Tag: nba-trade-rumors

5 NBA teams falling behind their rivals after not doing enough this summer nba,teams,falling,behind,their,rivals,after,not,doing,enough,this,summer,sbnation,com,front-page,nba,nba-trade-rumors,nba-free-agency,draftkings

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The first big wave of player movement in the 2024 NBA offseason has come and gone, and a few things are starting to crystalize. The Oklahoma City Thunder look like the class of the West after adding Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso to last year’s No. 1 seed. The Boston Celtics remain a strong favorite in the East, but the New York Knicks with Mikal Bridges and Philadelphia 76ers with Paul George are ready to push them.

Some teams have set themselves up for improvement this offseason even if they aren’t at the top of the championship picture. The Dallas Mavericks did well to add more shooting and defense around Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, and it will be fascinating to see how Klay Thompson performs away from the Bay. The Orlando Magic won’t sneak up on anyone this year, and have a chance to be an emerging Eastern Conference powerhouse.

Then there’s the teams who haven’t done enough. While there’s plenty of time left in the offseason to make moves, these six teams should be feeling the heat to do something or they are going to get left behind by their rivals.

Denver Nuggets

The Denver Nuggets could have retained Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in free agency if they wanted to. Instead, Denver was too afraid of looming penalties for entering the ‘second apron’ of the luxury tax, and decided it could replace the veteran two-guard’s production with younger players. Either that, or ownership just cheaped out.

This is the time that Denver should be going all-in around Nikola Jokic. The three-time MVP is in the prime of his career at 29 years old, yet the team around him continues to lose talent over nothing but money. The Nuggets lost Bruce Brown and Jeff Green last year after winning the 2023 championship, and now it’s lost an even bigger contributor in KCP. This decision puts a ton of pressure on Denver’s untested young bench — Christian Braun, Peyton Watson, Julian Strawther — to perform at a high level immediately. The Nuggets’ depth was already an issue last year, and it’s an even more glaring need now.

The Nuggets will still be very good. They may even still win the title. But the team got significantly worse by losing Caldwell-Pope for no good reason. The young guys are going to have to take a major leap, or the Nuggets have failed Jokic this summer.

Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers were a pretty good team last year that only won one playoff game and never had a realistic chance of winning the Western Conference. It would seem to behoove a team like that to make some major moves in the offseason, especially when it has three first round picks to trade at its disposal. Instead, the Lakers have been content to draft Dalton Knecht and Bronny James, and do nothing else.

Knecht can help the Lakers next season as a rookie with his off-ball shooting, but that won’t be enough to make a major push up the standings. LA is betting on internal development of their young players, but if they make a real veteran addition, chances are they will be worse by proxy. LA got very good health out of LeBron James and Anthony Davis last season, and who knows if that will be the case this year. The West keeps improving, and the Lakers are doing nothing as LeBron James sets to enter his age-40 season.

The Lakers are preparing for life after James instead of going all-in while he’s still an elite player. LA doesn’t want to trade its future draft picks and take on penalties from entering the second-apron. The Lakers are kind of just chilling, and that shouldn’t be good enough when they employ the superstar with the longest prime in league history.

Milwaukee Bucks

The Milwaukee Bucks were supposed to be a championship contender after acquiring Damian Lillard last season. Instead, the team looked underwhelming out of the gates, fired first-year head coach Adrian Griffin to replace him with Doc Rivers at midseason, and then saw Giannis Antetokounmpo suffer a season-ending injury just before the playoffs.

It feels like it’s now or never for the Lillard-Antetokounmpo pairing entering the 2024-25 season, but the Bucks have done absolutely nothing to improve the team this summer.

It’s true that the Bucks are capped out and light on future assets, but other teams have found a way to get creative in similar situations. Milwaukee’s big plan appears to be praying for good health from their four veteran stars. That doesn’t seem like a wise move when the 76ers and Knicks went all-out to add top-end talent, while the Celtics remain the class of the conference. If Milwaukee disappoints again this season, it’s only a matter of time before Antetokounmpo trade rumors pop up again.

Miami Heat

The Heat missed out on Damian Lillard last summer, and they never had a chance at Donovan Mitchell this summer before he re-signed with Cleveland. Miami is a franchise known for taking big swings, yet they’ve done a whole lot of nothing heading into the 2024-25 season.

