NBA trade grades: OKC gets one of NBA’s best role players in Alex Caruso, while Bulls land work in progress

Alex Caruso began his skilled profession as a member of the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder, simply not on the NBA degree. After going undrafted in 2016, he signed with the Oklahoma Metropolis Blue of the G-League. Since then, he is reached excessive acclaim with the Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls, however apparently, his first crew by no means forgot about him.

On Thursday, the Thunder landed Caruso in a cope with the Bulls in trade for a younger participant who entered the league with much more fanfare. Josh Giddey, the No. 6 total picks within the 2021 NBA Draft, will now transfer to Chicago and get a second probability in what’s going to hopefully be extra of an on-ball function. Giddey struggled within the playoffs for the Thunder due to his weak spot as a 3-point shooter, however the rebuilding Bulls could have extra on-ball alternatives out there to him.

The deal marks the unofficial starting of commerce season. Caruso for Giddey is the closest factor we have gotten to a blockbuster thus far in June, and here is how each groups graded out within the deal.

Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder: A+

Alex Caruso was, with out hyperbole, probably the most sought-after function gamers within the NBA for no less than the previous two years. He has defended each Stephen Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo at an especially excessive degree. He is a superb connective passer and steadily enhancing 3-point shooter that made almost 41% of his makes an attempt final season. Oh, and he is not even incomes eight figures this season. He matches onto any roster and any stability sheet. So, naturally, he lands with the crew that most likely wants him the least. 

Oklahoma Metropolis’s second- and third-best gamers are nonetheless on rookie offers. They ranked fourth in protection and led the NBA in 3-point proportion. Caruso is an absolute luxurious to them. However oh my god, what an unbelievable luxurious he’s going to be. 

The Celtics simply received a championship largely by buying an limitless array of switchable perimeter stoppers. The Thunder now have Caruso, Lu Dort, Cason Wallace and Jalen Williams… with Chet Holmgren, who ranked third within the NBA in contested pictures per recreation final season, defending the basket. You possibly can now credibly argue that Oklahoma Metropolis’s protection is primed to be higher than Boston’s.

And it did not even price the Thunder cap area. Caruso will make roughly $1.5 million greater than Giddey subsequent season. Each are on expiring offers, so it isn’t as if the Thunder traded long-term monetary safety for him. Oklahoma Metropolis can nonetheless fairly simply create greater than $30 million in cap area if it needs to. That is greater than sufficient to, say, handle their rebounding woes by signing Isaiah Hartenstein whereas additionally doubtlessly re-signing Isaiah Joe to a brand new long-term deal. No matter different ambitions the Thunder have this offseason they will nonetheless simply as simply handle.

They’ve successfully traded a participant they may now not use for a participant that virtually all the league was determined to accumulate. Giddey stays a promising long-term prospect. He is a uniquely gifted passer and ball-handler for his measurement, particularly in transition, however he was benched late within the second spherical towards Dallas as a result of the Mavericks didn’t guard him. He can not play off of the ball as a 31% profession 3-point shooter, and he was by no means going to be a everlasting level guard on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s crew. The Thunder needed to commerce Giddey. Their basic supervisor is simply so good at this that he turned his downside into the sort of participant most groups battle to accumulate even with their greatest property.

And that is the cherry on prime right here. The Thunder could not want Caruso, however you already know what getting him accomplishes? It retains him away from all people else. The Thunder simply helped the Mavericks get Daniel Gafford on the commerce deadline solely to look at Gafford assist Dallas knock them out of the playoffs. The Thunder weren’t going to facilitate another person’s acquisition of Caruso, however think about if he had landed on one other prime Western Convention crew? Out of the blue among the finest Gilgeous-Alexander defenders within the league can be taking part in towards them. Now he cannot. They have not simply added one of many NBA’s greatest function gamers. They’ve ensured that none of their rivals might get him as a substitute. That is Govt of the 12 months-level stuff from Sam Presti. 

Chicago Bulls: C-

It is a beneficiant C- for Chicago. It is a nod to Giddey’s apparent expertise. He is one of many 10 greatest passers in basketball already. He can rating within the arc and rebounds effectively for his place. Triple-doubles aren’t precisely in vogue in the meanwhile, however Giddey is considered one of solely 9 gamers to publish no less than 10 of them up to now three seasons. It isn’t as if the Bulls are buying and selling for a bust. They’re simply buying and selling for a really particular type of participant, one which they are not essentially geared up to maximise proper now.

May that change? Positive. If the Bulls can handle to unload Zach LaVine’s albatross contract onto another person and let DeMar DeRozan stroll in free company, that will put Giddey able to succeed. He wants to regulate the offense to succeed. Coby White takes loads of on-ball reps, however has comfortably existed inside ball-handling timeshares all through his Bulls tenure. That duo can work. They only cannot watch DeRozan and LaVine dribble out the shot-clock.

Even when each of them are gone, it isn’t as if that is some well-spaced offense that is able to play at Giddey’s velocity. The Bulls simply ranked twenty eighth in tempo and twenty sixth in 3-point makes an attempt. Solely two gamers at present on their roster made even 100 3-pointers final season: White and Ayo Dosunmu. Chicago nonetheless must improve considerably on the subject of spacing if it needs to profit from Giddey.

Caruso in the end wasn’t lengthy for Chicago no matter Oklahoma Metropolis’s supply. It by no means made sense for a Play-In crew to maintain a 30-year-old ace function participant who was eligible for an extension. However the provides the Bulls obtained for Caruso reportedly mirrored his immense worth across the league. A number of first-round picks in addition to a top-10 choose, in keeping with CHGO’s Will Gottlieb. 

This raises an essential query about Chicago’s course of right here: why make this commerce now? Why not no less than attempt to extract considered one of Oklahoma Metropolis’s many, many spare first-round picks? What motive did the Bulls need to consider that this supply would not have been on the desk on draft night time? Whereas there would definitely have been curiosity in Giddey across the league, his capturing woes would have made him a questionable match for a lot of the league’s 30 groups. His market wasn’t going to be strong. The final estimate in most reporting had been that he was price a late-first spherical choose. Maybe a bit extra in the precise state of affairs. The Bulls blew that work out of the water.

There are two silver linings right here. The primary is that Giddey has technically improved as a shooter in all three of his NBA seasons. He obtained to round 34% on 3s final 12 months, although the amount was low sufficient that it is onerous to know if meaning real progress or simply variance inside a small pattern. The opposite, extra pertinent profit right here is that it makes the Bulls considerably worse within the quick time period. Chicago owes its top-10 protected first-round choose within the loaded 2025 NBA Draft to the Spurs because of the DeMar DeRozan commerce. It’s now possible that the Bulls hold that choose, and maybe arrange a tank for considered one of subsequent 12 months’s elite prospects. As tantalizing as Giddey’s talent set may be, he has a protracted method to go earlier than he can lead a crew to actual profitable.