Los Angeles Lakers: Post All-Star break player rankings

4.) Alex Caruso

Alex Caruso is perhaps the epitome of the phrase, “don’t let your memes be dreams”. Here’s a 26 year old, balding man who is dunking on guys with no regard for human life, picking the pockets of some of the league’s best guards, and is out there hustling every game like it’s Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

But all jokes aside, Caruso’s development has been a huge boon for the Lakers this season, as he’s the perfect player to have alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis. He’s a smart cutter, a tenacious defender, with enough length to capably guard both guard positions, and overall, just knows how to play the game of basketball. His numbers aren’t eye-popping, at 5.5 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 1.8 assists, but Caruso is definitely the kind of player where the eye-test is a more reliable way of gauging his impact on the game.

There are still aspects of his game that he can improve on, such as his 3-point shooting and playmaking, but he’s still young enough to where he has room to improve. Per a report from LakerFilmRoom, Alex Caruso and LeBron James have the best net rating of any two-man combo in the entire NBA, at a whopping (+24.7 in 445 minutes played). In addition, per ESPN’s DRPM metric, Caruso is ranked 2nd amongst all shooting guards.

Regardless of whether or not you think there’s some other outside factors influencing this number, it is still an incredibly impressive statistic, that shows just how important Caruso is to this team’s success. Also given the fact that the Lakers have the Carushow locked up for next season at an incredibly low salary figure, he may very well become one of the best bargain contracts in the NBA.