Jimmy Butler is entering the final year of his contract without an extension in place. Bam Adebayo is locked up on a long-term deal, and there are some nice young pieces on the roster in Jaime Jaquez, Nikola Jovic, Kel’el Ware, and Tyler Herro. For now, the Heat feel like a team stuck in two-timelines: one not good enough to win with Butler as a centerpiece this season, yet without a foundational player if he leaves in the summer of 2025.

Miami would be wise to look at Butler trades and prioritize their future, but this organization typically doesn’t operate that way. Unless the Heat can find a way to make a move for an impact talent, it feels like they’re stuck at the bottom of the East playoff picture.

Los Angeles Clippers

This one is self-explanatory. The Clippers lost Paul George in free agency without getting assets back for him. LA responded by making some bargain signings in Derrick Jones Jr., Kris Dunn, Nic Batum, and Mo Bamba, but those guys aren’t going to make up the loss of an All-NBA caliber player like George.

The Clippers still have Kawhi Leonard and James Harden on the roster, but that isn’t a reliable duo at this point in their careers. The scary thing for LA is it doesn’t control its own first round pick until 2030. Right now, this looks like a low-end Western Conference playoff team at best with the arrow pointing downhill and very few assets to course correct.

Phoenix Suns

At least the Phoenix Suns didn’t cheap out. Despite a massive luxury tax bill looming, the Suns re-signed Royce O’Neale to a $44 million contract. Phoenix also added Mason Plumlee to bolster its front court depth. We’ll applaud those moves on the margins, but it isn’t enough to really make a difference for a team that just got swept out of the first round of the playoffs.

Phoenix was supposed to be competing for championships when it acquired Kevin Durant. The all-in move for Bradley Beal last summer has backfired, and now Phoenix has an enormous payroll, three ill-fitting stars, and zero tradable future draft picks until 2031.

If the Suns don’t look great to start the season, it’s probably only a matter of time before they need to start thinking about trading Kevin Durant. At that point, Devin Booker’s future would become a major point of speculation, too. The Suns don’t have many moves left to make, and their team still isn’t good enough.

NBA trade rumors: The Zach LaVine narrative has gotten out of control nba,trade,rumors,the,zach,lavine,narrative,has,gotten,out,of,control,sbnation,com,front-page,nba,nba-trade-rumors

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I have spent a lot of time on FaceBook Marketplace. From browsing free listings to bartering about five-dollar margins that make up less than 10% of the price of said item, I have done my time in the slop pile. In fact, few things have ever prepared me better to talk about the NBA trade and free agent market than trying to convince someone that a painted plastic table could be considered “redwood” because it was dark orange with a wood grain pattern. I’m the Danny Ainge of the online selling world.

However, once in a blue moon, you find something magical — be it a full-sized dinner table for 30 dollars, a 20-dollar set of professional kitchen knives, or an 11-dollar Ben Simmons jersey — that makes you question how it became so undervalued, so much so that you overthink it on the subway ride down to pick it up.

Some days, you were right to have been suspicious, and you’ve wasted a day on a sewing machine with no thread pickup. Other days, you, the Golden State Warriors, get offered Zach LaVine for nothing but salary filler.

You smile graciously, you mute the call to confer with your front office, and you say…

“No.”

How did we get here? How did a 29-year-old All-Star with the ability to generate shots from distance and at the rim become a negative asset in the face of most of the league? Why would the Warriors rather cut Chris Paul than throw him into a trade and get a possible contributor like they once did to acquire D’Angelo Russell through sign-and-trading Kevin Durant?

The obvious answer is the price tag that comes with LaVine and the five-year, $215 million dollar contract he signed following the 2021-22 season. With this and next season on the books, along with a player option in 2026-27 for a shade under $50 million, LaVine’s contract is widely seen as exactly the type of bad deal that has become an anchor under the new CBA.

Except it hasn’t really.

Ignoring the player, Zach LaVine is tied as the 18th highest-paid player in the NBA (per Spotrac). The Timberwolves, Suns, and Sixers have three of the top 25 contracts on their cap table in per year average. The Pacers, Celtics, and Bucks have two each.

Even in the current NBA, accommodating big deals is not impossible. While the Suns and Bucks were both first round exits, the Wolves and Pacers were both conference finalists. Boston is about to be shelling out the top two contracts in NBA history and are reigning NBA Champions; the Sixers are paying huge sums in order to make it out of the second round for the first time since 2001.

