Rylan joined us to discuss Josh Giddey's trade from OKC to Chicago and much more!
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OKC Thunder beat writer Rylan Stiles (29.6.24)
(upbeat music) - This episode is brought to you by Experian. Are you paying for subscriptions you don't use, but can't find the time or energy to cancel them? Experian could cancel unwanted subscriptions for you, saving you an average of $270 per year, and plenty of time. Download the Experian app. Results will vary, not all subscriptions are eligible. Savings are not guaranteed. Paid membership with connected payment account required. - This is "Saturday Zintazzy" with David Lithgow and Brett James. (upbeat music) - Great to have you with us on a Saturday morning, Flashin' Jeevesy with you chewing through the first hour already. We've already touched talking a little bit of hopes and it has been a fabulous week for any person that loves basketball. You and I certainly fit that profile Brett, although we do disagree on a few opinions about it, and that's the beauty of anything to do with the Lakers and the Swans. - Yep. - Happy to be part of the other end of that argument. Without further ado, we've joined by someone we've had on a little bit early in the year. He's the beat writer of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Roland Styles. Good morning to you. - Good morning, how are you doing? - Good, thank you my friend, great to have you with us. How have you as a basketball nothing in the city been over the last few days and soaking it all in? Because it's been an extended big eight days for you and I guess starting with wasn't really a bombshell, I think if we've all been watching it closely, but the Josh Giddy tried about eight days ago to the Chicago Bulls. Let's start there. What was your initial thoughts? - Yeah, I thought that it was interesting timing to do it so soon and right before the draft, but I think that whenever you look at all the pieces as you mentioned of the way things were trending, it wasn't shocking that it actually went that way of Josh going to a new team. Obviously, the Thunder had a different vision for what Josh's season could look like next year and I don't think that anyone can be upset with the 21 year old heading into a contract year not wanting to come off the bench, not wanting to take on a more reduced role. So I think that he got a really good end of the deal going to Chicago. You look at what Billy Donovan has been able to do with guards before, specifically handling multiple guards. He once had a lineup of Shay, Dennis Schroeder and Chris Paul and had them working and yelling together. When no one really thought that that would be possible to play three guards at one time of their stature. So Billy Donovan, no stranger to maximizing guards. That's excellent for Josh Giddy heading into a contract year. For the Thunder, they immediately upgraded the roster in terms of trying to win a champion chip with an all defensive member who shoots 40% from three and more seamlessly fits that role that they were trying to have Josh do last year. - Certainly, Roland from a straight basketball perspective, the fit with Caruso, with Shay and Chet and Williams, he's perfect, fits well, play off the ball, doesn't need the ball, he's not a playmaker. So there's no doubt from a straight basketball swap. I think it works well for both. The question I wanted to ask was around Giddy's stock and from a straight basketball perspective, is he underrated? I mean, you've watched a lot of him. His straight basketball skills seems to be unfairly criticized, particularly in America. - Yes, of course, right. - Because he's left here in Australia. - Right, but by people who are just watching the games from their couch and things like that, he is absolutely undervalued and over-criticized. I think that people don't take into account how unfairly that he was treated in the sense of a basketball way. The organization, they got so good so fast and they had to put him in a role that was completely different than what they drafted him into. And I think that even Australians who love Josh Giddy to death can admit that if you looked at Josh Giddy's game and said, well, this year he's going to play away from the ball, he's gonna be a spot-up three-point shooter and gonna have to rebound and play defense, you would have not projected him to be very good in that role. But to Josh's credit, he spent the whole year doing that, trying his best to improve in those areas and never made a complaint, never made a fuss, publicly or anything like that, and just kind of forward his time until the off season where the two sides could kind of come to an agreement that this wasn't best for his career. So I think that publicly, in terms of the fan sentiment, they don't give him enough credit for the trials he had to go through this year on the court playing a really non-condusive role for his skill set. I think in the NBA, you just saw that his values actually not tanked the way that fans think it is because NBA GMs and NBA front offices, they're a lot smarter than us and they can kind of see through that of, yes, he's not producing really well in his third year with a thunder, but they're asking to do something that we never thought would be possible for him. Like, going back to his draft class, if you were gonna envision Josh Giddy reaching his entire ceiling and reaching the best version of himself, it did not include any of the traits he was asked to do this year with a thunder. And so they can see that if we put him in a more role that he'll play for the Olympics with the boomers and it'll play with the Bulls, he's going to look a ton better and he's going to look more closer to that top 10 pick that the Thunder views on him. So I think that internally within the NBA walls, his value is much higher than externally 'cause fans just don't kind of go that deep into the layers of their criticism. - What are the people in your world think, you know? And I reckon it'd