Josh Giddey knows what a successful rebuild should look like. He was part of one of the most triumphant tank-and-draft turnarounds in NBA history with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
But the Aussie needs to pump the brakes if he thinks the Chicago Bulls can pull off anything similar.
Bulls Executive VP of Basketball Operations Arturas Karnisovas finally tore down his roster at this year's trade deadline. Coby White went to the Charlotte Hornets. Ayo Dosunmu went to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Nikola Vucevic landed with the Boston Celtics.
In return, Chicago got four unrestricted free agents who will fall off the books and increase the team's available cap space this summer: Anfernee Simons, Collin Sexton, Guerschon Yabusele and Nick Richards. The Bulls also acquired two young guards whom they can keep and develop, if they choose, in Jaden Ivey and Rob Dillingham.
Karnisovas added nine second-round picks to his stash as well.
No one will throw a parade in his honor, but finally starting over and acquiring some semi-valuable assets was a good call by AK.
It's just too little, too late. There's no way Chicago is set to go down the same path as Oklahoma City, no matter how rose-colored Giddey's glasses are.
Josh Giddey mentioned the Bulls and Thunder together in rebuild talk
To be fair, Giddey acknowledged that Chicago's future is not the same as it was in OKC when he played there.
When he was drafted with the No. 6 pick in 2021, the Thunder had already installed Mark Daigneault as their head coach and had a culture in place. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wasn't an MVP yet, but he was part of an infrastructure that included a veteran leader in Al Horford.
Giddey and SGA started 54 games together the next season, and the team approached .500 the next season with Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Lu Dort, Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe playing alongside him. The Thunder were off and running.
The Bulls don't have any of those pieces in place, but Giddey felt comfortable at least saying the following, per Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times:
""When I was in Oklahoma, we went from the worst team in the league to the best team in the league in 24 months. We did it pretty quickly. A lot of rebuilds don’t necessarily happen that fast. Obviously, with the people and personnel we had, it got speeded up pretty quickly.""Bulls point guard Josh Giddey
Chicago has a lot of work left to do
Can Billy Donovan be the Daigneault figure in this scenario and lead the Bulls back to relevance? Will he even be the head coach the next time they approach true playoff contention?
Is there a Horford on this roster? Someone who's been through battles and can help show Chicago's young stars like Matas Buzelis how it's done? Is that Giddey, perhaps?
Does Karnisovas have enough draft picks to sift out the next Jalen Williams or Chet Holmgren? If he does get lucky in the lottery, is he a good enough evaluator to grab the right players?
These questions — and plenty more — still need answering. Maybe a Thunder-like turnaround is possible. But right now, it's fair to wonder if the Bulls have the competency to win a playoff series in the next few seasons, let alone make a championship run.