Josh Giddey has taken a massive leap during the second half of the 2024-25 season.

The Chicago Bulls guard is shooting a career-high 37.7 percent from three on a career-high 4.0 attempts per game. He’s getting to the free-throw line 3.0 times a game; his previous career high was 1.9 in the 2022-23 campaign.

Since the All-Star break, the Giddey is averaging 21.0 points, 9.9 rebounds and and 9.1 assists with shooting splits of 40/47/80.

Given that he’s never shot better than 33.7 percent from deep in any of his previous three seasons (he shot a woeful 26.3 percent as a rookie), it’s fair to say the Aussie has taken a critical jump as a scorer this year.

But he has plenty more room to grow at just 22 years old, and there’s one specific skill set he can steal from this year’s MVP favorite that would push him closer toward an All-Star and, potentially, All-NBA-caliber, player.

Josh Giddey needs to steal Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s craftiness

As well as Coby White has played over the last month – he earned consecutive Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors as well as the Player of the Month Award – Giddey has become the Bulls’ most indispensable player. A large part of that comes down to his unique physical traits.

At 6-foot-8, Giddey fits the jumbo point guard archetype to a tee. He’s always been a facilitator more than a scorer and he’s fit perfectly into Chicago’s up-tempo style of play. He ranks in the top 10 in both rebounds and assists per game since Feb. 20, which speaks to his ability to grab-and-go on the fast break and savviness to find open teammates.

His scoring has taken a bump in part due to his never-before-seen three-point stroke, but it’s been more than that. Until recently, Giddey had a tendency to drive to the basket, stop and toss up floaters instead of fighting his way to the rim, making things more difficult for himself than necessary.

He’s begun to flip that, however, by using his size and intelligence to wiggle toward the basket and finish at the rim rather than settling for those inefficient floaters. Not only has that development made him a better scorer from open play, it’s helped him get to the free-throw line far more often.

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the master of using size and length to get into the paint and mess with defenders. Gilgeous-Alexander isn’t blessed with insane quickness or explosiveness, but he’s earned a doctorate degree in finding his way into the lane, getting defenders on skates in close quarters and using his body to either create easy layups or draw fouls.

Giddey is physically gifted enough to do what Shai is doing. He’s two inches taller and a tiny bit quicker, but at this point in his career, he only knows one speed. SGA has learned how to stop and start, shuffle, swivel, spin, shot fake, draw fouls and just generally destroy defenders in a phone booth. That should be Giddey’s next step as an offensive player.

And there’s a blueprint.

Gilgeous-Alexander will likely win this year’s MVP Award. Here are a few of his season stats that are relevant to this thought exercise:

• 73.8 percent of his shot attempts have been twos
• 26.2 precent of his shot attempts have been threes
• He’s scored 55.9 percent of his points from inside the arc
• 19.4 percent of his points have come from beyond the arc
• Almost a quarter (24.7) of his league-leading 2,394 total points have come at the free-throw line
• 41.8 percent of his points have come inside the paint
• SGA is 275-for-446 on layups (61.5 percent)

Compare those numbers to Giddey’s:

• 64.8 percent of his field goal attempts have come from inside the arc
• 35.3 percent have been from three
• He’s scored 52.1 percent of his points from two-point range
• 31.4 percent of his points have come from beyond the arc
• 16.5 percent of his points have come from the free-throw line
• 48.3 percent have come inside the paint
• He’s shot 56.5 percent on layups this season (140-for-284)

The general differences are easy to decipher. Shai takes (and makes) fewer threes because he doesn’t have to. He rarely settles for a shot; he gets to his spot with a plan and usually executes it. The biggest difference, both numerically and in terms of importance, is how much Gilgeous-Alexander lives at the free-throw line.

Because he so actively baits defenders and hunts fouls, he averages 9.0 free-throw attempts per game (and shoots 90.1 percent). Only Giannis Antetokounmpo has gotten to the line more often this year.

Giddey is still four years younger than Gilgeous-Alexander. Will he ever lead the race to win an MVP? Probably not. Does he have the physical traits to pull a version of this from SGA and become a more efficient scorer? Certainly.