That only leaves the question of health. LaVine played a meager 25 games last year before an ankle injury — and subsequent surgery — ended a season that had Bulls fans begging for release from the middling hell that GM Arturas Karnisovas has led them to.

Except, saying LaVine certainly isn’t worth his contract over that situation doesn’t stand up to a deeper dive, either. Let’s think of the Sixers, who just caught the big fish of this offseason in Paul George. PG signed a four-year $213 million deal. That is more than the total value of Zach LaVine’s contract, which he is two years into, on one less year.

However, they’re not much different in health. Over the past four years, Paul George has played 215 games in the regular season, only eclipsing the 60 games played mark in last year’s campaign. Zach LaVine, on the other hand, has played 227, with this year’s 25 dragging down his average after two straight years of playing in over three-quarters of the Bulls’ games.

Now, Paul George is unquestionably a better player than Zach LaVine. He is far better defensively, even if he is not the same lockdown, two-way superstar he used to be. George is, historically speaking, also a better creator for others than LaVine, although their assist percentages were the same last year. From credentials to reputation to podcasts, Paul George has LaVine beat.

Still, the fact remains that the far older, more injury-prone player is now on a longer-term deal, while the player that had the best year of his career only a year and a half ago is failing to get salary-dumped because his market is so bad.

This all brings us back to the question at hand: why? The two obvious reasons of money and health don’t fully pass any real examination. Was it the Bulls’ fault for doing a publicized character assassination of the player they planned to trade? I’m sure that plays into it. Was it intelligent of them to anonymously accuse LaVine through the media of getting surgery to decrease his own value? Absolutely not, are you kidding me!?

But, while both of those things explain the breakdown of the relationship between Chicago and Zach, they don’t explain the league-wide pessimism. Not even the typical trade-averse “it was too much to give up” logic works here. Again, the Warriors were offered a salary dump of their own in Andrew Wiggins’ deal along with Chris Paul’s expiring and they said no! They were giving up negative value and they still rejected the trade!

Now, it’s worth noting that the whole league doesn’t have to like LaVine. The Bulls only need one team to show interest to get a deal done. The Lakers have reported interest in Jerami Grant, despite having admittedly worse players of his ilk on the roster. Any trade for Grant would include real assets to the rebuilding Trail Blazers. Instead, why don’t the Lakers try to acquire a shot creator — one who they’ve previously tried to trade for — for pennies on the dollar (or for pennies on the DLo).

That, however, leaves us with the obvious truth: sometimes things are unexplainable. Sometimes you dig your heels into the ground, you look around and you say “I’m not wrong, the world is wrong.” There is absolutely no universe in which Zach LaVine is not worth taking a shot on for a team with limited options to improve, especially one trying to keep aging superstars happy.

The perception of LaVine has swung too far in the opposite direction from the reality.

There is no purely basketball-based answer to the question of why no one wants LaVine, none that isn’t without its own obvious contradiction at least. A 29-year-old shooting guard only one year out from averaging career highs in defensive and total win shares, who has shot well above league average from three, both on and off ball, is being treated like a bed bug-infested futon being sold on the internet with low-res photos. It’s simply baffling.

It seems the two sides are headed for a divorce here no matter what. LaVine wants to be elsewhere, and the Bulls will finally acquiesce to fans’ wishes and begin a rebuild behind their two young guards, Coby White and Ayo Dosumnu, and recent draft pick Matas Buzelis.

However, while it seems like the perception of LaVine could not be worse, sometimes, we let dollar amounts dehumanize players. We often lose track of who is standing behind the numbers, we let little boxes on Basketball-Reference tell us everything there is to know and mold it to fit our narratives. Somehow, the numbers have now have ceased to matter in the face of one constant narrative thundercloud above LaVine’s head.

And this is not to say that Zach will instantaneously return to All-Star form or even reach the heights his contract should imply. It also doesn’t mean that he’s capable of being a team’s best player or taking a middling roster to championship expectations. He is, however, not the negative asset he’s been branded as, and he is absolutely the best available option for teams looking for real difference-makers on the market.

We’ve overadjusted. We forgot that good players earn good money, and that good players can have down years. Zach LaVine is a great player. You don’t dump great players. You don’t attach first round picks to them. You certainly don’t say no when they’re given to you for free.

So yeah, NBA GMs are wrong. And there will likely be at least a few of them who will regret passing over Zach LaVine when this saga is over.

