Offseason Report Card: Thunder get three As, three Bs and two Cs for summer moves

1. Traded for Alex Caruso

Traded Josh Giddey for Alex Caruso

Josh Giddey is an extremely talented young player, and it's hard to give up on extremely talented young players. He is a genius-level passer and crafty finisher at the rim, and the Thunder selected him eighth overall just three years ago. Teams want to continue developing players they draft, especially when they show as much promise as Giddey.

The problem is that Giddey needs the ball in his hands to be effective, and the Thunder simply have better options to handle the rock. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was a legitimate MVP candidate last season, and Jalen Williams has proven to be a capable second option.

The Thunder manufactured minutes for Giddey to run the offense, but in the playoffs, he was squeezed out first from the starting lineup, then the primary rotation, as the need for a floor-raising on-ball player decreased.

Oklahoma City trading Giddey this summer is not a surprise given their title aspirations for next year, nor is the type of player that they targeted in a trade. If Giddey is the type of player who struggles to scale into a smaller role with more talented teammates, Alex Caruso is 100 percent the opposite.

His defense, secondary playmaking, and improved long-range shooting make him the perfect player to plug into any lineup.

The surprise was that the Chicago Bulls did not demand any draft capital coming back with Josh Giddey in exchange for Caruso.

The seventh-year guard was a second-team All-Defense player last season while shooting 40.8 percent from distance on a healthy volume. He's the ultimate 3-and-D guard and was coveted by a plethora of contenders.

For the Thunder to trade a distressed prospect due for a pay raise for Caruso is highway robbery.

Giving out an "A+" is a rare occurrence, but it was tempting to award the Thunder with one here. The reason they don't is that OKC is amassing a deep stable of guards and is comparatively thin on the forward line. Caruso is an excellent fit, but the Thunder downsized from the 6-foot-8 Giddey to the 6-foot-5 Caruso.

Head coach Mark Daigneault now has to fit SGA, Caruso, Lu Dort, Cason Wallace, and Isaiah Joe into a rotation.

It's a minor quibble to be sure: this was a home run move for the Thunder and makes them incredibly dangerous heading into next season.

Grade: A