Raise your hand if you saw the Josh Giddey renaissance coming.

Sure, the Australian brings unique 6-foot-8 size to the point guard position. He’s borderline elite at leading a fast break. His vision and savvy passes are both productive and entertaining.

But the Oklahoma City Thunder, who’ve built a prospect development paradise, gave up on Giddey at the end of last season during their playoff run and traded him to the Bulls for Alex Caruso. Giddey’s lack of outside shooting was destructive to the Thunder offense, and his awful individual defense didn’t help.

It wasn’t surprising, then, that those same issues plagued the 22-year-old in Chicago. For the first three months of the season, Giddey shot 43.2 percent from the floor and 31.9 percent from three, right near his career averages. His plus-minus stood at -99 through nearly 1,100 minutes.

However, something clicked on Jan. 20, and Giddey has unbelievably become the Bulls’ best player. He’s also been their most consistent and indispensable, which made his recent ankle injury all the scarier.

Chicago got some good news on their starting point guard, though, which should serve as a boost to a team that’s already playing the best it has all season.

What the latest Josh Giddey injury news means for Bulls’ playoff chances

Since the Jan. 20 win against the Los Angeles Clippers, Giddey is averaging 18.6 points, 8.4 rebounds and 6.8 assists, but most importantly, he’s shooting 50.6 percent from the field and 45.8 percent from three. That’s across 21 games, which is not a small sample size, and he’s taking 4.6 shots from deep per game, not an insignificant amount.

Giddey had a scary fall during the fourth quarter of Chicago’s loss to the Indiana Pacers on March 2. Luckily, he avoided serious injury, but he’s missed three of the Bulls’ six games since, including their last two.

Chicago Head Coach Billy Donovan said his point guard is “progressing well” and should be back during the team’s six-game West Coast road trip, per K.C. Johnson of CHSN.

Giddey is expected to play either March 19 against the Phoenix Suns or March 20 against the Sacramento Kings, but won’t play both.

With a St. Patrick’s Day win over the Utah Jazz, the Bulls surged past the Miami Heat (losers of eight straight) for ninth place in the Eastern Conference standings. If the season ended today, Chicago would host a Play-In Tournament game against the skidding Heat.

But the Bulls have also won five of their last six and are only 2.5 games back of the Orlando Magic for eighth in the standings and three behind the Atlanta Hawks for seventh.

With Giddey’s imminent return, its current run of form and 14 games still to go in the regular season, Chicago has a realistic shot at grabbing either the sixth or seventh seeds. If the Bulls can manage that, they’ll not only host a Play-In game, they’ll only need to win one to become an actual playoff—not just postseason—team for the first time in four years.