This summer, general manager Sam Presti had to make one of his first tough decisions regarding that core. In the second era of Thunder basketball, the first big departure came this summer when Presti decided to trade former No. 6 overall pick Josh Giddey for defensive ace Alex Caruso in a one-for-one deal with the Chicago Bulls.
Giddey represents the first member of that core to be shipped out of Bricktown — with all due respect to Aleksej Pokusevski, Tre Mann and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl — the 21-year-old guard has at times felt like a lock to succeed in Bricktown.
Then a disastrous third season doomed him to Oklahoma City, through no fault of anyone’s. The Thunder became too good too quickly, with the development of Jalen Williams and the rise of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander pushing Giddey off the ball and into a role he wasn’t meant to play — leading to an unsurprisingly difficult season.
The Chicago Bulls saw through three flaws of the year and realized Giddey was valuable not just as a secondary off-ball playmaker, tasked with defending power forwards and shooting heavily on the glass down low.
After Giddey turned down a backup role in Bricktown after the season as he headed into a contract year, the former 6th overall pick was traded to the Windy City in the first game-changing move of this era.
Despite the obvious improvement on the court for all parties involved, it’s still an emotional time for the Thunder roster, as center Chet Holmgren revealed on Paul George Podcast Monday.
“I was [expletive] “I was hurt when I saw that Giddey was no longer going to be a part of our team. We’re all in good shape with him. He’s our dog. He still is. He’s going to do great things in Chicago,” Holmgren said.
The Thunder will soon be seeing their old pal again, with the second game of the season set to take place in Chicago, between the Bulls and Oklahoma City. That game will surely provide some fun post-game moments, as Giddey reunites with the Thunder characters.
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