With every passing day, it seems that the 2024 trade that shipped Josh Giddey to Chicago only continues to look better and better for the OKC Thunder.
Since his departure, Oklahoma City has gone on to claim their first NBA Championship and are now four wins away from heading back to the title-round with return asset in the exchange, Alex Caruso, playing a significant role in such successes.
Meanwhile, the Bulls have failed to reach so much as the playoffs in both go-arounds with the Aussie guard at the helm, and, with last summer's contract negotiations, are now locked in with his services for another three years, with $80 million coming his way.
To make matters worse, his injury-plagued 2025-26 campaign, where he played just 54 games, has led to a new low in these early stages of his offseason, as the Bulls announced on Wednesday that Giddey recently underwent an arthroscopy on his right ankle, with the hope that said operation will have him ready to go for the start of training camp come September.
Thunder avoided a plethora of headaches as a result of Josh Giddey trade
This is simply the latest run-in with the injury bug for the 23-year-old, as he has been hobbled by myriad health-related ailments over the past year, most notably a nagging hamstring strain.
Of course, it's been well documented that he's been dealing with repeated right ankle issues since his arrival in the Windy City, even hinting back in September 2024 that his injuries have been more severe than publicly acknowledged, revealing that he sustained a ruptured ATFL (anterior talo-fibular ligament) during his time in the Paris Olympics.
Since then, Giddey has sprained this same ankle on several occasions and has now opted to go under the knife to hopefully clear things up for the 2026-27 season.
It goes without saying that the former lottery pick is certainly an impressive, well-rounded talent when both healthy and in rhythm on the hardwood. From solely a season-long statistical standpoint, Giddey just posted his best year in the league to date, dropping averages of 17.0 points, 9.1 assists, and 8.3 rebounds per game while shooting 36.4 percent from deep.
Of course, far too often the guard was found either donning street clothes or amid long-standing on-court ruts, particularly during the latter half of the year, where, post-All-Star break, his production and overall efficiency seemed to fall off a cliff.
Needless to say, this latest news serves as yet another reminder of how the Thunder may have dodged a bullet by trading the high-priced, rather inconsistent, and, now, injury-riddled Giddey when they did.
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