‘Walking triple-double’ Giddey backed as NBA All-Star
Jasper Bruce |
Basketball legend Andrew Gaze feels Josh Giddey is more than justifying his huge $US25m salary and must be in the conversation for a maiden NBA All-Star call-up.
The Australian guard has hit career-best form in his second season with Chicago to quash any doubts he is up to the task of running the floor at the Bulls.
Giddey averages close to a triple-double per game with 19.5 points, 9.2 assists and 9.1 rebounds. All three statistics are career-highs across his five NBA seasons.
The 23-year-old has seven triple-doubles for the season, setting a new record for the fastest triple-double by a Bulls player by completing the feat in 20 minutes, two seconds against Atlanta last week.
Giddey has also improved his three-point shooting markedly this season as the Bulls continue their rebuild.
In the opinion of Gaze, often regarded Australia’s greatest-ever player, Giddey is showing he’s worth every penny of his recent $US100m, four-year contract extension.
“He’s a walking triple-double,” Gaze told AAP.
“(His season) has been as good as you could expect, I think, to a point where I know he just recently signed a very, very large contract but he’s playing, relative to other players, well above the value that he’s got.”
The mercurial Ben Simmons remains the only Australian selected as an NBA All-Star, earning the honour three times between 2019 and 2021.
But Gaze feels Giddey is doing enough to join Simmons in an elite club among his countrymen.
“The recognition that comes with being an All-Star would be justified,” he said.
“I don’t think there’d be too many people who would raise their eyebrows if he did get selected. I don’t think it’d be, ‘That’s a shock’. He’s right there in the conversation.”
Fellow Australian and defensive ace Dyson Daniels is also in the mix amid a great season with the Atlanta Hawks, though would be more of a left-field choice than Giddey.
“The numbers don’t jump out as dramatically as Josh’s do but there’s no doubt that he continues to make progress,” Gaze said.
A change in the structure of February’s All-Star weekend for the 2025/26 season could work in the Australian duo’s favour.
This season, two teams of American stars and one featuring players from elsewhere, dubbed ‘Team World’, will play a round robin tournament.
The move recognises the growing influence of overseas talent on the league, with Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander among the NBA superstars who hail from outside the US.
The All-Star weekend has been criticised as gimmicky and uncompetitive in recent years and Gaze was glad to see the NBA experiment with the concept.
“I came from an era when, sure, the All-Star game wasn’t blood, sweat and tears, but Magic (Johnson), Larry (Bird) and Michael (Jordan), that era, they were still competing,” he said.
“(The NBA) needed to try something. It was unwatchable, as a basketball lover, watching the All-Star game previously, it was terrible. It was uncompetitive.”
AAP
