OKC Thunder Trades and Transaction Thread

[Mr Thunder Nick]

https://okcthunderwire.usatoday.com/2024/06/20/report-thunder-trade-josh-giddey-to-bulls-for-alex-caruso/

[Mr Thunder Nick]

Good move for both teams. Josh will get more balls in his hand in Chicago.

Another hustler for OKC. I wouldn't be surprised moving K.Williams this offseason.

[Kizz Fastfists]

This is an interesting move, but I'm not sure how effects the rotation. Is Presti really going to go with an even smaller starting lineup next year that has only one decent rebounder? Does this lead to a follow up move with Dort heading out? Does one of Dort or Caruso come off the bench? I'm not saying it is a bad move, but as the first move of the off-season it raises a lot of questions. The next two weeks could be very interesting.

[Darthlukey]

Nice move guys, I think that is very much win now for a flawed younger player, your playoff rotation becomes much more dangerous now

[Devilanche]

I think giddey is a tad more valuable than Caruso but all in all shouldn’t matter with our warchest.

Need to see what else we do.

[ThunderBolt]

I approve of this move. This is why it’s hard to take Presti at his word at post season pressers.

[Clav]

Excellent move. I think OKC wins this trade by a fair margin. Caruso will slot in perfectly to hound other backcourts // Dort Caruso Wallace combo is fierce, and SGA is solid as well. We can play 2 of those 4 anytime, and have some assurance for injury and whatnot.

Jdub, Wiggins, Joe, and Kenrich remain for the guard/F swing players - we are deep at G, we have options. Kenrich might be the odd man out, honestly I'm curious if we trade him too, teams would be interested.

Now, we did sacrifice a little size and playmaking, the goal should be to round out the roster smartly to cover that. Still hoping we make a trade for Olynyk from Toronto, but I doubt that happens.

We've signaled to the league that we are in the market to buy, and wanted to get Caruso before other teams had a chance (or we made a better offer). Personally, I can't believe that Chicago would make this trade without getting a pick from us as we were quick on the trigger to do so, or that Chicago didn't drive up the asking price for Caruso somehow.

It seems like a weird sell-low moment for Giddey as I do believe his ceiling is higher than Caruso's if all goes well for JG, however we saw first hand that his limitations severely impacted us throughout not only the regular season (teams even then made him liability-level by not guarding him) but also in the playoffs where Dallas basically ignored him as a shooter.

Even with that, Giddey had a crummy year, in concert with his offseason drama, I think it's well placed to move on. For the Bulls, Giddey will excel driving the offense and giving them more spark - he's the natural replacement to Lonzo's nitemare injury stuff. Giddey has to be thrilled because he gets to play for a storied franchise and a clean slate, will have the keys in his hand, and can try to gauge an extension from Chicago/big RFA offer next season. This puts Giddey at an advantageous situation to improve his career significantly.

Caruso should also be thrilled because he's familiar with our organization from the past and is now right in the title-mix. He's near Shai's age as well.

[shakes0]

LOVE this trade. As we all saw, Giddey was unplayable in the playoffs and isn’t that the whole damn point? Very happy to bring in a dog like Caruso. Now just need to add some size and this team is ready to go.

[slick_watts]

i think it's interesting this occurred so soon. might foreshadow a lot of things, including how eager / decisively the team was to get off of josh giddey. i know there was some back and forth discussions on his future but imo the allegations surfacing and his demeanor during those times / benchings sealed his fate.

alex caruso is a better defensive player than either lu dort and cason wallace - and having all three certainly is unusual. if i was lu dort i'd be a little worried.

to me the big picture is what this telegraphs for the remainder of the offseason. unless the thunder want to start ousmane dieng i'm not sure there's another configuration using this roster that makes sense as a starting group. the thunder have the assets to acquire a player in a number of ways and it just became a lot more likely they will go that route imo.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Caruso should also be thrilled because he's familiar with our organization from the past and is now right in the title-mix. He's near Shai's age as well.

Caruso is 30 and the oldest player OKC currently has under contract for next season. SGA is 25. It would be like saying Cason, 20, is near SGA's age.

Why do you say Caruso is familiar with our organization? He has played for LAL and Chicago. What am I missing?

[cjmcallist]

I like the move. I’m a bit worried about Caruso’s next deal. Can we extend him?

I don’t love the idea of losing Caruso after this year. I do love the thought of a Dort, Wallace, Caruso rotation around SGA.

I also love the idea that Presti is going all-in on this team being ready to win. Thank goodness.

The timing of it is strange unless there’s another move or two coming. This is very exciting.

[OE_Thunder]

Caruso should also be thrilled because he's familiar with our organization from the past and is now right in the title-mix. He's near Shai's age as well.

Caruso is 30 and the oldest player OKC currently has under contract for next season. SGA is 25. It would be like saying Cason, 20, is near SGA's age.

Why do you say Caruso is familiar with our organization? He has played for LAL and Chicago. What am I missing?

Caruso played for the Blue in 2016-2017 while Mark was the coach

Sent from my SM-S928U using RealGM mobile app

[Bremzi]

A great move. Caruso has ties to OKC and Daigneault, reportedly they still remain friends. Caruso has one year left like Giddey, but will likely be cheaper to extend.

I see the trade as Caruso being this team’s Derrick White. This might turn out to be a Jrue Holiday type of trade.

