The OKC Thunder just became FAVOURITES in the Western Conference | Alex Caruso – Josh Giddey trade

The OKC Thunder just became FAVOURITES in the Western Conference | Alex Caruso – Josh Giddey trade

if you thought the Thunders run this year was a fluke then I’ve got bad news for you they are firmly in the contender category because the first trade of the offseason just happened and they have swapped Josh giddy for Alex Caruso let’s talk about it this channel is just going to be me talking about basketball with you guys so I want you to be in the comment sharing your thoughts and I can react and we can have a good conversation that way but Josh Kitty was the liability for the OKC Thunder in their playoff run okay let me break this down for you guys he can’t shoot on offense that means when they face the Dallas Mavericks in the second round they’re bigs in Gafford or Lively could guard Josh giddy cuz they didn’t worry about him on the perimeter if he takes it and he makes it so what he’s not a high percentage shooter we’re not worried about him that allowed their bigs to stay on the inside and limit the thunderer’s ability to score in the paint the other liability for the thunder in the playoffs in that series was Josh gidy on defense as well he can’t hold his own against the League’s Elite now they’ve traded for Alex Caruso one of the best defenders in the entire NBA I don’t think when you talk about perimeter defenders in the NBA he’s got to be probably in the top five because that man is a lockdown let me give you a stat right now the Thunder were minus 23 in a minutes Josh gidy was on the court in the second round right by the last two games of that series he was out of the lineup out of the starting lineup right and they should have taken him out to St up way before they have absolutely finessed the Chicago Bulls and the fact that the Chicago Bulls couldn’t even get a draft pick in this deal and OKC has a million a million draft picks the Bulls R an office man now the Bulls have been trying to run back the same experiment for years we’re talking about Lonzo ball who’s never been healthy we’re talking about demard de Rosen we’re talking about Zack LaVine and we’re talking about Nicola usovich now they’ve been trying to run this experiment for years and credit to him for doing this trade to get younger okay Kobe white showed great promise he should have been the most improved player they’re getting younger with 21y old Giddy and yeah I know all the jokes about getting younger and Josh giddy I get it I get it but you could get a draft pick in this deal because think about this right now in the NBA World Josh giddy’s value is the lowest it’s ever been right when he was before he was drafted or when he was a rookie he had a lot of potential but you’ve just seen him be exposed in the playoffs his value is the lowest it’s ever been on the other hand Alex Caruso’s value is probably the highest has ever been because let’s look at the championship winning teams we just saw the Celtics Drew holiday and Derek white they’re guys who can guard the perimeter to an insane degree and knock down their shots on offense and then we’re talking about last year kcp doing what he does listen these are the guys these are the role players that win you NBA championships and the fact that you couldn’t even get a one droping over the second round pick in exchange the Bulls front office all of them need to be fired I’m sorry this is just malpractice at this point they make bad decision after bad decision maybe they got some good decision coming but I’m unaware of them okay so off the outset this is a huge huge win for OKC now I know they need to improve their big man depth they need to improve their rebounding but on the perimeter man let’s pull up the uh let’s pull up the depth charts here of the OKC Thunder and look at what their lineups can be like next season all right let’s look at it you’ve got Shay at a point you got Caruso at a two Lou D Jaylen Williams chren and then you’ve got KAS Wallace coming in off the bench and if you didn’t watch him this season you’re going to get to know him very soon you’ve got Isaiah Joe as well so if D or Caruso aren’t hitting their shots you’ve got Isaiah Joe who can come in and absolutely Light It Up they’ve got Aaron Wiggins who is fantastic as well listen the okt Thunder are building something so special right now okay they’re building something so special they’re going to be scary but let’s look at the Bulls Bulls fans I’m sorry you got Kobe white you got Zack LaVine who they’ve been sending out offers to damn near every team in the entire NBA saying please trade for Zack lven and no one wants to trade for him not because of Zack Line’s Talent as a player but because of the contract he’s on then you got Patrick Williams who I think has potential you got demalo Rosen I mean they should have traded deardo Rosen by now he had a lot of value around the league a lot of teams wanted him the Lakers wanted him you could have got some pieces from the Lakers I know that for a fact um they’re probably going to try and resign him and then you got vich so you not really got any shot blocking you’ve now not got much perimeter defense what have you got left the reason they’ve traded for giddy is if you remember when they had Lonzo bull remember when Lonzo and Zack line and everyone was healthy the Bulls were one of the top teams in the East for about four months they were one of the best teams in the East after that D Roan trade but the difference between Giddy and Lonzo ball is is this Lonzo was very similar to gidy when he came into the league right giddy is’s one of the best passes one of the best Playmakers however he can’t shoot a lick and Lonzo couldn’t be able to shoot but New Orleans and this is what’s really interesting they had a shooting coach I can’t remember his name let me um Pelicans let me Google this real quick Pelicans shooting coach because this is one of the best Fred Vinson was his name and the Detroit Pistons have just hired him so shout out to the Pistons the one good decision they’ve made in a real long time but Fred Vinson transformed lonzo’s shot and Lonzo became a lights out shooter catch and shoot for Chicago Bulls he was fantastic cuz everyone was worried just one basketball how they all going to play together Lonzo adapted his game but I don’t think Josh giddy can adapt his game is he going to make the shooting leap that Lonzo ball did I just can’t see it maybe he can maybe he’ll prove us all wrong but man I just I can’t believe this trade I can’t believe it let’s look at the contracts on this deal Alex Caruso is on a fantastic contract making under 10 million this season and here’s the thing the OKC Thunder because he’s an unrestricted free agent next season the OKC Thunder when you look at their books after next summer they don’t have too much committed they’re going to have to give H Gren an extension here they’re going to extend Jaylen Williams um they’re going to probably give an extension to jayen Williams although it won’t be huge so they’re going to have the money available to extend Alex Caruso on the other hand this is the one good thing I guess for the Chicago Bulls giddy is a restricted free agent moving forwards which means they can match any offer that anyone else gives to him right now if he was a restrict the free agent I don’t even maybe he’ll be getting some mid-level offers right Jos kidy right now is a player who