Oklahoma City Thunder trades Josh Giddey to Chicago Bulls in stunning NBA move

Australian basketball star Josh Giddey has been traded from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Chicago Bulls.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski first reported the bombshell deal on Friday morning (AEST), with Giddey traded to the Bulls in exchange for two-time All-Defensive guard Alex Caruso.

Andrew Schlecht, who covers the Thunder for The Athletic, confirmed later in the morning that the trade involved no picks and is just a straight player swap.

Giddey was drafted by OKC with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. He’s coming off his least productive season in year three, struggling to evolve with the rest of the No. 1 seeded Thunder’s budding core.

His scoring dropped from 16.6 points per game to 12.3 points in a career-best 80 games.

It included Giddey’s role gradually declining throughout the campaign, eventually coming off the bench in the 2024 playoffs and averaging 18 minutes.

The 21-year old this off-season is eligible to sign a max contract extension from his base rookie deal.

Wojnarowski later wrote that the Bulls were “determined” to find a playmaker to replace the oft-injured Lonzo Ball and saw “All-Star potential” in Giddey that had not yet been realised given the playmaking around him in Oklahoma City.

“Giddey was the sixth overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft and developed into one of the league’s most creative young playmakers,” added the ESPN insider.

“The Bulls will offer him an opportunity to have the ball in his hands and more freedom to pass and score. Chicago needed an engine for its offence, and the Bulls land that with Giddey.”

The trade is the latest development in what Giddey described as a “rollercoaster” third year in the league in his end-of-season exit interview.

Giddey came under the microscope, not only for his on-court performances, but also for allegations of an inappropriate relationship with an underage girl.

Newport Beach police announced in January they had been “unable to corroborate any criminal activity” by Giddey and would not pursue charges while the NBA also later closed its investigation into the Australian guard in May.

Speaking to reporters at his exit interview, Giddey reflected on being benched for the first time in his career in Oklahoma City’s playoffs series against Dallas, admitting while it was a “bitter pill to swallow” it was the right call by coach Mark Daigneault.

“Coach did what he thought was best for the team and to be honest, I probably agree with him,” Giddey said.

“As hard as it is for a player to sit there and say, ‘I should be on the bench’, at the time Caso [Cason Wallace], Isaiah [Joe], Wigs [Aaron Wiggins], these guys were probably better in this series for Dallas.

“It’s a tough pill to swallow but for a 21-year-old to go through this now it’s probably a good thing and I just don’t want to feel this feeling again. It’ll make me a lot better and stronger as a player to never let something like this happen again.”

It obviously won’t now, with Giddey set to feature as a key building block for a Chicago team that has been in the playoff picture for a few years now but never really taken the next step towards competing for a title.

It will be interesting to see what the Bulls do next, particularly when it comes to Zach LaVine’s contract, with the Giddey move potentially suggesting they are investing in the future and willing to undergo a re-tooling of sorts.

That would be Giddey’s best path to more time with the ball in his hands given it will be hard for him to become a full-time point guard with LaVine and DeMar DeRozan on the roster.

NBC Sports Chicago’s K.C. Johnson reported before the Giddey news that Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas has “floated as many as 15 proposals” around LaVine, indicating more changes are on the card.