After a couple of months of a standoff, Josh Giddey finally received his bag. The Chicago Bulls signed him to a four-year, $100 million contract extension. The 22-year-old was finally rewarded for his career season with long-term security.

While fans should be glad to see a former player receive a new contract, the Oklahoma City Thunder continue to look like they made the right decision to make the one-for-one trade with Giddey and Alex Caruso. A year later, the latter helped them bring home their first NBA championship.

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Everybody knows by now that Caruso was just a better fit for the Thunder. The 31-year-old brought a championship pedigree to the youthful locker room. He helped them be the league’s best defense with a one-on-one style that has turned him into one of the best defenders of his era.

It also helped that Caruso was extremely low usage on offense. He didn’t need the ball in his hands to be productive. Unlike Giddey, who saw Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren lap him on the hierarchy ladder.

Not only did the trade he made from a basketball level, but it also made sense from a financial level. As you can see with how the offseason has played out. Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, Holmgren and Giddey combined to sign a total of $922 million in contract extensions this offseason.

That’s a lot of money to tie up in four players. After celebrating an NBA championship, the Thunder did their offseason homework quickly. Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Holmgren all signed contract extensions. A boatload of money that flirts with the daunting $1 billion mark will completely reshape OKC’s cap situation for the rest of the 2020s.

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The Thunder’s trio will make up around 85% of the payroll. That means the rest of the roster needs to be filled out with either rookie contracts, team-friendly deals or veteran agreements. Now imagine throwing in a hypothetical Giddey extension in an alternate reality where both sides agreed to give it another shot.

That would’ve been too much money to hand out to just four players. Especially in just one offseason. It’d almost be at impractical levels.

This was always the long-term question with the Thunder. Among all of their young players, who’d get the short end of the stick? It turned out to be Giddey. And even though he’s thrived in Chicago, he wouldn’t have received the same opportunities in OKC anymore.

Over a year later since the Giddey-Caruso trade was made, the Thunder continue to look like they made the right decision. An NBA championship and one fewer $100-plus million contract extension in their books show that.

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Josh Giddey’s extension shows Thunder made right decision to trade him