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If you were on social media for even a minute on Thursday, you probably saw a glimpse of the craziest game-winner yet this season. Down one point with three seconds left, Josh Giddey calmly dribbled up and swished in a halfcourt buzzer-beater to stun the Los Angeles Lakers.
Leading by five points with 12 seconds left, the Lakers had an all-time collapse caused by lazy inbound passes and non-existent defense. The game-winner capped off a career run by Giddey since the All-Star by becoming a 23-point triple-double machine.
Giddey's recent play has caused folks to become prisoners of the moment and revisit talks of when he was first dealt to the Bulls for Alex Caruso. Was the deal's consensus too critical of Chicago's side? Did fans overvalue the absence of draft picks?
With Giddey en route to a massive payday this upcoming offseason, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault was unmoved by the revisits of the deal and said both sides won it. For OKC, it was one of the best defensive players on a title contender. For Chicago, it gained a franchise cornerstone.
“I haven’t seen a ton of them with my eyes but I’ve seen the numbers and they’ve been gaudy. He’s playing great obviously. Trades are inherently mutually beneficial. That’s one where both teams benefited," Daigneault said. "The players individually benefited. Alex ended up in a situation he wanted to be in. Josh is obviously able to play a role there that shows his talent in a contract year and is maximizing that. We are certainly happy for him, not a surprise. He is a really, really talented player. But we are happy for him. We will see him on Monday but happy to see him having success."
What Giddey has done on the Bulls has been the talk around the NBA world in March. That said, it's difficult to envision him having that type of success with the Thunder. He wouldn't have taken away the primary ball-handler reps from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Jalen Williams and it'd likely be a repeat of last season where he was played off the floor with an awkward off-ball role that didn't make the best of his playmaking skillset.
After he declined to come off the bench, the Thunder pivoted and made the best of the situation by adding Caruso. He's played a large role in their historic defense being a ball-hawk perimeter defender who disrupts possessions by himself.
Like when the Texas Rangers traded Cole Ragans to the Kansas City Royals for Aroldis Chapman in 2023, sometimes trades can't be judged on a superficial level and should instead be looked through the parameters of a team's needs.
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Nearly a year later, Mark Daigneault sees Josh Giddey trade as win-win
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