Los Angeles Lakers: 5 reasons they are lucky Detroit Pistons turned down Alex Caruso

2. Caruso is younger, much more durable and they saved a pick

Sometimes the best ability is availability, and Derrick Rose has a well-known injury history that includes multiple season-ending knee injuries. Alex Caruso has been banged up a bit this season, but he has proven to be durable in his role that has grown into more minutes as he has improved.

Caruso has only missed a total of five games all season and one of those was a coach’s decision. Rose has been more durable this season than most of his career, but right before the season was halted, he had a grade two ankle sprain that was going to cause him to miss games.

Even though his hairline may make him look like an aging veteran, Alex Caruso is only 26 years old, and that should be a major factor in this equation. Derrick Rose is 31 but has a ton of basketball mileage on his legs from early on in his career. Caruso has not played a ton of minutes and is more likely to be available when needed during a playoff run.

The Lakers also need to keep all the young players they can since they shipped out most of their young core for Anthony Davis last season. Caruso might not be an exciting lottery pick, but he is still a solid young asset that can be used to build around moving past the post LeBron era.

Yes, the Lakers are in win-now mode with some of the best title odds this season, but they still have to think ahead towards the future. Caruso seems like he can be a role player on multiple championship teams and someone the fans can get behind going forward.

The Lakers also dodged a bullet by saving their draft asset in this trade as well. It was reported that “draft compensation” would have been included in this deal. It is unlikely that it would have been a first-round pick because the Lakers do not have many picks at all laying around after the Anthony Davis trade.

The Lakers’ front office and scouting department has proven they can find talent even in the second round of the draft, so keeping this pick is essential to adding depth to this team in the next couple of seasons.