The Oklahoma City Thunder won the Alex Caruso trade, where they swapped Josh Giddey for the All-Defense guard two years ago. Far from over, however, the trade continues to get sweeter for the Thunder and more bitter for the Chicago Bulls.
The Thunder will never be sorry for making the trade, which helped to spark their run to the championship. To take the next step forward, they needed to move on from Giddey -- a 6'7" point forward who brought together very extreme strengths and severe weaknesses.
Giddey needed to be on the ball to thrive; the Thunder, with budding MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and rising star Jalen Williams, could not offer that kind of role. Giddey's shooting and defense were poor enough that he couldn't provide the supplementary help the Thunder needed to justify keeping him around.
Could the Thunder lose the trade?
They traded Giddey for Alex Caruso, a defensive wizard who didn't have the upside of Giddey but did all of the little things that a contender needed. And it worked brilliantly for the Thunder, as they went on to win the championship last season - with Caruso playing a key role along the way.
At the start of this season, however, the value of the trade looked like it was about to swing away from the Thunder and toward the Bulls. The risk the Thunder had taken on in the deal was that Giddey would realize his potential and turn into a star on another team.
The Bulls started this season 5-1, with Giddey averaging a triple double, and he was suddenly an early All-Star candidate. The Bulls had turned the corner, Giddey was leveling up, and their brilliance in buying low on a distressed but valuable young player was shining forth.
The Thunder would have felt good about the deal either way -- Caruso won them a title -- but as he aged and their contract situation became more of an issue, it seemed possible that Caruso's time in OKC might be nearing an end and Giddey might be blossoming into a star.
Josh Giddey is struggling
That possibility soon turned into an alternate timeline never to come to pass, however, as things turned quickly and decisively for the Bulls. Their season swooned, Giddey's play dropped off, and it has been a much more up-and-down journey.
The Australian playmaker continues to fill up the box score, averaging 17.2 points, 8.4 rebounds and 9.2 assists. He is absolutely a talented player with the ball in his hands.
The Bulls are also 29-46, not even close to their usual 39-win season, and Giddey's inefficient scoring and high turnovers are a large piece of their 24th-ranked offense. The defense certainly isn't much better, and needing to hide Giddey on that end of the court is a barrier to elite defense.
Alex Caruso is soaring
The Thunder, on the other hand, are having another resplendent regular season. They are 60-16 with another six games to go, with the league's best defense and net rating overall. And Caruso continues to be a high-impact player for them.
In the Thunder's recent matchup with the New York Knicks, head coach Mark Daigneault deployed the 6'5" Caruso on the seven-foot Karl-Anthony Towns. He harried the All-Star big man, was able to switch two-man actions with All-NBA guard Jalen Brunson, and he helped to stifle the Knicks and spring the Thunder to a late run that put the game away.
It's all of the little things that Caruso does that make this trade a runaway victory for the Thunder. He will be playing games that matter and could win a second consecutive title with OKC this year. Giddey puts up significantly more stats, but he has not unlocked winning basketball yet in Chicago.
It may be so obvious it's not worth saying, but the Alex Caruso trade remains an unequivocal success for the Thunder.