Ranking Lakers’ Austin Reaves and the NBA’s best undrafted players
By Jason Reed
3. Alex Caruso, Chicago Bulls
Alex Caruso may not have the counting stats that Christian Wood has but he is much more of a winning player than Wood. Caruso does all the little things in a basketball game that pile up and end up having a massive impact on the final outcome.
Plus, using Caruso’s counting stats against him would be ignoring the thing that he is best at: defense. Whether it be with his blocks and steals or the things that don’t show up in the box score, Caruso has a tangible, massive impact on the defensive end.
Caruso is a lock to be named to one of the All-Defensive teams this season with a fairly decent chance of being an All-Defensive First Team guard. That puts him among the elite of the elite defensively. If you are a top-five player on one side of the ball then you are naturally going to rank high on this list.
More of an offensive impact would rank Caruso higher on this list and would make him the best-undrafted player in the league. But much to his credit, he has worked on his offensive game and is no longer a complete non-factor on that side of the ball.
As much as Lakers fans miss Caruso, the team arguably has a better undrafted player on the roster to replace him.