Making Sense of the Alex Caruso/Josh Giddey Trade: The Good and the Bad

Making Sense of the Alex Caruso/Josh Giddey Trade: The Good and the Bad

let’s rewind in just a few days ago on Monday we learned from reporting coming out of csgo’s will gly that the Bulls had in fact received multiple offers that included multiple first round picks in exchange for Alex Caruso at this past season’s trade deadline which of course the Bulls declined the reason being a mandate from ownership for the Bulls to continue to push for the playoffs and while a lot of us Bulls fans were up in arms to learn that kind of deal the Bulls could have gotten for their two-time all defensive team player all but to pass pass onet opportunities that would lead to the Bulls missing the Playoffs anyway but little did we know that just 3 days later after nearly 2 years of the Bulls fan base trying to push to trade their most valuable trade asset we would learn that the Bulls finally let go of the heart and soul of this team in trading away Alex Cruz so for the Oklahoma City Thunders Josh Giddy and that was it a straight trade of Caruso for Josh Giddy and while I’m still trying to process this trade hours after the news broke and yes part of me is still not really sure how to feel about it overall I can honestly say this is a pretty lousy trade deal for the Bulls especially when you consider what was on the table in a potential Caruso deal and what they ultimately got in return and the fact that they weren’t able to pry a single draft pick away from the Thunder not even a measly second round pick from a team that has the biggest stockpile of draft picks in the NBA but here’s the thing while it’s easy to look at this trade in a vacuum and see why the Bulls lost the trade deal which I’ll get into why it’s also easy to be reactionary in the early aftermath of a single trade before we see how the rest of the offseason pans out because I would venture to say this is likely just the first move of many other moves the Bulls will be making this offseason to implement change to this roster but either way in this video we’re going to be breaking down the good and the bad of this trade for the Bulls and what it potentially means for what’s to come for the rest of this off season so what’s going on everyone you’re listening to Bull Central here hope you’re all doing well now you guys probably saw my very brief initial reaction video to the breaking news but when this news first broke seeing the WJ bomb come through with Alex kuso’s name on it my heart instantly dropped a bit before I even saw the name of who it was attached to in terms of who they’re going to be trading with but I think you guys all know AC has been one of my favorite players on this team I love everything he does on the court the definition of grit grind hustle makes winning plays and he fits to a te of what you want to see in Chicago basketball but at the same time I also knew that it was kind of inevitable that we could see a Caruso trade this off season given all the rumors the Bulls current state that they find themselves in where they’re in no man’s land and knowing that Caruso’s value around the league would get them a very good return for a role player a great role player but a role player and he’s in his 30s so when I saw Josh giddy included in the deal I immediately thought okay what else because sometimes you know you get the WJ bombs or the Shams bombs although Ro has actually kind of been beating up on Shams recently with breaking news but they get these initial tweets out so they can be the first first to report on it and then they’ll follow it up with a tweet giving more specifics in the deal and what else is included namely any draft picks and so I waited and waited and I kept saying to myself well there’s no way this is a straightup trade for Josh Kitty especially when it’s the Thunder and they have so many draft picks at their disposal they have to have at least gotten one first round pick in the deal and I kept waiting and waiting and it never came through and sure enough the trade was just for Josh giddy now if you caught my recent video I had talked about part of the reason for my reluctance in trading Caruso because I felt the Bulls were going to sell lower on him than they should have I just felt like unless you were getting a really good return a big haul for Alex guso it probably wasn’t more trading guy and you might as well extend him and trade him down the line because there will be interest in him throughout the league even come next season and sure enough my fears became a reality because don’t get me wrong Josh giddy is a fine player and he’s young with upside but if this is the return you opted for instead of multiple first round picks this is straight up front office malpractice and look I said before we don’t truly know what the offers were we don’t know what the protections on the picks that were offered near the deadline were and you could argue maybe the picks weren’t that valuable overall and at least with Josh giddy they know they’re getting an established player who was the number six pick in the 2021 draft but regardless what I find most concerning is AK clearly seeing Josh giddy’s flaws on full display in the playoffs this past season so bad to the point that he was nearly taken out of the rotation and having a very minimal role in the postseason and he decides yeah I want that I’m going to use my best trade asset to get this guy even if it means not having additional draft picks to go with it like Caruso is coming off his best season of his career having his best offensive season combined with his Elite level defense and doing all this on one of the best contracts in the NBA while Josh giddy is coming off his Worst season granted he’s only been in the league for 3 years but his Worst season and a big time regression in his third year which is a bit of a red flag and he’s going to be coming up for rookie contract extension so you either are going to have to pay him or he potentially leaves in free agency next season and then you give up cruso for one year of Josh Giddy and so I guess I’m already kind of going into the negatives but let’s start with the cons well of course aside from