The Chicago Bulls are buying and selling two-time All-Defensive Workforce guard Alex Caruso to the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder for guard Josh Giddey, sources advised ESPN on Thursday.
The commerce delivers the Thunder one of many league’s most coveted function gamers, a 30-year-old guard normal supervisor Sam Presti has lengthy pursued for the Western Convention’s No. 1 seed this previous postseason. Caruso’s arrival might be seen as an addition similar to the Golden State Warriors’ acquisition of Andre Iguodala in 2013. On the time of that deal, Iguodala was additionally 30 years previous.
The Bulls have been decided to discover a playmaker to interchange Lonzo Ball and Giddey, 21, comes with All-Star potential that might be unlikely to be realized with the Thunder due to the playmaking star energy that surrounded him. Level guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the MVP runner-up this previous season and there may be an expectation that the franchise needs to provide 7-footer Chet Holmgren much more playmaking duties.
Giddey was the No. 6 choose within the 2021 NBA draft and developed into one of many league’s most inventive younger playmakers. The Bulls will provide him a possibility to have the ball in his palms and extra freedom to go and rating. They wanted an engine for his or her offense, and so they land that with Giddey.
Giddey performed a career-high 80 video games for the Thunder this previous season however ultimately began to come back off the bench within the Western Convention playoffs. His scoring common dropped from 16.6 factors final season to 12.3 factors this season as his function with the Thunder developed. Giddey has 11 profession triple-doubles, fourth most by a participant age 21 or youthful, trailing solely Luka Doncic, Magic Johnson and Ben Simmons, based on ESPN Stats & Data analysis.
Caruso shot 41% on 3-pointers and ranked fourth in steals within the NBA final season. He was second in defensive half-court matchups towards 2024 NBA All-Star gamers, trailing solely his new Thunder teammate, Luguentz Dort, based on ESPN Stats & Data.
Caruso’s addition provides the Thunder three of the very best on-ball defenders amongst league guards: Caruso, Dort and Cason Wallace.
Caruso might be eligible for a four-year, $80 million contract extension six months from the date of this commerce. He’s coming into the ultimate yr of his contract. The Thunder made the take care of hopes of holding Caruso as an integral a part of their staff for the long run, sources stated.
Giddey is eligible to barter a rookie-scale extension as a member of the 2021 draft class.