Although it has been just a few days since the NBA offseason began, teams across the league have already been making trades in order to upgrade their roster. Most recently, the OKC Thunder made the decision to trade away Josh Giddey to receive Alex Caruso from the Chicago Bulls.
This is certainly quite an interesting trade that the majority of the NBA world did not see coming. Although the OKC Thunder made it to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs, they ended up losing to Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks. Many NBA experts claimed that a lack of age and experience played a pivotal role in the Thunder’s inability to go deeper into the postseason.
While adding Caruso to their roster certainly addresses these problems, many must be wondering if the OKC Thunder truly made the right decision by going through with this trade.Josh Giddey has a higher ceiling and better stats when compared to Alex Caruso
After finding out about this trade, NBA fans were divided on which team had emerged better. While Caruso may be a better defender when compared to Giddey, the fact remains that Giddey is much younger and undoubtedly has a higher ceiling than Caruso.
Moreover, Josh is the better overall player as statistics indicate. The former OKC star has averaged 13.9 points, 7.3 assists, and 5.7 rebounds throughout his short career. On the other hand, Alex Caruso has averaged 6.8 points, 2.9 rebounds and 3.9 assists in his career.
These numbers do not reflect much on the gap between their defensive skills. However, one should wonder if Caruso’s defense will make up for the lack of scoring that the OKC Thunder will have on their roster without the presence of Josh Giddey.The OKC Thunder will have to rely heavily on SGA and Chet offensively
Giddey can also be considered a much better facilitator when compared to Caruso and is far from reaching his prime. Losing him means that the OKC Thunder will have to rely on SGA to both score more and facilitate for his teammates. While Caruso may be able to take some pressure away from Shai, it is unlikely to be a significant amount on the offensive end of the floor.
In any case, the OKC Thunder’s start to next season alongside Alex Caruso will decide if they made the right decision in letting go of Josh Giddey. If they are unable to maintain a good record or make it to the second round of the playoffs, fans will inevitably conclude that making this trade was not the right move to help OKC get closer to an NBA championship.