The Alex Caruso – Josh Giddey Trade Is PERFECT…

The Alex Caruso – Josh Giddey Trade Is PERFECT…

the Oklahoma City Thunder have started the off season with a bang they are trading away Josh giddy in exchange for Alex Caruso from the Chicago Bulls and that might not seem like a massive trade but it absolutely is funny thing is I was actually standing right here when the Ws notification came through and I was doing a thunder offseason video and I was talking about all these different options they might have in free agency being able to add you know trade picks add different guys I’ve been thinking for days about what exactly OKC needs and apparently they wanted to go and get a jump start on it before for the draft and I think we have to start with the Oklahoma City side of this because when you continually looked at the at the needs for Oklahoma City what did they need to add to the roster on a team that was the second youngest team in the entire league this past season the youngest team to ever win a postseason series the other teams around them in terms of Youth in the league are like San Antonio Charlotte Portland they are arguably the most successful young MBA team of all time and they have an opportunity to continue to add pieces due to their assets space all that stuff and really be true contenders and keep in mind as well this is an Oklahoma City team that went six games with the Mavericks which at the time felt like an upset but that team goes on to make the finals and Oklahoma City can look back at that series and think man if we’ played a little bit better a couple different things went our way they could have been in the Western Conference Finals or maybe even the finals and it’s clear that they are being aggressive and adding pieces and the guy that was always going to be the odd man out I talked about this when the Thunder season was over was going to be Josh giddy obviously the piece that people are going to talk about all offseason long I think is decently likely to be traded assuming Oklahoma City wants to make a move would be Josh giddy I talked about this during the season I think that there is some potential for him when he’s kind of the the the Creator on the team someone that can set other guys up obviously as a spacer alongside SGA and an Oklahoma City team that needs spacing um gidy just isn’t a natural fit they needed a connective piece they needed a fifth starter their other four guys sgaa Chad Jaylen Williams and Lou Dart those are the guys those guys were always starting in finishing games then they couldn’t figure out what else to do with that spot sometimes it was giddy in the postseason sometimes it was Aaron wiggin sometimes it was Isaiah Joe they didn’t have a fifth guy well now they do because if you look at a lot of different Advanced metrics Alex kuso is one of the best if not the best perimeter guard defenders in the entire league there’s a reason that there have been rumors about Caruso potentially getting traded from Chicago for two seasons now it’s because he’s that good defensively because he had that much value I speculated that at this most recent trade line the Bulls could have gotten two first round picks in exchange for Alex Caruso of course ultimately they decided to go out and get a young player in giddy who we’re going to talk about here in a second but I cannot overstate how big of a deal it is for Oklahoma City to get a guy that is just absolutely perfect for them and what their roster needed before we even get to free agency because one of the values of Caruso is that he’s not getting paid that much money he’s on this bargain contract from when he got signed away from the Lakers a handful of seasons ago and he’s gotten even better in Chicago and now OKC has that guy him dor Jaylen Williams SGA and Chad that is going to be an awesome fiveman lineup and the two different things that OKC needed this off season was a fifth starter someone that can play well in the wing someone that works well alongside their other guys and they need help in the front court and they’ve already helped one of those things without even touching their $35 million in salary cap space that they’re going to have once free agency opens here in a couple of weeks I cannot overstate how big of a deal it is for Oklahoma City to get one of the most covered role players in the entire Market in exchange for a guy in giddy that was not in their long-term plans now the one thing that I will say about Caruso is the way that OKC plays there a lot of five outs a lot of drive and kick they try and space the floor a ton Caruso’s three-point volume is going to have to increase and he’s going to have to be a better shooter he’s not a bad shooter he’s just more unwilling than you would want for someone in this Oklahoma City offense that’s one of the reasons why I speculated they might go out and get someone like Malik monk or Klay Thompson in free agency which is still a possibility depending on how willing those guys would or kuso would