On Wednesday, Jake Fischer of The Stein Line surfaced NBA-wide sentiment that the reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder are expected to attempt to trade up in the 2026 NBA Draft to acquire a top-4 prospect, which has direct implications for the Chicago Bulls as the owner of the number four overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
"but rival clubs continue to mention a certain team in Oklahoma City as a strong potential trade-up candidate."Jake Fischer
The elephant in the room within Fischer’s reporting is Thunder executive vice president and general manager Sam Presti, who is viewed as the best front office head in the NBA for his roster-building and trade negotiation victories en route to winning the 2024-25 NBA championship.
One of those Presti trade negotiation victories was the infamous trade with the Bulls during the 2024 NBA offseason that shipped guard Alex Caruso to the Thunder in exchange for guard Josh Giddey and no draft capital.
The trade has been an overwhelming win for the Thunder as Caruso went on to be a finishing piece in the Thunder’s ascent to winning the 2025 NBA Finals in seven games over the Indiana Pacers.
Caruso is once again underscoring Presti’s victory over the former Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations, Arturas Karnisovas, by delivering elite playoff riser performances in the 2026 NBA Western Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs that may put him in contention for 2026 Western Conference Finals MVP.
Meanwhile, the Bulls' side of the Caruso-Giddey trade has delivered the Bulls two sub-.500 regular seasons, a complete house-cleaning of the Bulls front office, and Billy Donovan’s resignation as Bulls head coach after six seasons.
Arturas Karnisovas gift-wrapped Caruso to Sam Presti, so Bryson Graham under no circumstances should start his rebuild by handing Sam Presti the fourth overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
Yes, the Caruso-Giddey trade is an eternal Bulls front office loss
NBA trades should be judged on two parameters: the transaction price and the impact on overall team success. Again, the Bulls have done minimal winning of consequence since adding Josh Giddey to their roster.
Trading Alex Caruso for Josh Giddey, straight-up, represents a transaction that surrendered more Bulls value relative to the return than the value the Bulls sent to the Orlando Magic to acquire Nikola Vucevic.
Judging on individual player production via Basketball Reference's Box Plus-Minus (BPM) metric and league distinctions, the Bulls traded a two-time NBA All-Defensive Team selection with a 1.5 BPM in Alex Caruso for 0.7 BPM Josh Giddey, coming off a dubious benching in the 2024 NBA playoffs and no NBA awards or recognition to his claim.
Meanwhile, the Bulls shipped -1.8 BPM Wendell Carter Jr. and 1.1 BPM Otto Porter Jr., plus two first-round draft picks that became Franz Wagner and Jett Howard, to the Magic for Vucevic, producing a 5.5 BPM in his final two full Magic seasons with one NBA All-Star Game selection.
The Bulls taking back Al-Farouq Aminu was certainly unnecessary and despite that mistake, the Bulls returned to the NBA playoffs the following season after acquiring Vucevic, after a four-season absence.
The Vucevic trade, of course, didn’t age well for the Bulls, but the transaction itself was reasonably priced. So here’s to the Bulls pricing better trades in the future!
Add us as a preferred source on Google