Grading Alex Caruso-Josh Giddey Trade Between Chicago Bulls & OKC Thunder
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Alex Caruso is a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Josh Giddey is joining the Chicago Bulls.
Welcome to the officially official start of the NBA’s silly season, everybody!
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Chicago and Oklahoma City have a agreed to a straight-up, flat-out, one-for-one Giddey-for-Caruso swap. The move has substantive implications for both teams as they navigate not just this offseason but the longer haul.
And what better way to discuss and break down the fallout than by busting out the ol’ red pen and delivering some tried-and-true, never-ever-ever-too-soon trade grades?
Chicago Bulls: D-
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This is an impressively unspectacular move even by the Bulls’ endlessly unremarkable standards.
On the one hand, this move hints at the tiniest bit of foresight, making it an uncharacteristically self-aware path. Caruso is one of the very best defenders on Planet Earth, but he turns 31 in February and will be up for a raise after this season. Chicago isn’t nearly good enough to pencil in a semi-massive salary for a player entering the back end of his prime.
Signing him to a four-year, (estimated) $80 million extension wouldn’t have been the end of the world. If anything, in the eyes of certain suitors, it would have increased his trade value down the line. But jettisoning him could suggest the Bulls understood that number isn’t high enough to lock him downāor that he didn’t want to stick around for their recurring bottom-of-the-middle pursuits.
Either way, relative to Chicago’s outlook, the decision to trade Caruso is the correct one.
The timing? The actual return? They’re both a special brand of awful. Hell, even the trade-announcement spin is utter dreck:
Will Gottlieb @Will_Gottlieb”to replace Lonzo Ball” https://t.co/ISjguZavVm
Let’s start with the actual return. While Caruso’s departure implies some semblance of forward-thinking, accepting Giddey not only as the primary compensation but the entire kit and kaboodle reverses any trace of it.
Yes, he’ll be 22 when the 2024-25 season tips off. But he was just rendered unplayable for stretches at a time in the postseason and, with one year left on his rookie scale, due for another, potentially (overly) expensive deal. The Bulls don’t have a ton of time to decide how much he’s worth. They may have to make that call before he ever sets foot on the floor.
Playing this out and letting him reach restricted free agency next summer isn’t a particularly appealing alternative. Either Giddey underperforms, in which case the trade looks like a dud, or he exceeds expectations, in which case Chicago will be on the hook for bankrolling a massive deal at a time when it still won’t have a distinct or coherent direction.
About that direction…I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve asked this question since 2015, but just what in the actual hell are the Bulls doing? Adding Giddey makes zero sense when they have Ayo Dosunmu, Coby White and Zach LaVine on the roster, all of whom are better than their new teammate.
This says nothing of Lonzo Ball, who might play next season, but whose shooting and playmaking and defense the Bulls are looking to “replace” more than two years after his last appearance with a player who does exactly one of those things. Nor does it say anything of DeMar DeRozan, Chicago’s best player and primary playmaker, who’s getting set to enter unrestricted free agency.
Giddey was a shaky fit in Oklahoma City, on a team that runs exclusively four- and five-out lineups. He profiles as a horrendous fit alongside DeRozan and within a Bulls offense that ranked in the bottom five of both three-point-attempt rate (26th) and efficiency (29th) this past season.
Granted, there’s still time for Chicago to remake itself to better align with its vision. But, like, this assumes they have one. This move leaves them more formless and directionless than they were before.
Spare us the “This obviously signals they’re rebuilding!” propaganda if you’re so inclined to carry Chicago’s water. Teams gearing up for wholesale transitions don’t prioritize players, however young, who are one year out from a (possibly) lucrative raise and don’t come attached to any draft picks. And even if this is precursor to a more gradual timeline, it’s still impossible to ignore the downside and blatant asset mismanagement:
Jason Patt @Bulls_JayGiddey isn’t as bad as he was to close the year and if it leads to the Bulls just totally blowing it up it’s a bit easier to stomach but it’s horrendous asset management by the Bulls given Caruso’s value, Giddey is 1 year from FA and at a low point, plus the off-court weirdness. https://t.co/CORWYlwTry
It would be one thing if the Bulls were the Toronto Raptors and this was their version of the OG Anunoby trade. For that to be true, though, they must have a No. 1 cornerstone in place (Scottie Barnes) and another player on the books they can move for even a modest first-round bounty (Pascal Siakam). They also need to be getting back someone who looks ready for a more expansive role and is worth the money he’ll cost in his next deal (Immanuel Quickley).
Chicago is checking exactly none of these boxes.
That brings us to the timing. The Bulls reportedly turned down packages, plural, featuring multiple first-round picks ahead of the deadline. If this is the best offer currently out there, they waited too long to move a player everyone knew wasn’t part of their long-term program. In the event executive vice president of basketball operations ArtÅ«ras KarniÅ”ovas and his front office are actively choosing Giddey over proposals with first-round equity, well, the optics are even worse.
For anybody still holding out hope this transaction is a harbinger of starting over, I have another question: What does that even look like? Trading LaVine and/or Lonzo at the nadir of their markets? Letting DeRozan walk in free agency for absolutely nothing? Moving him in a sign-and-trade that invariably nets them less than they could have gotten if they shipped him out with actual time left on his contract?
