Josh Giddey’s NBA pre-season rocked by ankle injury
Josh Giddey has revealed he ruptured an ankle ligament playing at the Olympics but is on track to be available for the Chicago Bulls’ NBA campaign tip-off.
Giddey rolled his ankle in Australia’s 95-90 quarter-final loss to Serbia in Paris but played on as the Boomers gave up a 24-point lead to crash out of medal contention in overtime.
After flying back to Melbourne, scans revealed serious damage to Giddey’s anterior talofibular ligament, setting the guard up for what has been almost two months of rehabilitation.
The 21-year-old spent the first month recovering in Australia before flying back to Chicago and joining the Bulls, who acquired him in a trade with Oklahoma City for Alex Caruso.
“(The ankle) is getting better, it’s getting to the point where I’m almost back out there,” Giddey said at the Bulls’ open media day.
“Because we’ve got time on our side at this point of the off-season, we’re just making sure it’s 100 per cent before we get back into playing.
“Everything’s been great, rehab’s going well and I’m looking forward to getting back out there.”
Giddey said he would be fine for his new club’s first regular-season game against New Orleans on October 24 (AEDT).
“It’s probably at a point where if it was a play-off game I’d be out there playing but because we’re in the off-season, this isn’t something that you want to rush,” he said.
Giddey was one of Australia’s best at the Paris Games, which the Boomers entered with great expectations after winning their first Olympic medal in Tokyo.
Instead, Australia won only one of three group stage games before a loss to Serbia that has had Giddey seething during the NBA off-season.
“That was a game that sat with me for weeks after it happened. It was probably for me the most heartbreaking loss of my career,” he said.
“We had every opportunity to win that game and move onto the semi-finals to kind of end the Olympic campaign that way was very hard.”
Portland Trail Blazers wing Matisse Thybulle was the Boomers’ hard luck story in Paris, overlooked for a spot despite his feats in Tokyo and elite defensive capabilities.
Speaking on the omission for the first time, Thybulle admitted he had taken for granted that he would be picked.
“What do you learn from it? I guess that nothing’s guaranteed,” he said.
“I’d got into an assumption that I was going to be on the team and I wasn’t and having to deal with the sense of entitlement I might’ve had going in there.
“There’s been plenty of stuff to think about and process.”
Best known for his passing game, Giddey is committed to lifting his game at the other end of the floor as he replaces elite perimeter defender Caruso at the Bulls.
“I had a lot of conversations with Mark (Daigneault, Thunder coach) when I was in Oklahoma and there comes a point in a players’ career when the fork is put in the road with where you’re at defensively,” he said.
“You don’t want to get to a point in your career where you’re known as the weak link on that end of the floor.”
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