Russell Westbrook to the Nuggets trade rumors show time may be a flat circle russell,westbrook,to,the,nuggets,trade,rumors,show,time,may,be,a,flat,circle,sbnation,com,front-page,nba,nba-trade-rumors,nba-free-agency,dot-com-grid-coverage

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The year is 2021. I am blogging about the Lakers. The team has failed to defend its title and is trading Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Kyle Kuzma while letting Alex Caruso walk for nothing, and replacing them with Russell Westbrook.

The year is 2024. I am blogging about the NBA. The Denver Nuggets have failed to defend their title, and are letting Kentavious Caldwell-Pope leave for the Orlando Magic, and may add Russell Westbrook to their backcourt in his stead:

Further proving that NBA time may move in patterns rather than a series of unique events, this would also be the second time in two seasons that a team has salary-dumped Reggie Jackson to the Hornets in order to make room to add Russell Westbrook.

Now, obviously the context of these situations is different. The Lakers didn’t send out Caldwell-Pope and Kuzma for Westbrook because of second apron considerations (they are cheap and will likely never cross the second apron, but it didn’t exist yet). They just made a dumb trade.

The Nuggets are cheaping out on KCP not just for financial reasons or because they think Westbrook is as good or better, but also to avoid the myriad of actual roster penalties that would come from extending him at his market value, as my friend Ryan Blackburn summarized well recently at Mile High Sports:

Unfortunately, writing a blank check, while certainly appealing to Caldwell-Pope, is not in the best interest of the Nuggets competitively. The second tax apron, a new stipulation agreed upon in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, isn’t just a financial burden, but a competitive one. The Nuggets will not be able to make competitive trades if they are over the second apron. They will not be able to use the Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception in free agency. Even their first round draft pick in 2032 will be “frozen” if they finish the end of the 2024-25 season over the second apron, meaning they cannot use it in future trades. If they stay above the second apron in three of the next five seasons, that 2032 first round draft pick will be automatically sent to the end of the first round, regardless of Denver’s record.

Still, while the context may be different, it’s still hard not to feel like Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen here while watching the Nuggets echo the Lakers’ previous mistake. Replacing the ultimate 3-and-D wing with the ultimate… well, opposite of those two qualities didn’t work out for the Lakers. Maybe Jokic making Westbrook a champion is the final way he can more thoroughly defeat LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Lakers… but it’s difficult not to be skeptical that may be beyond even his talents.

So we’ll see if this works out better for Denver than it did the Lakers, but for now, it’s hard not to be tired of Earth. These people. Tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives.

Nets and Knicks kick off 2024 NBA Draft with massive, complicated Mikal Bridges trade nets,and,knicks,kick,off,nba,draft,with,massive,complicated,mikal,bridges,trade,sbnation,com,front-page,nba,nba-trade-rumors,nba-draft,draftkings,dot-com-grid-coverage

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The Nets have regained control of their future heading into the 2024 NBA Draft by making two massive deals on the eve of the big day.

In the first, Brooklyn will send Mikal Bridges to reunite with his Villanova buddies across the city with the New York Knicks in exchange for FIVE first-round picks, a pick swap and a second-rounder, and in another, they will get their own 2026 first-rounder back from the Houston Rockets for a hefty price.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN was all over the news:

Our own Anthony Puccio of Nets Daily noted that the Bridges trade is historic not just for the treasure trove Brooklyn got back, but as the first trade since the two franchises started sharing a city:

As Woj noted, the biggest takeaway from all these musical chairs is that Brooklyn has now retaken control of its future to a greater degree. With their 2026 pick back from the Rockets — it was originally sent out in their deal for James Harden, who has since (in)famously been traded two more times — the Nets can freely tank and not have to worry about sending a potentially valuable future pick to the Rockets.

For examples of the possible ramifications of this, one only needs to look at the draft tomorrow: Houston has the No. 3 pick in this draft because the Nets weren’t good enough around Bridges to avoid giving up lottery picks as part of the ongoing Harden deal fallout, so they sold one of the NBA’s most valuable role players for more picks while reclaiming their ability to get the benefits of being bad.

The price they paid to the Rockets for that right was steep — more complicated multi-team pick swaps, and a Suns first-rounder that could be gold if that team continues its expensive implosion, but ultimately likely… nets… out as a win for Brooklyn because it allowed them to get a haul for Bridges from the Knicks without having to worry they would just send a valuable pick to Houston as part of a lengthy rebuild.

