Earlier this offseason, the Oklahoma City Thunder traded Josh Giddey to the Chicago Bulls for Alex Caruso. While many lauded the deal and how it would improve the Thunder's defense, not everyone was initially thrilled with the decision.
Thunder star Chet Holmgren spoke about the trade that sent Giddey to the Bulls in an interview on “Podcast P with Paul George.”
“Man I was f*cking hurt when I saw that that Josh Giddey is not going to be on our team anymore,” Holmgren said. “We all rock with him, that’s our dog, still is. He’s going to he’s going to go do great things in Chicago so we’re excited for him.”
“We’re also excited to have AC on our team now too like you said he’s a great defender, he makes shots, he always makes winning plays, makes the right plays, that’s the type of dude you want to play with,” Holmgren continued.
Why the Thunder traded Josh Giddey
While it makes sense on a personal level that Holmgren was upset about the trade, it was clear that the Thunder could not reach their full potential with Giddey playing major minutes. While Giddey is an exceptional playmaker at 6-8, he needed the ball in his hands to be effective and struggled on the defensive end. There were too many mouths to feed other than Giddey, like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams. Giddey, who shot just 33.7% from three on 3.0 attempts per game, just does not have a good enough perimeter game to be a viable off-ball option.
The player they got back for Giddey, Caruso, is the complete opposite. Caruso has shown that he can be an elite role player on a championship team, like he was for the Los Angeles Lakers during their run to the NBA title in 2019-20. Caruso is an elite defender, making the All-Defensive First Team in 2022-23 and the All-Defensive Second Team in 2023-24 and is more-than comfortable taking a back set on the offensive end as a spot-up shooter and off-ball cutter.
The Thunder now have one of the best defensive units in the NBA, with Caruso, Holmgren and Luguentz Dort all having All-Defensive team potential and Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams being plus defenders in their own right.
While Holmgren and the Thunder may miss Giddey as a teammate, it's clear that trading him away for Caruso raised the Thunder's ceiling and got them closer to becoming true championship contenders.
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