Chicago Bulls guard Josh Giddey (3) reacts during the second half at United Center.
Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images
Considering everything that happened last year, the Phoenix Suns had a pretty decent 2025-26 season, finishing 45-37 and getting back into the playoffs, but the first round showed pretty quickly that this roster still has some big limits. They finished only 16th in offensive rating at 115.4 and then got swept by the Thunder, so there is still a clear gap between being a playoff team and being a contender in the West.
A big part of the problem is still the backcourt construction around Devin Booker. Booker had 26.1 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 6.0 assists while shooting 45.6% from the field, but he once again had to handle a lot of the creation himself. Jalen Green was supposed to take pressure away from him, but injuries limited him to only 32 games, and he finished with 17.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 2.8 assists on 42.2% from the field and 31.3% from three.
Maybe the Suns should stop trying to put another scoring guard next to Booker and finally give him a floor general again, as his best-ever team season came with Chris Paul by his side in 2021 when Phoenix was 2 games away from winning the title.
Josh Giddey is no CP3, of course, but he would be a very similar partner for Booker. He is only 23, stands 6-foot-7, and just had 17.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 9.1 assists while shooting 44.8% from the field and 36.4% from three. He comes with flaws, but his passing, rebounding, and size could give the Suns something this roster clearly doesn’t have right now.
Mock Trade
Phoenix Suns Receive: Josh Giddey, Isaac Okoro
Chicago Bulls Receive: Jalen Green, Jamaree Bouyea, 2027 first-round pick (via UTA/CLE/MIN), 2029 first-round pick (HOU holds rights), 2028 second-round pick (CHI holds rights)
The salaries are actually pretty close. Green is at roughly $36.3 million for 2026-27, and Bouyea makes $2.6 million, so the Suns send out around $38.8 million. Giddey makes $25.0 million, and Okoro is on an expiring $11.8 million deal, putting the incoming number at around $36.8 million.
The draft compensation looks bigger than it really is because the Suns’ future picks are already tied into a bunch of previous trades. The 2027 first is the least favorable of the Utah, Cleveland, and Minnesota selections, while Houston has rights connected to the 2029 first. Still, two pieces of first-round value are significant for a Suns team that already controls very little of its own future draft capital.
Giddey Would Make Booker’s Life Much Easier
This is the main reason I would even consider giving up that amount of draft value. Giddey became a much better offensive player in his Chicago Bulls debut season. The 17.0 points were a career high, but his 9.1 assists are the more important number for the Suns. He assisted on 41.0% of teammate field goals while he was on the floor and had a 2.52 assist-to-turnover ratio, which is pretty strong considering how much of Chicago’s offense ran through him.
Booker can obviously play point guard and has done it for years, but that doesn’t mean it is the best way to use him every night. He had a 30.7% usage rate last season and still created 6.0 assists per game, so he was basically being asked to be the main scorer and one of the main passers at the same time. With Giddey by his side, Booker can spend more possessions just scoring with his pure bucket-getting ability.
Giddey can bring the ball up, organize the offense, find Booker coming off screens, and push the pace after rebounds. He grabbed 8.3 rebounds per game last season, including 7.1 defensive boards, so he can start transitions himself. For a Suns team that played at the 24th-fastest pace last season, that could give the offense another easy source of points.
The shooting also isn’t as bad as it used to be. Giddey made 36.4% from three on 5.2 attempts per game last season after shooting 37.8% the year before, so teams can’t completely ignore him anymore. He still isn’t an elite spacer, but has become an actually decent shooter to play a bit off-ball here and there.
Then there is Isaac Okoro, who makes this much more than just Green-for-Giddey. The former Cavs wing had 9.3 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 1.6 assists last season while shooting 46.0% from the field and 33.0% from three. The offense isn’t special, but his job with the Suns wouldn’t be complicated. Defend guards and wings, run the floor, cut and take open corner threes.
A Giddey-Booker-Dillon Brooks-Miles Bridges-Mark Williams group would have a lot more size than most Suns lineups from recent years, while Okoro, Ryan Dunn, and Khaman Maluach would give them more defensive options off the bench. It isn’t a superteam, but at least the roles start making more sense.
The Bulls Get Upside And Two More Draft Assets
This side is definitely more controversial because Giddey was arguably the Bulls’ most important player last season. Aside from the stat line, Giddey recorded 13 triple-doubles in only 54 games. The Bulls were bad overall at 31-51, finishing 12th in the East with the 23rd-ranked offense and 22nd-ranked defense, but Giddey’s season was one of the few clear positives.
So why trade a 23-year-old who is already this productive? Because the Bulls are still far away from a clear playoff berth. This roster has Matas Buzelis, Caleb Wilson, Noa Essengue, Rob Dillingham, and other young pieces, but it still doesn’t have a clear superstar prospect. Giddey is very good, but after five NBA seasons, it is fair to wonder if he is ever going to become an All-NBA presence on a contender.
Green at least gives them a completely different bet. His 2025-26 season was ugly because of injuries and inconsistency, with only 17.8 points on 42.2% from the field and 31.3% from three, but he is still only 24 and one year removed from scoring 21.0 points per game while playing all 82 games. The talent as a scorer is obviously there, even if the efficiency still jumps around way too much.
The Bulls could give him a much bigger offensive role than he had next to Booker. Put him next to Dillingham, Buzelis, and Wilson and just see what happens. If Green gets back toward 22 or 23 points per game with better efficiency, suddenly his value looks very different again.
His contract also isn’t some six-year disaster. Green makes around $36.3 million this season and has a $36.0 million player option for 2027-28, so the Bulls would have an escape pretty quickly if this experiment doesn’t work.
And then there are the picks: the 2027 first is probably going to land relatively late, but it is still a first-round pick. The 2029 asset is more complicated because Houston already has rights over the Suns’ pick, but getting two future first-round pieces for Giddey while also moving Okoro’s expiring contract is a pretty solid return.
The Bulls aren’t becoming a huge threat next season. They probably get better, but I don’t know if they’re a play-in-territory roster. After going 31-51 last year, they definitely should improve organically, and adding a former No. 2 pick with some draft capital in the process can’t hurt them.