be a mixed bag and I'm sure everyone's really happy with the crew. So, no, that's a great fit. That's on paper, it looks perfect. But does some of your peers reflect and think, you know what, this dude is still 21 years of age. Is he shot broken? Maybe it's not. Maybe he's just 21 and he, by the time he's 25, he's got his three up to 38, 39% from what he's doing. And he played in the most foreign positions. Is it mixed across Oklahoma City? I'm sure it is or have I got that wrong? - Yeah, so I think that at the end of the season, when the death settled after the playoffs series, it was a mix of, this guy's only 21 years old, for all we know, this was a blip on the radar and it was a down year. So it was not a consensus, just go give up on Josh City. However, when the trade was then made and the thunder and Josh himself revealed that he did not wanna come off the bench. But when you take that component away and you say, well, this is a guy that does not wanna come off the bench, then you just run into the exact same problems you ran into this year, where you still can't maximize what makes him so good. And so I think that the common theme is we all, around Oklahoma City, who like are in the know, I think that we all appreciate how good of a basketball player that Josh will be starting in a couple of weeks when the Olympics start and going through Chicago and going through the rest of his NBA career. And I think that everyone's happy for him that he can now in his contract near maximize that skill set because on ball players get paid a lot of money and he will now be finally on ball. And it was always an awkward trip within Max GC. So I think that people thought it could work like three weeks ago. But when the trade went down and the thunder revealed that it went down partly because he did not wanna come off the bench, then everyone kind of understood it and there was no hard feelings for Josh 'cause who can really blame him for that one to come off the bench. There's been, excuse me, sorry as I swallow a fly, this breaking news in fact, a full trade here role. And so to John T. Murray's been traded from Atlanta to the New Orleans pelicans for Larry Nance, Dyson Daniels, the 2025 first round pick by the Lakers and the 27 first round pick least favorable of Bucks and Pels. So there you go, some breaking NBA trade news. What's been the trade and that's kind of caught your eye the most outside of the guinea trade? Or the pick. Or the pick, yeah. Yeah, I think that one of the biggest surprises outside of the whole Josh stuff, 'cause I think that I think that the Josh trade reaction, again, was met with a bit of too much surprise from the outside looking in because people did not account for how much value Josh still held within front offices as his value in the front office was not the same as it was on Twitter. And this, and this is John T. Murray thing is surprising, and not to use it as a risky bias trade, but it's surprising that the Hawks got back Dyson Daniels, who is the guy that I think is worth investing in is just seeing what he can become similar to Josh in a better environment for him with more minutes to a little after him. And it being entirely tick based along with Larry Nance Jr. to max salary, that might signal that the Hawks are willing to just move on from everybody involved, from Clint Capella and from Trey Young. So if it goes that route, then this trade becomes one of the more interesting ones. But I think that it was also very interesting to see Rob dealing him as one of the picks, to see him get selected in the top 10 after many people thought he would slide and then get traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves who are already one of the big contenders out west. So I think that that was a little surprising. I think the thing with the Spurs too, just actually rather than taking another fly, actually putting those first rounders, about seven years in advance was a little bit strange, but very critical to, I guess, at all of that organization. They picked up a good one later in Ingram, probably a nice pick in the 40s as well. How do you now reflect on it all in terms of the changing guard for next year? The thunder, the number one seed. What's gonna change a little bit you think, especially at Western, try and stay pace for the Celtics who really finished the year and heads and shoulders above everybody? - Yeah, I think that for the thunder, as of right now, what's really changed is that they've just slotted Caruso into Giddy's role and Caruso can do those things that Giddy was asked to do. I mean, Giddy's a better playmaker and a better rebounder whenever Giddy's engaged. He's a better rebounder, Caruso, a better defender and a better three-point shooter. So I think that for the thunder style, they've been able to capitalize on that as much as you can in terms of improving some very important areas. The off season, of course, just starting. So we'll see what else the thunder do. But as of right now, whenever you couple in the Caruso upgrade and whenever you add in some expected development from Chet and J-Dub and development from Jason Wallace and the rest of their roster, they're still primed to be a very top team in the West. - We've got to get to a break here, but in a word, you've got an abundance of cap space to play with the OKC. Would you bring in Paul George? - I don't think that that'd be realistic just because I think that he ultimately wants to stay on the West Coast, but it would be fun. - Yeah, it would be. Can't wait to talk to you again, mate. The next two weeks or they're about are going to be incredible with the trades. Big one happening there before with Murray going to New Orleans. He probably secretly wanted him as a like his person maybe to join the brawn, but it didn't happen. Ronnie did, however, Ron, we could talk about that all day and we'll catch you another time to talk about it. Roland Stiles, good luck and busy couple of weeks in the trade world in the NBA. - Thank you so much.