Los Angeles Lakers: Are we all setting Alex Caruso up for disappointment?

Los Angeles Lakers guard Alex Caruso has become a very popular player, but is he being set up to disappoint this upcoming season?

The Los Angeles Lakers have a new crowd favorite in Alex Caruso. He came on out of nowhere last season when the Lakers shut down the stars. Now that Alex Caruso is starting to get attention, are Lakers fans expecting too much?

The one thing that all sports fans love is a come-up story. It’s Hollywood, right? The Los Angeles Lakers actually had one a couple of years back when they called up Andre Ingram from the G-League for a 10-day contract to play the last two games of the season.

Then Ingram went out the first game and stole the hearts of NBA fans everywhere when he scored 19 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field which included 4-of-5 from distance.

It was the highest total in a rookie debut since Nick Van Exel dropped 23 points way back in 1993. At the end of the season, there were questions if the Lakers would bring Ingram back. Even though Andre Ingram did not breakthrough, he was a class act.

Last year when the Los Angeles Lakers roster was throwing up bricks from the 3-point line to start their own construction business, Lake Show Life made its own plea for the team to try to make the dream alive again. A couple of weeks later, Ingram was brought to the main roster. Only this time, everyone had woken up as Ingram never scored a point in the games he got in and was sent back to the G-League.

Then the next feel-good story in Lakers Nation started in early March when a 6’5 guard starting getting minutes when the (Hush, hush, wink, wink) tank for lottery position started with Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, LeBron James and Kyle Kuzma modeling street clothes on the bench. What was perceived by many as Lakers’ opponents running the table and the unknown roster of the floor, something strange happened.

The Lakers finished above .500 and found a crowd favorite in the process. Most believe it happened in a loss against the Warriors.

https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT/status/1114008356509835269?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1114008356509835269&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flakeshowlife.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D104041%26action%3Dedit

You thought LeBron was shook, think about how Kevin Durant, JaVale McGee and Klay Thompson felt after Caruso caught bodies under the rim. The NBA didn’t know what to do with this one. Caruso was believed to be some non-athletic playmaker who will be joining the G League after the season to continue his career.

That changed with two 20 point performances, including a 32 point, 10 rebound performance against the Clippers. But at times when the season was lost, Alex Caruso started a trend. He started dunking on people.

First, he dunked on Kyle Korver in Utah on a one-handed alley-oop dunk. Okay, that’s Kyle Korver, he’s a shooter.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1111125409507102720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1111125409507102720&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flakeshowlife.com%2F2019%2F03%2F28%2Flos-angeles-lakers-3-takeaways-loss-utah-jazz%2F

Then he dunked on Steven Adams in Oklahoma City going straight down the lane.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1113264870558814208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1113264870558814208&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flakeshowlife.com%2F2019%2F04%2F03%2Flos-angeles-lakers-lose-russell-westbrook-historic-night%2F

But it was when Caruso tried to dunk on the NBA’s Defensive Player of the year, Rudy Gobert, people accepted this guy as a player in the NBA. The Lakers did too when they inked Caruso to a two-year, $5.5 million deal this summer.

With Caruso’s performance fresh in the minds of Lakers fans, many have this idea that Caruso will start. With Lakers fans salivating Caruso’s dominance over Clippers guard, Patrick Beverley and social media clips of his muscular arms that got him drug tested by the NBA (Seriously folks!), Caruso is in the first 5 seconds of his 15 minutes of fame.

Caruso discussed his appreciation for the fan’s support.

Even though Alex Caruso had his moments at the end of last season and now is a fan favorite, he’s still should be considered an unknown commodity. Remember most of his contributions came at as what Marv Albert would call “garbage time”.

Plus with the signings of Danny Green, Avery Bradley, Quinn Cook, Jared Dudley and the re-signing of the incumbent point guard, Rajon Rondo, where are Caruso’s minutes going to be?

Lake Show Life takes an in-depth look.

Inside the Los Angeles Lakers training camp, Alex Caruso is reportedly playing well. But will it matter?

It’s now water under the bridge that Frank Vogel was not the Lakers’ first (or second) choice to lead the roster on the floor for the next three years. But he’s here now trying to create a defensive identity for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Now how he deals with the playing time for a glut of guards on this roster will be an early sign to see if he knows what he is doing.

"“All these guys are able to come in and perform in big roles right now,” he said. “There’s not a lot of guys, young guys, 20-year olds, or 18-year olds, where we’re gonna have to say, ‘We’re gonna have to wait on this guy,’ or anything. These guys can all produce right now, so it’s gonna make my job difficult when it comes to divvying out minutes.”"

That sounds like a coach on the hot seat (Any coach on a LeBron James team is!) who will be depending on his veterans to make a deep playoff run. Despite the uphill climb Caruso will have to do, Allen Sliwa shows that he does show the intangibles and the hustle that endeared the Lakers faithful last year.

First Caruso plays the passing lane with a rotation to get the steal. He then unselfishly passes to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for the slam.

The next possession, he alertly dashes down the court when Caldwell-Pope gets a steal, receives the pass and dished to JaVale McGee for the layup. This is the type of hustle plays that got lost (Understandably!) with the high-flying dunks.

But is it enough to leap over Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Avery Bradley, Danny Green, and Rajon Rondo?

Let’s discuss Rajon Rondo, shall we?

Despite what you hear in reports. Barring injury, Rajon Rondo will be starting point guard.

