The NBA season is barely a week old, yet the trade talk is impossible to ignore.

It's been an incredibly unlucky start to 2026-27 for the league as a whole. Injuries have stacked up at a record pace, with several big stars expected to be sidelined for weeks. The list already includes Anthony Edwards, Kawhi Leonard, Jaren Jackson Jr., Paolo Banchero, Tyrese Haliburton, and more.

To be sure, a lot of these teams will simply wait things out. There is little use in making any aggressive moves this early in the year. However, there is one team that may have no choice but to shake things up due to the severity of their injuries – the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Jalen Williams is expected to miss the rest of the season, while guard Cason Wallace is at risk of the same fate. As deep as that roster is, the absence of those two creates major roster holes for a team with championship aspirations.

Does that mean OKC will make a big move in the immediate future? Not necessarily. Sam Presti has been pretty risk-averse in the past. Mid-season moves haven't necessarily been his forte, as he's shown multiple times that he is willing to ride the wave. At the same time, this is OKC's biggest wave yet, which is why the chatter has already started.

Brian Windhorst dropped an interesting tidbit during a recent episode of The Hoop Collective. While the long-time NBA insider didn't report that OKC is ready to scour the market, he did say that rival executives have an idea of the type of move the Thunder could try to make:

"And this is one thing that I've talked to executives about, and I don't mean to be cryptic, but I'm being cryptic," Windhorst said on The Hoop Collective. "If you're going to, if they're going to acquire a player, it would not be a surprise if they acquire a player they've already had."

And just like that, a wild herd of Bulls fans perk up!

Josh Giddey Back to OKC Makes Little Sense

It didn't take long for this Brian Windhorst quote to reach the aggregation machine. Fans across the league were trying to pinpoint which player he was talking about, with plenty of Bulls fans throwing Josh Giddey's name into the mix.

Of course, Giddey was drafted by Sam Presti with the No. 6 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. He would play his first three full seasons with the Thunder before the organization traded him to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for Alex Caruso. Giddey has gone on to play well for the Bulls, averaging career highs in nearly every statistical category during the 2025-26 campaign. Both his three-point shooting and driving ability have made noticeable improvement in Chicago.

Is that reason enough to believe that the Thunder want him back, though? Nope.

While we can't rule anything out in the NBA, it sure feels safe to say that Windhorst is not referring to Giddey as someone in the running for an OKC reunion. The fit between him and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was shaky at best. Has he improved slightly as an off-ball player? Sure, but not enough to believe things would look all that different. Giddey still needs to be the primary initiator to find success.

Let's also not forget that Giddey is now on a decently sized contract. He is making $25.0 million a year for two more full seasons. What the many aggregated versions of Windhorst's quote will not tell you is that this comment came after they talked about OKC's looming money problems. Unless they are about to get off pretty significant long-term salary, there is very little chance they would be willing to take on Giddey's current contract.

In other words, as intriguing as this rumor may be, it holds very little meaning for the Bulls. Giddey is currently a big part of this organization's rebuilding effort. Might that change at some point down the road? Yes, but the chance of that happening this season in any capacity feels pretty darn low.