For the Knicks, this a steep price that massively cuts into their war chest of assets, but it may be worth it to add Bridges to their core of Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo as the final Villanova infinity stone. With Julius Randle’s contract still available to use in deals and OG Anunoby’s future increasingly uncertain — even with Woj noting New York still wants to keep him — it remains to be seen how strong this Knicks foundation can be.

Still, it’s hard not to imagine a devastatingly dangerous team if Bridges — a notorious NBA ironman — can hold up under Thibs’ infamous minutes loads after watching how well they did without that perfect type of 3-and-D wing in the 2024 NBA playoffs while dealing with so many injuries. This could be an NBA Finals team with a bit of luck and some more smart moves.

Or, as Posting and Toasting put it…

For Houston? It seems like the goal is still in flux, and as usual for the Rockets, perpetually chaotic: Trying to get Kevin Durant. Yes, seriously.

The ramifications of this huge, complex deal will surely continue to trickle out, but for now, beyond Brooklyn taking back control of its own destiny, only one thing is clear: If these are the fireworks teams are setting off on the eve of the draft, the next week of draft and free agency madness promises to be explosive.

This breaking news story may be updated as it continues to develop. Follow Nets Daily, The Dream Shake and Posting and Toasting for the latest on the Nets, Rockets and Knicks angles of all this, respectively.

Rockets’ wild trade with Nets is all about trying to get Kevin Durant or Devin Booker rockets,wild,trade,with,nets,is,all,about,trying,to,get,kevin,durant,or,devin,booker,sbnation,com,front-page,nba,nba-trade-rumors,nba-draft,draftkings

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The Houston Rockets want Kevin Durant or Devin Booker. In an effort to get one of them, Houston made a fascinating trade with the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday night to acquire future draft picks originally belonging to the Phoenix Suns. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke a convoluted trade that returns the Nets their own 2026 pick (originally sent to Houston in the James Harden trade) and extinguishes swap rights Houston had on Brooklyn’s 2025 pick in exchange for a package headlined by the Suns’ 2027 pick, which was originally acquired by the Nets in the Kevin Durant trade.

This trade comes on the heels of the Nets trading Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks in a package headlined by five first round draft picks. It’s all happening the night before the 2024 NBA Draft.

Does all of that make sense? Probably not. Here’s how Woj explained it:

Let’s do our best to sum this up:

Nets get: Brooklyn 2026 first round pick, extinguished swap rights on 2025 Brooklyn first round pick

Rockets get: 2027 Suns first round pick, 2025 Suns first round swap rights, 2029 first round pick from Dallas or Phoenix (more favorable), swap rights on 2029 first round pick with Dallas or Phoenix (less favorable)

The Nets’ motivation for doing this deal is obvious: Brooklyn is going all-in on rebuilding, and now has control of its own picks. The Nets are going to tank hard ahead of a loaded 2025 NBA Draft class, and then they’re going to tank again in 2026. Brooklyn is loaded with draft picks.

What’s the Rockets’ motivation for doing this deal? They want Durant or Booker, according to Woj, and believe they can get Phoenix to bite by returning their own draft picks. The Suns are determined to keep Durant and Booker for now and try to win next season, according to Woj. The Rockets are betting they will move off that position eventually. Here are tweets from Woj:

The Rockets also hold the No. 3 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. Is Durant getting traded during the draft on Wednesday night? It seems like a distinct possibility.

This scans as an incredibly bold, borderline reckless trade by Houston. The swap rights for the Nets’ 2025 pick and unprotected ownership of their 2026 pick were incredibly valuable assets. Houston gave those up to fade the Suns. The Rockets are going to be aggressive in trying to trade for an established veteran talent — whether it’s Durant or Booker or someone else.

The NBA is on fire, and the Nets are at the center of it all. Brooklyn’s big swing for Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden blew up into an epic disaster, but the team recovered so well by dealing them all (and the returning assets like Bridges) for future draft picks. The Nets are flushed with draft capital in stronger classes the next few years.

Durant, by the way, turns 36 years old before next season. What a way to start the 24 hours before the draft.