Will Gottlieb @Will_GottliebOne of the most notables details about the Caruso trade is they now can’t attach him to dump LaVine
Giddey deal doesn’t give them any financial flexibility. Still need to move off Zach and they just severely limited their avenues to do so
None of this is meant to declare that the Bulls are acquiring a lost cause. Giddey can be a masterful passer, has great size and has put together semi-convincing stretches in which he knocks down open threes and keeps defenses on tilt with his floater. Pick-and-pops with Nikola VuÄeviÄ could yield real value. (Never mind that a 33-year-old Vooch goes completely against the “But hey, maybe they’re rebuilding!” grain.) Coby White’s spot-up touch also ensures the offensive dynamic between he and Giddey isn’t a lost cause.
Still, if you find yourself touting the ability of your most promising player to have the ball less to justify the logic of a move, chances are you’ve messed up. For Chicago’s part, this is something beyond that.
The Bulls are sending out a proven all-world defender for a singular, soon-to-be expensive maybe who likely requires a quasi-roster overhaul to have his skill set properly optimized and his weaknesses appropriately insulated.
This isn’t akin to messing up, or a misguided stab in the dark, or even a morbidly opaque dice roll. This is franchise malpracticeāyet another heaping, steaming pile of aimless B.S. the Bulls are shoveling down the throat of a fanbase that deserves better.
Oklahoma City Thunder: A++++++
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Almost everyone whose anyone has been calling for the Thunder to make something resembling an aggressive play. The acquisition of Gordon Hayward at the trade deadline was opportunistic and low-stakes more than it was aggressiveāand it didn’t pan out.
This is different. Caruso is one of the league’s most valuable defenders, someone who can capably, if not suffocatingly, guard four positions while wreaking havoc in passing lanes. Tossing him onto a roster that already has Lu Dort, Chet Holmgren, Cason Wallace, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams populating a defense that ranked fourth in points allowed per possession is a nightmare development for 29 other teams.
The price Oklahoma City will pay to get Caruso renders this an overkill of genius.
Though the Thunder used a top-six pick on Giddey in 2021, their system has evolved beyond his skill set. SGA and J-Dub are ahead of him in their ball-handling ranks, and Wallace’s defensive intensity and malleability already far outstrip anything Giddey can provide.
Stephen Dolan @SteveThunderfanI’m just so happy Presti did a meaningful win-now move at this stage. Would’ve been so easy to be purely patient.
But in a lot of ways, this is Jeff Green for Perk. Saw what was missing in the playoffs, traded a high pick who didn’t fit perfectly for a vet role player.
To Giddey’s credit, he made functional adjustments and strides over the past two years. They weren’t enough. His spot inside Oklahoma City’s most important lineups slumped beneath coin-toss territory long before the playoffs rolled around.
Moving him now is the prudent decision, not just functionally, but financially. Shelling out money for his next deal wouldn’t have sat right with new contracts for SGA, J-Dub and Holmgren on the horizon.
Caruso could wind up being more affordable long-term. If he puts pen to paper on a four-year, (estimated) $80 million extension in six months, he will almost assuredly cost less than Giddey during that spanāand, even at his age, be infinitely more tradeable.
Steph Noh @StephNohNot many people were watching the Bulls over the past few years. People are about to see how ridiculous Caruso is.
Bookmarking and RT-ing for when he creates multiple game-winning defensive plays out of thin air in the playoffs as he did like clockwork for the Bulls.
Landing Caruso will not address most of the offensive warts that befell the Thunder during their postseason jaunt. His downhill passing fits their systematic motif, and he just canned over 40 percent of his triples on a career-high 5.9 attempts per 36 minutes. But he’s not particularly high volume or someone who will put set defenses into rotation from a dead stop.
Yet Oklahoma City will give Caruso actual space with which to work. His live-dribble decision-making should look even better in the half-court, and the Thunder might be able to coax more scoring aggression out of him on drives, if only because he’ll encounter less obstructed paths to the basket.
And, oh, yeah: They’re not done, either.
Because the Bulls are the Bulls, this deal doesn’t knife into OKC’s limitless draft-pick stash. The Thunder are also taking on under $2 million in additional salary, which still leaves them with more projected cap space than any teams other than Detroit, Orlando, Philadelphia and maaaybe Charlotte, Toronto and Utah:
Keith Smith @KeithSmithNBAThe Thunder took on about $1.5M in salary in acquiring Alex Caruso for Josh Giddey.
Oklahoma City should still be able to create $33.7M in cap space this summer.
Alarmists will worry about Caruso leaving in free agency, but Oklahoma City isn’t making this deal without intel on his salary demands or interest in sticking around long-term. And even if the Thunder are going in blind, Caruso is worth the risk, and they’re good enough and deep enough and flexible enough to withstand it.
Basically, this trade amounts to Oklahoma City acting like the championship contender it isāan earned, if perhaps overdue, departure from its usual conservatism that should terrify the ever living hell out of the entire league.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes.
