Thursday evening, the OKC Thunder made a bold decision to move on from former sixth-overall pick, Josh Giddey, in a surprise trade with the Bulls that netted the franchise veteran defenseman Alex Caruso in exchange.
Following the initial news break, reactions among fans and pundits alike were seen circulating across the media verse, with many lauding the transaction for Oklahoma City while others scratched their heads behind the reasoning for Chicago.
Thunder who may be next on chopping block after Josh Giddey trade
Regardless of one's thoughts on the deal, it's now officially in the rearview, and found ahead are countless next steps that could be made by both ball clubs.
For the Thunder, in specific, what this could theoretically mean is that more players may now be at risk of departing at some point soon as the franchise looks to execute its offseason agenda.
What that may be is, currently, only truly known by the ball club's front office personnel but, should it involve some players being moved on from, there are three names, in particular, that are most likely to be next up behind Giddey in the pecking order.
Bismack Biyombo
The Thunder desperately needed to address their lacking size and physicality up in their frontcourt rotation this past season, and opted to snatch up veteran center Bismack Biyombo off the free agent market as a low-cost talent to address these areas of need.
Despite being in his 13 season and possessing a highly limited offensive game, with the way the 31-year-old had performed during his 30-game stint with the Memphis Grizzlies earlier in the year (5.2 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.1 blocks), coupled with his 7-foot-6 wingspan and 255-pound build, perhaps the front office believed that the seasoned big could provide meaningful efforts in spurt minutes to add improved strength and rebounding abilities for their collection of bigs.
Of course, what wound up being the case was that Biyombo would go on to see a total of 10 regular season games played with the team, averaging 1.8 points and 1.8 rebounds in 7.3 minutes, and followed this up by logging zero minutes during the playoffs even though it was evident the Thunder could have used for more muscle and extra board-gobblers within the rotation, especially during their semifinal matchup against the Dallas Mavericks.
In the end, Biyombo proved to be a low-cost, short-term rental option and a well-liked presence among his teammates, but it's very hard to envision that these factors would influence his return to the Thunder in any fashion come next season.