you would sign in one of those situations and hope that you can bet on his potential because he’s young enough however you traded for him you traded probably your most valuable trade asset didn’t get any picks in return and then let’s look at the Bulls cap sheet okay your pay Zine is 43 45 48 million okay Lonzo comes off the books this year I don’t know if he’s going to be healthy enough to play hopefully he can I’m a big fan of his you give him vich million next year um deard Rosen 28 million is coming off the books this summer but like I said all the reports are that they’re going to resign him and bro I just okay how much money are you going to give to Josh giddy now I just don’t see it man I just really I really don’t see it and I don’t I don’t see why they did this I get it they want to get younger but you could have got him for a steal if OKC were willing to move him OKC are the team s pry has known for having unlimited draft picks and you couldn’t even get some of those bear in mind you traded away draft picks for Nicola usovich you managed to get those back and here’s the thing with the modern NBA now if you look at how the Celtics won the title by the way I’m just yapping this is just like a but we talking basketball so let me know your thoughts in the comments if you look at the NBA basketball right now the Celtics won a championship because they could switch one through four and they would even be happy living with Al Horford who did a great job on a perimeter now the OKC Thunder can switch probably one through four and CH hren is more mobile than Al Horford and definitely better at guarding on the perimeter than uh Chris spingus the OKC Thunder may be able to switch one through five and I’m not saying that Shay and kuso and these guys can guard bigs but if it’s just one possession here and there and let’s be honest this is one of the biggest thing that irks me about the NBA you know when teams run a screen and they switch so the big is now guarded by the small and the small is now guarded by the big back in the day in NBA history the big would go down to the block and they would throw the ball to him and he’d go to work the amount of times every night in the NBA I watch players get switched like that and they don’t look for the post up instead the guard looks to cross over the big man on the perimeter that’s like 99% of possessions in the NBA now so I’m not too worried about that what is going to be amazing is the OKC Thunder’s ability to defend on the perimeter it’s going to be absolutely fantastic now they do have to address the rebounding like I said earlier and I’m sure Sam pry has more up his sleeve he’s still got all of his draft picks that he can use in trades to make that happen and as you can see from the team cap sheet they’ve got a lot of money to spend because the salary cap right now is 136 million right now they’re what 38 million under the cap 37 million under the cap and the TV deal is going to get signed after this season coming up then the Cap’s going to spike up again if you guys remember the last time this happened this is how we saw KD end up in Golden State so OKC is going to have cap space they’re going to be able to keep Caruso they’re going to be able to lock down everyone on the perimeter so all these amazing guards you see especially in the Western Conference they’re going to be having a long long night when they play against the Thunder and now they’ve got a guy in Caruso who can shoot off the bench uh off the bench on the perimeter sorry I mean this is I’m just doing this all in one take you have to forgive me he shot 40% from three last season he has been a reliable shooter over the last few years he’s hit a two out of five a game and defensively man just defensively he’s a dog defensively the lineup flexibility that the OKC Thunder now have is unbelievable it’s absolutely unbelievable they are going to be a serious problem in the wesern conference for a long long time they’ve seen the blueprint they realized the mistakes they made with the Kevin Durant Russell Westbrook James Harden teams and now they’re going to get cooking they’re serious contenders do you think they could come out of Western Conference next season I think they’re definitely a threat I think they’re definitely a threat I think if they played the Dallas Mavericks again with Alex Caruso instead of Josh giddy I think that series is a little different and not saying that Dallas would what I think it goes a little differently though I think it definitely goes a little differently it’s it’s very very dangerous now you still have to worry in the Western Conference about NC yic okay you do have to worry but then they’re talking about kcp maybe moving teams this summer we talking about them maybe trading Michael Port junor stay locked into this channel we’re going to do it we’re going to break it down and um you know if you guys know from the main Channel and never really been consistent with YouTube but I figured just 10 minutes of me talking to the camera what can go wrong I’m going to do these all the time so subscribe to the channel but anyway the nuggets are going to be a threat and you’ve got to address the big situation here because c hren as great as he has been in his rookie season he’s not the big body I think they need to get an enforcer they got bismack this season which I think was a good pick up in theory but they didn’t play him enough minutes for him to make an impact they need to get some depth at the big man spot they need to improve their rebounding maybe that’s a scheme thing they can make some adjustments to how they play if you watch how the Celtics played they’d have drew holiday crashing the boards from the dunker spot they’d have guys crashing from the hash on the wings they’ have like guys like Sam Hower crashing to the boards maybe that’s something that the OKC Thunder coaching staff has been watching and wants to implement so we’re going to be keeping an eye on that next season but all in all my closing thoughts are this Bulls you may as well hire me to be in your front office if these are the kind of Trades you’re going to put off I don’t know what they’re doing and if they still keep Zack LaVine and if they still resigned D rozan I’m just lost I’m just I’m just lost what are they doing with this roster what are they doing with this team I just don’t get it I just don’t get it I think IO dumu is fantastic I think he he’s a good Defender but are you going to start Jos giddy you going to bring him off the bench you traded for a guy are you going to bring him off the bench after trading your best asset for him I don’t know Bulls fans stay strong Bulls fans I’m here for you don’t worry okay see fans you living good right now I’m telling you you guys are living good man I already can’t wait for next season to get underway we got the draft coming up make sure you guys lock in with a hoop genus podcast me and BJ Armstrong three time NBA champion and he played on the balls and they were a lot better back then than they are now we break down everything from the NBA for you so stay locked in this is a new channel subscribe show some love sh share with your friends or whatever if you want to support me um Peete times out here and all that but we move OKC congratulations first move of the summer could end up being the best move of the summer but stay tuned a lot is going to happen in the NBA so until next time you guys know the Vibes Get Buckets

