ankle. The Bulls subsequently ruled him out for the rest of the contest due to an ankle sprain.
The injury occurred after a shot attempt near the basket when Giddey’s right foot landed on the foot of Pacers wing Ben Sheppard (Twitter video link). The Bulls guard immediately limped off the court and headed to the locker room.
The ankle is the same one that Giddey injured while playing for the Australian national team at the Olympics last summer. He was in a walking boot after the game, tweets K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Sports Network.
“He had a game a couple games ago where he kind of rolled it a little bit, but not too bad,” head coach Billy Donovan said on Monday night, per The Associated Press. “This one you could just tell, it was pretty painful the way he came up. So, obviously I’m concerned, but I just don’t know to what degree it is.”
Donovan said it may take “a day or two” before the Bulls have a clearer picture of the severity of the sprain.
It’s unfortunate timing for Giddey, who has been playing some of the best basketball of his career in recent weeks and scored a season-high 29 points on Monday. In nine games since the All-Star break, the 22-year-old has averaged 23.1 points, 10.9 rebounds, and 8.4 assists per game, with a .522/.525/.865 shooting line.
“He’s been really good at playing to his strengths,” Donovan said of his point guard, according to Annie Constabile of The Chicago Sun-Times. “He’s really balanced his ability to pass the ball, and then his ability to score. The shots he’s getting and generating, the shots he’s looking to take, are higher-quality shots for him.”
Giddey will be eligible for restricted free agency this summer. Although he got off to a shaky start in his first year as a Bull, scoring just 11.2 PPG on .432/.319/.744 shooting in his first 39 games, his uptick in production over the past month or two has increased his value heading into the offseason and has likely helped cement his place as a building block in Chicago going forward.
“I’ll let (the front office) handle that,” Donovan said of Giddey’s contract situation. “(I) certainly have had conversations with Josh about it. But I think the idea of trading for him and having him come here was going to be for him to be here on an extended period of time. … Everybody here feels good about Josh as a player — what he’s been able to do and hopefully what he can continue to do.”