The latest NBA trade has significantly hurt Minnesota’s championship prospects.
Now that the NBA Finals have concluded, the trade season has officially begun. While the Minnesota Timberwolves are busy devising their offseason strategies, other teams are moving even faster to implement their plans.
On Thursday afternoon, news broke that the Chicago Bulls would officially trade star guard Alex Caruso to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Josh Giddey, with no picks mentioned in the deal as of this writing. This is of course a massive get for OKC, and the most shocking part is how little they had to give up to obtain Caruso’s services.
There had been repeated talk of the Bulls asking for multiple first-round picks or at least the equivalent of that kind of return to give up Caruso. In the end, they parted ways with one of the premier perimeter defenders in the NBA in exchange for a playmaking guard whose value had probably never been lower.
While everyone sits back and wonders what on earth Chicago is thinking, the Timberwolves have to be groaning at the thought of OKC becoming that much better.
Caruso trade could make Thunder Western Conference favorites
Oklahoma City already earned the top seed in an ultra-competitive Western Conference this past season, just barely edging out Minnesota and Denver.
Just like the Wolves, they ran into a bad matchup in the playoffs and got sent home by Dallas. But now, they take a young core that was already considered to be one of the best in the NBA and add Alex Caruso.
The soon-to-be former Bull has earned All-Defensive team nods in each of the last two seasons, finishing top 11 in Defensive Player of the Year voting in both years as well. The fact that the Thunder were able to acquire such a high-level and extremely coveted player for such a small price has to be mind-numbing for the Timberwolves.
OKC will add Caruso to their core of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams, pairing him alongside Lu Dort and creating a monster defensive duo.
All things considered, this could easily turn the Thunder into the favorites to make the Finals from the Western Conference next season.
Suffice to say, this is nothing short of a nightmare for the Wolves. They already had their work cut out for them in 2024-25 in trying to level up while under significant financial restrictions, but now that challenge gets another layer added to it.