Let’s look at the tweet by Ohm Youngmisiuk about Vogel’s decision about the starting lineups. Lakers fans, don’t believe the hype. Not the man who issued the tweet, because this is Vogel being quoted here. What’s not to believed is Vogel if you read between the lines and pay attention.

Now check out Vogel’s quote in the LA Times.

"“Rajon Rondo’s going to be a different player off the basketball than he’s been in his career,” Vogel said, Jason Kidd as a model of being a non-shooter early in his career … is a great model to be for Rajon,” Vogel said. “He [Rondo] shot 36% from the three-point line the last four years. That’s above average.”"

What this basically means is that Rajon Rondo’s 3-point performance last year was good enough for him to be in the starting lineup on opening night. Plus Rondo has some powerful friends on the roster. They happen to be LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the best players on the team.

The chemistry between Rondo and Davis was palpable when they were in New Orleans.

Plus Davis basically said so to Peter Flax, of The Red Bulletin.

"“I’ve got Rondo back as my point guard — he’s a guy I can count on to get the ball in my sweet spot.”"

Since Rob Pelinka basically ran every decision past his two stars, it stands to reason that if Davis “prefers” Rondo to start, he will. Plus, Rondo and James collaborated on numerous cerebral exchanges last year. Throw in his two-year contract with a player option, it’s hard to figure a player signing a contract like that to sit the bench.

Plus Rajon Rondo knows the political game off the floor as well?

Rajon Rondo already is establishing himself with the veterans on the roster.

Anthony Davis has already stated his vote of confidence with Rajon Rondo being in that starting lineup with a subliminal justification from Lakers Head Coach, Frank Vogel. Rajon Rondo is giving the love back to Anthony Davis as well.

Rondo was on ESPN’s The Jump during annual Los Angeles Lakers Media Day comparing Anthony Davis to a former Hall of Fame teammate in Boston, Kevin Garnett.

Glowing endorsement being made by Rondo here. Why not compare and tie AD to the best tenure in his career. Especially when Rondo’s defense made LeBron James’ look like Rudy Gobert last year. JaVale McGee spent the part of the season trying to hold off layup lines by opposing guards blowing by Rondo. A lot of times, he couldn’t get there.

With Rondo, there is no gray areas. Either you’re with him or against him. Sometimes he is dead wrong like the fight with Chris Paul last year or making snide comments at Stephen A. Smith for criticizing him.

But sometimes he can be spot on like all of the rumors that got reported after the Chris Paul out of Houston for Russell Westbrook. Rondo was on record saying them months prior.

The point, Rajon Rondo is very smart. can’t you tell here?

When veterans are talking like this, doesn’t look good for Caruso and his minutes. Plus Rajon Rondo mentored Bradley when he was a rookie in Boston. Speaking of Avery Bradley, he’s next in the discussion.

Avery Bradley has to come through as the backup point guard for the defensive schemes to work.

It seems that Avery Bradley has joined the Los Angeles Lakers roster with some high goals for the upcoming season. Based on what NBA fans have seen since he left Boston, this is a strong statement being said to Lakers reporter, Mike Trudell.

Well Bradley had better be. The last time he was in Los Angeles across the hall with the Clippers, he was terrible. It is reported that he was injured and with a 40 pound weight loss coming into camp (Lakers fans, that’s a lot!), he is primed to be the steal of this summer’s free agency.

So far, his tenacity has made Bradley the star of training camp. Taking a closer look, Bradley has not played a lot of point guard in his career.

With a career average of 1.8 assists, one would ask why Bradley is playing backup to Rondo. Easy, he won’t be initiating the offense. His job will be  defending opposing point guards. That scenario provides flexibility for Vogel to place him in the starting lineup if needed because LeBron will run the offense anyway.

The hype is strong out of the Lakers camp about Avery Bradley’s defensive exploits. Now it remains to be seen if the Lakers get the Avery Bradley from Boston.

Or the Avery Bradley that has been on a journeyman trail that has the Lakers as his fourth stop.

Lakers fans need to pump the brakes here. When Kyle Kuzma gets back, Caruso could see a bunch of DNP-CDs.

As much as the Lakers faithful will clamor for Alex Caruso to get minutes on the floor, more than likely the minutes will evaporate as the season goes on barring injuries. The Lakers just can’t afford to see in the sample size of Caruso’s electrifying performance was real or a stroke of luck.

The future of the franchise is at stake in Los Angeles. The Clippers are considered the best team in the Staples Center by many with the addition of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

The Lakers went fully into win now mode trading the young core not named Kyle Kuzma and a ton of picks for Anthony Davis. Until he officially signs on the dotted line, there’s no guarantee he’ll stay in purple and gold if things go haywire.

Dwight Howard will be a walking billboard reminding fans of what can go wrong. LeBron James and his fans can scream “Revenge Season” all season long. It needs to come to fruition. James decline is a ticking time bomb and most experts know it, they probably won’t admit it, but they know it.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1168589154042531841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1168589154042531841&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flakeshowlife.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D104041%26action%3Dedit

For this season, Alex Caruso can provide inspiration for two-way contract players Kostas Antetokounmpo ,Zach Norvell and Exhibit 10 guys, Jordan Caroline, Devontae Cacok and Demetrius Jackson to go to South Bay and work hard. Now that they have seen path that Alex Caruso has taken, they know they have a chance to duplicate the feat.

For the Lakers, they can market Caruso as a feel good story, going  from an undrafted rookie to spending a year in the G League (OKC), to securing a full roster spot with the Lakers.