Regular uploads on the way, talking all things NBA. Today, we react to Josh Giddey being traded by the OKC Thunder to the Chicago Bulls for Alex Caruso.

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The Chicago Bulls are trading two-time All-Defensive guard Alex Caruso to the Oklahoma City Thunder for guard Josh Giddey, sources told ESPN on Thursday.

The trade delivers the Thunder one of the league’s most coveted role players, a 30-year-old guard GM Sam Presti has long pursued for the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed. Caruso’s arrival could be seen as an addition comparable to the Golden State Warriors acquisition of Andre Iguodala in 2013. At the time of that deal, Iguodala was also 30 years old.

The Bulls have been determined to find a playmaker to replace Lonzo Ball, and Giddey, 21, comes with an All-Star potential that would unlikely be realized with the Thunder because of the playmaking star power who surrounded him. Point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the MVP runner-up and there’s an expectation that the franchise wants to give 7-footer Chet Holmgren even more playmaking duties.

Giddey was the sixth overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft and developed into one of the league’s most creative young playmakers. The Bulls will offer him an opportunity to have the ball in his hands and more freedom to pass and score. Chicago needed an engine for its offense, and the Bulls land that with Giddey.

Giddey played a career-high 80 games for the Thunder this past season, but eventually started to come off the bench in the Western Conference playoffs. His scoring average dropped from 16.6 points to 12.3 points last season as his role with the Thunder evolved. Giddey has 11 career triple-doubles, fourth most by a player at age 21 or younger all-time, trailing only Luka Doncic, Magic Johnson and Ben Simmons, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.

Caruso shot 41 percent on 3-pointers and ranked fourth in steals in the NBA last season. Caruso was second in defensive half-court matchups against 2024 NBA All-Star players, trailing only his new Thunder teammate, Lu Dortz, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Caruso’s addition gives the Thunder three of the best on-ball defenders on one team among league guards, including Caruso, Dort and Cason Wallace.

Caruso will be eligible for a four-year, $80 million contract extension six months from the date of this trade. He’s entering the final year of his contract. The Thunder made the deal with hopes of keeping Caruso as an integral part of their team for the long term, sources said.

Giddey is eligible to negotiate a rookie-scale extension as a member of the draft class of 2021.