be to potentially play Off the Bench that’s the only real piece to this that I have an issue with but but quite frankly that’s an issue that we had with someone like Drew holiday with Milwaukee and then he gets to Boston where they really prioritize all this five out stuff and he has the best shooting season of his career I’m not saying that Alex Caruso is going to be Oklahoma City’s Drew holiday but it is within the realm of possibility and the idea of him shooting better in Oklahoma City than he has the last few seasons in Chicago is very very real speaking of Chicago let’s go to the other side of this if you’re a bulls fan you cannot like the trade return if you like that’s fine if you’re not a huge Josh giddy fan that’s fine this is such an important piece of information that you now have because the team and the organization is clearly willing to go in a younger Direction they are finally realizing that this is not anything better than a 40 to 44 win team it’s never going to be more than that it’s never going to be a contender doesn’t matter what you do with the pieces if you continue to bring them back if Lonzo somehow comes back and is healthy it’s just going to happen and this is the first real move that actually illustrates that this front office this organization understands that to be true in terms of giddy specifically in his fit in Chicago I speculated about this throughout the season through even 10 games into the year I talked about how Oklahoma City was really good but giddy was just in the way a lot he just didn’t shoot the ball well enough compared to all the other guys that they have and I also speculated that if I was a team out there I mentioned Chicago specifically If I Was A team out there that needed a little bit more creation playmaking gidy is a guy that I would at least look at because he’s one of those guys that is always going to look worse in a situation like what he was placed in in Oklahoma City rather than a situation that he might end up in in Chicago because everything about what OKC did was SGA and spacing SGA in spacing and giddy isn’t either one of those things and at times he had some decent moments as a Creator I think he lost confidence especially in the postseason but there is something to be said about a guy that is 68 has good passing instincts can guard a little bit and it’s just going to gain confidence from being the primary creator for a team that is asking him to be a primary Creator now Chicago has other guys are going to need the ball of course Kobe white depending on what they do with DeMar rosen maybe Lonzo comes back at some point but it’s still a good bet on the youth and the potential long-term value of someone like giddy because yeah you could maybe get a pick or two for Caruso but arguably giddy is worth more than that to Chicago because of what you know that he could be and what he showed in his first few seasons in the league and then maybe you’re just betting on the situation not being R uh for him in Oklahoma City in terms of a grade for each I think this is a a to an A+ for Oklahoma City 100 out of 100 times I mean if you could pick if you could put together a realistic list of Five Guys that OKC would have wanted to add to their team this offseason Caruso’s on that list and they got him before they’ve even really gotten to the heart of their additions in terms of free agency and potentially the draft and more trades they didn’t give up any picks in this deal it just it it it can’t again I keep saying this can’t be overstated how good of a deal this is for Oklahoma City for sure Chicago I’m going to give it a B I love the concept I love the idea of finally moving on and trading with cruso but I don’t want to give them too much credit for making an obvious choice rather than actually evaluating the value in the deal um giddy’s fine I think he has an opportunity to potentially grow and improve I think maybe they could have gotten more for Caruso and there were other options out there that would have been more interesting for them in terms of of younger guys to add but there’s a real possibility that a year from now giddy looks like a relatively foundational piece for the future of the Chicago Bulls and that Alex Caruso was it was one of the huge missing pieces for Oklahoma City as they go on to potentially the Conference Finals or the finals again keep in mind it’s the youngest team in the league one of the youngest teams in the League last year and that now also has 35 Plus million dollars in salary cap space available with theoretically their entire starting five in place they can go out and get Jonas malunis they can go out and trade for Clint capella they can sign Klay Thompson they can sign Malik monk they’ve got all this salary cap space this is as good of a step one to the offseason for Oklahoma City as they could have possibly hoped

The OKC Thunder have sent Josh Giddey to the Chicago Bulls in a trade for Alex Caruso, and it is perfect!

#joshgiddey #alexcaruso #nbatrade