Despite splitting apart, Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti remains a strong supporter of Josh Giddey. OKC shipped out the 21-year-old to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for Alex Caruso in a rare player-for-player deal.
Presti spoke about the deal on Friday once it became official. In an earlier statement, he revealed both parties couldn’t see eye to eye in their future. Giddey elected against being in a bench role next season and would rather go to a squad that lets him return to a primary ball-handler role.
This meant a trade made sense for both sides. Presti is a firm believer that the 21-year-old will be an awesome player for the Bulls, who can extend him this offseason or wait it out until next year in restricted free agency.
“I think Josh is going to be an elite player. I have a lot of confidence in that,” Presti said. “I think the Bulls got an absolutely great player, and I think he’s going to be a great player for a long time.”
Presti said with the Bulls, Giddey can get more on-ball reps, which was hard to envision in OKC. He was fourth in the totem pole and playmaking possessions quickly dried up for him.
“I don’t know that that was going to be possible within the construct of the team we have and where his ambitions were,” Presti said. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
With the 21-year-old gone, he leaves a ball-handling vacuum the Thunder hope other players like Chet Holmgren and Cason Wallace can fill.
“We talked about it quite openly, but this is more opportunity for other people,” Presti said. “That opportunity that he was going to have will be distributed to other people.”
As the Thunder fully dives into their championship window, they will need to continuously tweak their roster to maximize their trio of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Holmgren.
Perhaps Giddey can carve out a nice career and be this iteration’s Jeff Green, but a pathway to success for him with the Thunder just wasn’t there any longer.
“I really believe in him. I think he’s going to do great,” Presti said. “I think he’s a unique talent in a lot of ways, and he’s going to be good for a really long time.”
