One of the most mind-boggling moves by the Los Angeles Lakers this offseason was the team’s decision to let Alex Caruso walk for a relatively affordable price. Caruso agreed to a four-year, $37 million contract with the Chicago Bulls that the Lakers could have matched.
Caruso’s camp reportedly went back to the Lakers to give them one last chance to re-sign the defensive-minded guard and the Lakers passed as their pre-determined price was lower than what Caruso got from Chicago. The team could have re-signed Caruso using his Bird Rights, although it would have had massive implications on the team’s tax bill.
Adding a Caruso contract would have put the Lakers in a higher tier and resulted in the team paying more. All in all, the Lakers would have paid an additional $34 million in salary and tax with a Caruso contract.
That is a lot of money but it is a billion-dollar sports franchise and it is not like it would have been a $34 million cap hit for future years. The Lakers decided that Caruso was not worth the bottom line being slightly less, so he is now a Chicago Bull.
Alex Caruso is already making the Los Angeles Lakers look foolish.
As well as Austin Reaves has played thus far for the Los Angeles Lakers he does not make up for the loss of Alex Caruso. Caruso was the best perimeter defender on the team and was a key component in the team’s defensive identity.
And while the team is banged up and it is a small sample size, the defense has not been as good. The Lakers went from being one of the best defensive teams in the league to simply being average at best. As it currently stands, LA ranks 16th in defensive rating and 25th in points allowed per game.
Caruso, meanwhile, has continued to be the defensive menace that Laker fans knew him as. Caruso is averaging 2.7 steals and 0.5 blocks per game in 28 minutes per game. Caruso is fourth in the entire NBA in steals per 36 minutes (with at least 100 minutes played).
Caruso is continuing to put together great advanced metrics as well. His 1.5 Defensive Box Plus/Minus is a bit lower than it was for the Lakers last season but that is still a great number and will only increase as the season goes along.
Offensively, Caruso is doing exactly what he needs to do. He is obviously not a scoring machine but he is shooting the basketball efficiently, which on top of his elite defense, makes him an extremely valuable rotation player (specifically in the playoffs).
Caruso is averaging 8.2 points per game while shooting 47.2% from the field, 50% from three and 81.8% from the free-throw line. His 55.6% effective field goal percentage is well above average, putting him 31st among 119 guards who have played 100 minutes this season.
Everything Caruso is doing is exactly what the Los Angeles Lakers need and the sad part is that the team easily could have had him on the roster. Alex Caruso is already making Rob Pelinka’s decision look foolish and it probably is only going to get worse and worse as time goes on.