Why the Alex Caruso-Josh Giddey trade was a win for both sides

The Oklahoma City Thunder and Chicago Bulls rang the opening bell of the offseason on Thursday by making the first trade of the summer, swapping Josh Giddey and Alex Caruso.

The trade, first reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, is cut and dry. Your player for ours. Giddey is coming off a maligned postseason that saw him get benched in the waning moments of Oklahoma City’s run. 

On the flip side, Caruso was the jewel of every fanbase’s eye after shooting 41% on three-pointers and making his second straight All-Defensive team. The Bulls reportedly turned down offers from multiple teams including multiple first-round picks for Caruso before February’s trade deadline. So why make this deal now? And for a player in so low regard as Giddey?

While the Bulls have been widely panned for the trade, I like it more for them than consensus. (CBS Sports gave the Thunder an A+ for the deal and the Bulls a “generous” C-.) Here’s why the deal is closer to a win-win. 

From the Thunder’s POV

Giddey no longer fit in OKC. Thunder GM Sam Presti said that the team planned to bring Giddey off the bench next season, but that Giddey found that “hard for him to envision.” 

"Conversations turned to him inquiring about potential opportunities elsewhere," Presti said in a statement.

With Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort, Jaylen Williams, Chet Holmgren and Giddey, the Thunder had one of the best starting fives in basketball during the regular season. That lineup outscored opponents by 10.2 points every 100 possessions. But that group was outscored by 22 points in 31 minutes in the second round against the Dallas Mavericks, who had a center play off Giddey and pack the paint against Gilgeous-Alexander’s and Williams’ drives. The Thunder replaced Giddey with a better shooter in Isaiah Joe for the final two games of the series but lost in seven games. At that point, the writing was on the wall. 

By swapping Giddey for Caruso, the Thunder can move into a true five-out scheme similar to the one the Boston Celtics ran en route to winning the 2024 championship.

Caruso and Dort will form one of the league’s best defensive backcourts and won’t take the ball away from MVP candidate Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams, a soon-to-be All-Star.

A team that ranked fourth in DRTG just got better on that end and created more space for Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Holmgren to create in the paint. This is a slam dunk.

From the Bulls’ POV

Giddey is a talented player and there’s an argument to be made that his strengths were redundant in Oklahoma City while his weaknesses were highlighted. 

The sixth overall pick in the 2021 draft, Giddey is a talented facilitator with elite vision and the height, at 6-foot-8, to make any pass on the court. But as Gilgeous-Alexander’s star rose, Giddey’s passing was needed less and less. His assist numbers reflect that: Going from 6.4 assists per game as a rookie to 6.2 and then a career-low 4.8 last season. 

At 21, Giddey is nine years younger than Caruso. This trade is a gambit that Giddey could be a key cog in Chicago’s future. 

In many ways, Giddey is a younger, healthier Lonzo Ball, who has missed the last two seasons for the Bulls with knee injuries. By adding Giddey, the Bulls can recreate the magic they found with Ball, when they went 22-13 in his 35 games during the 2021-22 season before his career went on life support.

Giddey was compared to Ball during the predraft process and it’s easy to see why: Both are tall, elite passers who push the pace. 

The Bulls ranked 28th in pace last season, averaging 96.94 possessions per 48 minutes. The Thunder averaged 102.32 possessions with Giddey on the court. In Ball’s 35 healthy games, the Bulls played at a pace of 100.11 when he was on the court.

There’s proof of concept that Giddey’s size, play-making and tempo are needed in Chicago, while those things weren’t needed in Oklahoma City. The Bulls traded for a former lottery talent when his perceived value was at its lowest. There’s a chance Giddey pops for the Bulls.

Could the Bulls have gotten more for Caruso? It’s possible. If Caruso was really that high in demand, they could have waited, played the leverage game, and gotten some draft compensation in addition to Giddey. 

But Giddey was also on the block, and if the Bulls messed around they could have let the player they targeted get away. Any other picks coming their way for Caruso would have been coming from playoff teams looking to make a leap – future picks likely to land in the 20s. 

Here, they get a 21-year-old former sixth overall pick, a raw talent who fits more than a hypothetical player chosen at the end of the first round some time in the future.

The Thunder and Bulls got the players they wanted.