With the salaries being more or less equal, OKC still has 35 mil to work with + picks. Need to get 1-2 quality bigs, hopefully in the form of 21-22y rookies or a rookie+a vet.


If I’m looking for comparison between OKC and Celtics, Caruso + Dort/Wallace are like White + Holiday. Chet is KP. Jalen Williams is basically like Brown. Isiah Joe is like Sam Hauser.

SGA is a better offensive player than Tatum but less athletic and smaller. OKC needs it’s Horford and possibly another athletic PF. Then you can legit see this team have championship lvl roster. Can they get 1-2 quality bigs this offseason - let’s see.

[Devilanche]

i think it's interesting this occurred so soon. might foreshadow a lot of things, including how eager / decisively the team was to get off of josh giddey. i know there was some back and forth discussions on his future but imo the allegations surfacing and his demeanor during those times / benchings sealed his fate.

alex caruso is a better defensive player than either lu dort and cason wallace - and having all three certainly is unusual. if i was lu dort i'd be a little worried.

to me the big picture is what this telegraphs for the remainder of the offseason. unless the thunder want to start ousmane dieng i'm not sure there's another configuration using this roster that makes sense as a starting group. the thunder have the assets to acquire a player in a number of ways and it just became a lot more likely they will go that route imo.

I think we can make it work with all 3 . Theres still minutes to squeeze out but I wondering what this mean for either Joe or Wiggins. It gets too crowded once we factor both in. Unless we are going to play more small ball than we already are.

[Kizz Fastfists]

I like the move. I’m a bit worried about Caruso’s next deal. Can we extend him?

I don’t love the idea of losing Caruso after this year. I do love the thought of a Dort, Wallace, Caruso rotation around SGA.

I also love the idea that Presti is going all-in on this team being ready to win. Thank goodness.

The timing of it is strange unless there’s another move or two coming. This is very exciting.

Caruso's next contract should be around 4/$80M. OKC should be able to afford that without much issue. The bigger question is how fast will decline. He's 30 so if you give him a four year deal you are paying for his age 31-34 seasons. Since 3&D players tend to age well we'll assume any age related decline is minimal. The issue of him staying on the court could become a significant issue. He's never played a full season and if you exclude the COVID season, 14 games missed, he's only missed less than 15 games once in his career.

[Clav]

Caruso should also be thrilled because he's familiar with our organization from the past and is now right in the title-mix. He's near Shai's age as well.

Caruso is 30 and the oldest player OKC currently has under contract for next season. SGA is 25. It would be like saying Cason, 20, is near SGA's age.

Why do you say Caruso is familiar with our organization? He has played for LAL and Chicago. What am I missing?

Caruso played for the Blue in 2016-2017 while Mark was the coach

Sent from my SM-S928U using RealGM mobile app

bingo! thx


The age thing is a bit of a mistake, my bad, Kizz! not that close, I thought he was younger and didn't check

[cjmcallist]

I like the move. I’m a bit worried about Caruso’s next deal. Can we extend him?

I don’t love the idea of losing Caruso after this year. I do love the thought of a Dort, Wallace, Caruso rotation around SGA.

I also love the idea that Presti is going all-in on this team being ready to win. Thank goodness.

The timing of it is strange unless there’s another move or two coming. This is very exciting.

Caruso's next contract should be around 4/$80M. OKC should be able to afford that without much issue. The bigger question is how fast will decline. He's 30 so if you give him a four year deal you are paying for his age 31-34 seasons. Since 3&D players tend to age well we'll assume any age related decline is minimal. The issue of him staying on the court could become a significant issue. He's never played a full season and if you exclude the COVID season, 14 games missed, he's only missed less than 15 games once in his career.

That is also a concern. Would hate to be paying a non-player $20m. But, this is the way of contenders.

[Chuck Everett]

Caruso's awesome. Huge upgrade. Keeping him and Dort with Shai and Dub is an absolute must. Two elite defenders to allow your offensive players to be scorers. Man, what a steal. Just unbelievable really.

[slick_watts]

i think it's interesting this occurred so soon. might foreshadow a lot of things, including how eager / decisively the team was to get off of josh giddey. i know there was some back and forth discussions on his future but imo the allegations surfacing and his demeanor during those times / benchings sealed his fate.

alex caruso is a better defensive player than either lu dort and cason wallace - and having all three certainly is unusual. if i was lu dort i'd be a little worried.

to me the big picture is what this telegraphs for the remainder of the offseason. unless the thunder want to start ousmane dieng i'm not sure there's another configuration using this roster that makes sense as a starting group. the thunder have the assets to acquire a player in a number of ways and it just became a lot more likely they will go that route imo.

I think we can make it work with all 3 . Theres still minutes to squeeze out but I wondering what this mean for either Joe or Wiggins. It gets too crowded once we factor both in. Unless we are going to play more small ball than we already are.

they can all co-exist on the roster, but i highly doubt dort + caruso will start. that's three ~10% drb guys and shai < 15% drb. i think we could see plenty of dort + caruso in reserve units.

[Big nick]

Well at least Sam is attempting to assemble a roster to make a run next season. Seems like there are other moves he will make because it's just so early. I really liked josh and will miss him but If Caruso can stay healthy he's going to help us for sure.