Grading Bulls-Thunder trade for Alex Caruso and Josh Giddey from both sides grading,bulls,thunder,trade,for,alex,caruso,and,josh,giddey,from,both,sides,sbnation,com,front-page,nba,nba-trade-rumors

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The Oklahoma City Thunder and Chicago Bulls have completed the first trade of the new NBA offseason, and it’s sending one of the best role players in the NBA to the Western Conference. The Thunder are acquiring Alex Caruso from the Chicago Bulls for guard Josh Giddey, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Caruso is coming off to back-to-back All-Defense seasons for the Bulls. The 30-year-old is a genius defender with incredible point of attack chops, brilliant awareness as a help defender, and elite communication skills. He also just made a career-best 40.8 percent of his three-pointers on a career-high 4.8 attempts per game with Chicago. He’s entering the final year of his contract.

It’s shocking that the Thunder recouped such great value for Giddey without attaching a draft pick to him. The former No. 6 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, Giddey was routinely ignored by defenses for his inability to shoot from the perimeter. Giddey hit 33.7 percent of his threes on three attempts per game last season. He’s a good rebounder and a good passer, but it’s an odd fit for a Bulls team that’s already one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA. Giddey is also entering the last season of his rookie contract.

Giddey was investigated by local police and the NBA for an alleged inappropriate relationship with a minor last season. The minor’s family would not cooperate in the investigation, and ultimately there were no charges or discipline from the league.

Let’s grade this trade for both sides.

Grading the Alex Caruso trade for the Thunder

Caruso is the type of role player who does all the little things teams need to win big in the playoffs. This is an amazing pickup for the Thunder at almost any cost. Getting him for only Giddey and nothing else is highway robbery.

Caruso led the NBA with 3.7 deflections per game last season. His 1.7 steals finished four in the league. He recovered 73 loose balls, which ranked No. 7 in the league. It’s possible that no role player in the NBA makes more hustle plays than Caruso. His combination of effort and intelligence is just about unmatched.

Caruso’s defensive communication is harder to quantify, but it’s extremely evident on tape. He was constantly coaching his teammates on where to be and how to help each other out.

The advanced stats back up his impact: Caruso ranked as the NBA’s fifth best defender by EPM last season with a +3.4 rating. Caruso was the only regular rotation player who finished with a positive net-rating on a 39-win Bulls team last year. When he was on the floor, the Bulls outscored their opponents by 0.3 points per 100 possessions. When he was off the floor, the Bulls were out outscored by 3.2 points per 100.

Caruso’s offense has always been a mixed bag, but his improved willingness and touch from three-point range makes him a viable option for big minutes. He shot the ball more confidently than ever before last season, and it paid off all over the floor. His 61.3 true shooting percentage was a career-high.

Caruso will be an outstanding fit next to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams. He’ll be a great mentor for Cason Wallace and the rest of the young Thunder, too. This is a grand slam for Sam Presti given the cost.

Thunder grade: A+

Bulls grade for Josh Giddey trade

Giddey has been productive on a per-game basis for the Thunder at a young age, but there are some fatal flaws in his game that he just hasn’t been able to overcome. When the games got important in the playoffs, Giddey consistently saw his minutes get cut, and even got benched in the last two games of Oklahoma City’s second round loss to the Dallas Mavericks.

Giddey has an excellent combination of size (6’8) and passing vision. He hits the glass hard as a rebounder, and has some skill in transition. The problem with Giddey is that he simply doesn’t threaten the defense much as a scorer whether he’s on or off the ball. He’s not just a bad outside shooter — he’s a reluctant one, too. Giddey often turned down open shots last season. Eventually, teams just stopped covering him in the halfcourt.

Giddey also just doesn’t offer much power as a driver. He averaged only 2.2 free throw attempts per-36 minutes last season, a stunningly low number for a tall guard. His lack of speed and strength has always been a handicap, and the lack of improvement in his jump shot has made him almost unplayable in high leverage situations.

The Bulls would have been wise to get off Caruso since he appeared to be the team’s most valuable trade asset. Instead of targeting future draft picks or trying to shed bad salary (hello, Zach LaVine), the Bulls went for a young player who had fallen out of a favor with a great organization. It’s inconceivable the Bulls could do this deal without getting any draft picks back. The allegations against Giddey from last season makes this even harder to stomach.

Giddey has the size and defensive ability to play next to Coby White, but his lack of speed, strength, and shooting will be hard to overcome. He doesn’t turn 22 years old until Oct., but Chicago already has to give him a new contract if they want to retain him beyond this season. The Bulls look like the worst run franchise in the NBA right now.

Grade: F