not getting any kind of draft capital in the deal but as it relates to the downsides of Josh giddy well number one he can’t shoot the Bulls desperately need shooting and you just traded away one of your best shooters from this past season who shot over 41% from three while Josh giddy has shot 31% from three on his career he’s not a good Defender you’re going to lose a lot of Defense in shipping out Caruso for Giddy and the biggest thing that gets me which is why you have to think other moves are coming I just don’t see the fit there are certain aspects of the fit that I like which I’ll get to in talking about the pros of this trade but you’re talking about adding another ball dominant guard who is at his best when he has the ball in his hands and it’s part of the reason why he struggled last season playing alongside SGA but another guard like that with Demar de rozan another player who can’t space the floor and hit threes and another player who can’t defend I mean in lineup of Josh Giddy deardo rosan and niik La vuich watching that is going to make me want to gouge my eyes out that has the worst three-man net rating in the league written all over it for this upcoming season which is why you’d have to think again there are more moves coming because if this is the quote unquote Big Move of the off season for the Bulls and AK makes this as the play to stay competitive thinking that somehow giddy is going to take on that Lonzo ball roll and replicate what the Bulls were doing at the beginning of 2021 then oh boy this trade becomes that much more worse if there are not subsequent moves to follow it because giddy alone and keeping the rest of the roster as is is arguably worse from a roster construction standpoint than what the Bulls had last season which is pretty hard to do and making it worse at this point now the last piece I’ll say as it relates to the downsides of this trade I’m not going to touch on this too much but of course the off court stuff with Josh kidy evidently dating an underage girl obviously he wasn’t found of any wrongdoing and that whole case has been closed but that’s also not the best look and you could tell that was having an effect on him last season and could be part of the reason for his struggles last year when I’m sure that weigh on him mentally especially when the investigation was still ongoing now as it relates to the pros of this trade the glass half fulls side and looking at this deal so Bulls fans don’t go into the pits of Despair after the trade one you should be encouraged that the Bulls are actually making moves making real changes two as I said before a move like this likely signals more moves to come I mean one thing that W called out when he broke the news but the Assumption of bringing in a player like giddy is that the Bulls are probably conceding that Lonzo isn’t going to be coming back or won’t be close to the same level of player he used to be you might even see a potential buyout on the final year of his deal or waving and stretching his contract three for giddy’s Flaws he actually does have a lot of positive aspects to his game he’s a pretty versatile player in that he can play positions one through four good side it’s nice the Bulls have finally added a player that is taller than 65 handles the ball well good Court Vision solid passing good rebounder for a guard he’s a triple double threat finishes decently well at the rim and while I mentioned you know the issue of fit the one aspect I do like when it comes to him fitting with this roster is that the Bulls have needed a floor General a playmaker for a while now ever since Lonzo ball got injured and so for the Bulls I mean giddy is going to have the ball in his hands will have more freedom to control the floor well again kind of assumes dear maybe wouldn’t be coming back and to me this could actually benefit Kobe white because even though Kobe improved his handles his playmaking his shot creation last season I think most will agree Kobe is more effective and lethal playing off the ball and with Josh giddy you would hope he’s going to be getting better looks with a good playmaking guard and of course Kobe will still have the ball in his hands from time to time but he won’t be expected to be the primary ball handler on a nightly basis and then finally Josh giddy’s Young he’s only 21 years old still has upside potential in having not even reached his prime yet I don’t think he has Allstar potential like w said in his tweet but it is an opportunity to buy low on a player who’s coming off a down year where he saw a drastic decrease in his usage because of the ascendance of sgaa maybe a new environment a change of scene could work out well for him and maybe just maybe he can improve that shot I’m not going to hold my breath though on that one although Peter Patton did do wonders for aumu let’s see if he can replicate that for Josh giddy the one thing that does give me hope that he can improve his shot is that he shot 80% from the free throw line this past season which usually not all the time but usually if a player can shoot free throws on a solid clip they can with a proper training and development eventually develop a jump shot so yes there are some things I like about this trade but I would say there are more things that I don’t like about it and part of it is because I really didn’t want to see Caruso go not like this I’m very happy for him though because this is the ideal situation for Alex guso playing for a contender a team that needs a lock down perimeter Defender I love this trade for OKC they have to be smiling from ear to ear that they were able to get one of the best defenders in the NBA who can shoot threes on a cheap contract and not have to give up picks to get him I feel like I’ll potentially like this trade more depending on the moves that follow this one but if this is it though this is the move of the off season then no this trade becomes even that much more worse but regardless let me know what you guys thought on the trade let me know in the comments as always be sure to subscribe and I will see you in the next one

Discussing the pros and cons of the Alex Caruso/Josh Giddey trade

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