Late on Thursday afternoon, the Chicago Bulls traded Alex Caruso for Josh Giddey. The trade was straight-up—no draft picks, no cash, no funny business, just like they did when I was a kid. Giddey still is a kid by NBA standards: he enters training camp as a 21-year-old, a true “second draft” acquisition for the Bulls, who may be signaling a step back into a youth movement; at least for the next season, since they’ll want to be positioned highly in the 2025 draft, which speculators universally agree boasts a golden class of talent. And the Bulls won’t get to keep their pick in 2025 unless it’s in the top-10 —a holdover clause from their sign-and-trade with the San Antonio Spurs for DeMar DeRozan (few will remember that the Bulls didn't have enough cap space to sign DeRozan outright, and had to shift big Thaddeus Young and Al-Farouq Aminu deals to the Spurs).
In the short-term, Giddey is a developmental project, but should put up big assist and rebounding numbers for a team that will probably look to play an uptempo, mistake-rich style with Giddey dishing to Coby White and Patrick Williams. It’s time to let these guys spread their wings and occasionally fly, but not not take too much flight. Like his fellow Australian stylistic forebear, Ben Simmons, Giddey faces the challenge of making the most of his super-length point forward self by developing into a better scorer. Simmons never did this—and actually atrophied on that front—but Giddey is a much less reluctant, if inaccurate, shooter.
He’ll certainly give White more freedom to shot-hunt, taking a lot of distribution responsibilities off his plate. Analyzing the full nature of this backcourt dynamic is a bit moot, though, if we don’t first dispense with the matter of the guys who’ve had the most usage for the Bulls the past few seasons: DeRozan and Zach LaVine. The Bulls are not-so-secretly shopping LaVine around the league, and the competitive step back of this trade suggests they’re at peace with the end of their DeRozan era, too. Confirmation will come (or not) in the coming weeks, but it’s hard to believe that the 34-year-old will be down for another year without postseason opportunity, especially if the money is equal or better elsewhere, as it figures to be.
The Thunder’s vision is, in all likelihood, now much closer to completion than the Bulls’. As young, ascendant winners of 57 games who ended their season with a deep second-round series, they’re already in the mix for title contention. Caruso strengthens that case. One of the most dynamic defenders alive and a capable dribble-pass-shoot option in a spread offense like OKC’s, he will close many games and make this team into absolute hellions. In terms of two-way perimeter skill and full-court productivity, the Thunder are pretty much the best team there is, now.
What they still don’t clearly have, though, is beef in their front court. Chet Holmgren is an elite rim protector, but he can be pushed around in the post and beat for rebounds. Giddey was important on the latter front, collecting the second-most boards on the team last year. In this way, OKC is sort of a three-quarters version of the Celtics’ five-out, basketball-solving championship approach—they don’t have guards who can somehow guard the rim, or wings who can attack the glass like centers—but a lot of that gap is theoretically closed because of what the Thunder have that the Celtics don’t: elite halfcourt creation. That’s what MVP runner-up Shai Gilgeous-Alexander provides.
OKC still has around $30 million to play with this offseason, and a treasure chest of draft picks as well (don’t get Bulls fans started on the fact that none came attached to Giddey). They could be eyeing one more big addition. I wouldn’t expect them to address their front-court rotation too conventionally, though. General Manager Sam Presti and head coach Mark Daigneault obviously value the versatility of their lineups, and are likely to adhere to the dribble-pass-shoot archetype with any new addition. Giddey, the youngest starter on a young team, was already too behind on that skills rubric to keep his spot on their train, so the Thunder aren’t about to add a slow center who’s even less guard-like than he was.
As a kick-off to offseason trade season, this Bulls/Thunder swap suggests a round of needs-based musical chairs to come. The Bulls are, it stands to reason, going to be one of the more active members of this party game. The clock has run out on the team they put together in the summer of 2021, financially and biologically. Should DeRozan and LaVine be gone, and should Lonzo Ball’s final year under contract transpire without a dramatic turnaround (the likes of which we shouldn’t expect from a guy with experimental body parts, after missing two-and-half seasons of play), Nikola Vucevic will become the last veteran standing from that core. He’s lost a ton of his ability to age, but projects as a solid piece for developing players to have as a half-court offense baseline piece. And, importantly, he’s no longer capable of helping them win too many games next season.