OKC Thunder's Chet Holmgren 'Hurt' by Josh Giddey Trade to Chicago Bulls

The Oklahoma City Thunder swapped Josh Giddey for Alex Caruso this summer in a move that 'hurt' center Chet Holmgren.

Jul 9, 2022; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Chet Holmgren (7) talks to guard Josh Giddey (3) during an NBA Summer League game against the Houston Rockets at Thomas & Mack Center. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports / Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

This summer, Top executive Sam Presti had to make one of his first tough decisions regarding this core. In the second era of Thunder basketball, the first big departure happened this summer when Presti pulled the trigger on swapping former No. 6 overall pick Josh Giddey for defensive ace Alex Caruso in a one-for-one trade with the Chicago Bulls.

Giddey represents the first member of this core to be shipped off from Bricktown - with all due respect to Aleksej Pokusevski, Tre Mann and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl - the 21-year-old guard at times felt like a lock to make it in Bricktown.

Then, a disastrous third season doomed him in Oklahoma City, to no fault of either party. The Thunder simply got too good too fast, with Jalen Williams's development and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's superstar rise, pushing Giddey off the ball and to a role he was never designed to play - which led to an unsurprising struggling season.

The Chicago Bulls saw through the year three flaws and realized that Giddey is valuable just not as an off-ball spot-up shooting secondary playmaker who is tasked with defending power forwards and heavily pitching in on the glass down low.

After Giddey refused a bench role in Bricktown following the season as he heads toward a contract year, the former No. 6 overall pick was traded to the Windy City in the first core-shaking move of this era.

Despite the obvious on-court improvement for all parties involved, it is still an emotional period for the Thunder roster, as center Chet Holmgren revealed on Paul George's podcast Monday.

"I was [expletive] hurt when I saw that Giddey wasn't going to be on our team anymore. We all rock with him. That's our dog. Still is. He's gonna go do great things in Chicago," Holmgren explained.

The Thunder will get to see their old pal again soon, with game two of the season taking place in Chicago as the Bulls host Oklahoma City. That game will surely produce funny post-game moments as Giddey is reunited with the Thunder's cast of characters.

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