The Oklahoma City Thunder were ready to move on from Josh Giddey, and Sam Presti’s statement after the trade alluded to as much. While the front office leader praised his former draft pick, he knew that his chance to make an impact was dwindling thanks to the other team’s young talent. Presti said that the organization believed it was best to move the 21-year-old to the bench next season, which they described to Giddey earlier this offseason. According to the team, Giddey wasn’t the biggest fan of that vision:
“When we drafted Josh in 2021 he was an essential aspect of our vision for the next iteration of the Thunder. Since then, our team has evolved rapidly and dynamically in ways we could never have anticipated. Therefore, as we began our internal discussions this off-season, it was determined that bringing Josh off the bench next season was our best option to maximize his many talents and deploy our team more efficiently over 48 minutes,” Presti said in his statement.
“As we laid out to Josh how he could lean into his strengths and ultimately optimize our current roster and talent, it was hard to for him to envision, and conversations turned to him inquiring about potential opportunities elsewhere. As always was the case, Josh demonstrated the utmost professionalism throughout the discussions.”
I’ve already seen a handful of folks wave a red flag after learning of this comment. To be sure, I understand that reaction. Why wouldn’t Giddey want to stay on the No. 1 team in the Western Conference? What does it say about him that he wasn’t ready to accept a different role? It’s certainly not the best look.
At the same time, Giddey is coming off a complicated season both on and off the court. His fit on this young roster was becoming fuzzier by the day. With all the backcourt talent the Thunder have, the opportunity for Giddey to play his brand of basketball was dissipating. So can we really blame him for wanting a change of scenery? Also, every organization is going to cover their butt. Moving Giddey to the bench is suggesting that they too recognize that his fit isn’t ideal. With the potential to make real noise in the West, they probably started to view him as one of their better trade assets over the course of this season. And I’m sure Giddey knew that.
The case could also be made that this discussion between the Thunder and Giddey makes the Chicago Bulls’ inability to get anything else in the deal even worse. Like, Giddey essentially requested a trade. Did the Bulls really not know that? Could they not have used that as more leverage? Ugh.
Indeed, my thoughts on this trade haven’t changed. The Chicago Bulls could’ve/should’ve done better. But I guess I appreciate that Chicago is trying to be the change of scenery team for once. Typically, we see talented youngsters having to leave this organization after a rough go in hopes of finding success elsewhere. The Bulls have an opportunity to start flipping that script with the development of Giddey. Anyway, here’s more on the player you can expect to see in October …
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Chicago Bulls created a $2.8 million traded player exception from the deal. What does this mean? Well, firstly, they saved money. Giddey is owed roughly $8.4 million this season compared to Alex Caruso’s $9.9 million. Secondly, it means the Bulls can absorb a contract via trade into this exception rather than have to send out an equal salary. While these can be useful at times, they also come with a long list of rules and often go unused. This one, in particular, feels pretty useless. The Bulls would basically have to be trading for someone on a veteran minimum deal to get something out of this exception. So, yeah, I will not be shocked if we never hear of this again.
The Chicago Bulls’ last two player trades: (1) Lauri Markkanen for Derrick Jones Jr. and a lottery-protected Portland pick (which has yet to convey and might never). (2) Alex Caruso for Josh Giddey. These were 34 months apart. I still can’t believe that.
The NBA Draft is almost here. Big man Adem Bona is one of the handful of players the Chicago Bulls have worked out over the last couple of weeks. While he wouldn’t make sense at No. 11, I guess he could be a target if the Bulls get their hands on another pick later in the draft. More on who we know the Chicago Bulls have worked out here.
You can make a case for Adem Bona as the No. 1 player in this class in several categories: explosiveness, ground coverage, intensity and defensive versatility — valuable traits that could help him carve out a role early in his career.
On the one hand, duh. You play better, you get picked higher. On the other hand, when I spoke with Matas Buzelis earlier this season, he knew that his numbers weren’t reflecting the shooter he could be. And I tend to believe him. Whether it be his past performance or the mere look of his jumper, we have reason to believe that he can efficiently expand his range. A lot of players can have a down year, especially when they’re making an adjustment to a new level. But I tend to believe Buzelis’ shooting will show itself more and more as he gets settled in the NBA. By the way, a previous rumor said the Chicago Bulls could be interested in trading up for the Chicago native.
The first WNBA All-Star voting returns have been released, and Angel Reese is getting a lot of love! The Chicago Sky first-round pick is 7th and sandwiched between two huge stars in Sabrina Ionescu (6th) and Kelsey Plum (8th). Keep voting!
First returns are in! Make sure to vote daily for your favorite players ⬇️
The Sky will battle the Fever for a third time this month on Sunday. This will be the first game in Wintrust Arena, and the tickets are as crazy as you might expect. I have to imagine some big-name Chicago athletes/personalities will be in the house.
The upcoming Indiana Fever vs. Chicago Sky game this Sunday is now the most expensive WNBA game on record, per @TickPick
– Minimum ticket price: $200 – Average purchase price: $291 – Average purchase price for all sales post-WNBA draft: $407 pic.twitter.com/Tnpy4ASuMr— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) June 21, 2024
Shoutout to the Stanley Cup Finals for making up for a crappy NBA Finals.
Elias Schuster is the Lead Chicago Bulls writer at Bleacher Nation. He started with BN full-time in 2019 immediately after graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign with a degree in Journalism (yes, he started with the Jim Boylen Era). Since joining, Elias has been the driving force behind Bulls and NBA content for both the site and social accounts. You can follow him on Twitter/X @Schuster_Elias.
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