The TRUTH Behind the Caruso Situation

Alex Caruso is off to a concerning start with Oklahoma City Thunder as his three-point shot, and really, his shot in general has not been there for the squad, and it has people wondering, is he actually a player that's going to make a difference with this squad? Were we better off keeping Josh Giddey? Why is this trade necessary if he can't score the ball? And it has everyone questioning that. However, when you look at his defensive ability, it can kind of negate that. However, we were told when trading for this guy, looking at his previous stats, how he played with the Chicago Bulls, that this was going to be the key difference maker for the Oklahoma City Thunder. All right. Now we have a reliable corner three point guy, one of the best three and D guys in the league. Someone's always getting votes for defensive player of the year, two time All-NBA defensive player, first team in the 2023 season, then second team last season. So it was one of those things where getting him, there were all these positives. Now, all of a sudden, the shooting is just completely gone. So, Thunder fans really have no idea what's going on with Alex Caruso, and it's concerning. However, there was an article by Joel Lorenzi in the Oklahoman that I think kind of summarizes what's going on and why it's a concerning start and if we should be worrying as Thunder fans. We're going to break down the article today, go into detail about it, get some quotes from Alex Caruso that he said to the Oklahoman as well, and just kind of go into why it's been a concerning start. Before we get into that, though, if you guys don't want to miss a single minute of the action here at Thunder Digest and stay up to date with thunder news best way to do that is by hitting the subscribe button and hitting that bell notification we're about to hit 2,000 subs as well that'd be crazy if we do um so once again thank you guys for all the support you guys have shown before with that out of the way we can go ahead and get into today's video talking about Alex Caruso this slow shooting start for him and really just being honest i'm not personally concerned i'm not we're seven and one of him shooting the ball horribly he's been playing such good defense and passing the ball so well it doesn't matter yes there are games where he doesn't even make a single shot he goes 0 for 5 all right 0 for 6 but yet he still has like a plus 7 plus 8 in the plus minus due to his defense and passing ability ability just the shooting will come all right it will come and i think joel lorenzi kind of summarized it well in the article that he had here all right and we're going to go ahead and go into it we got a lot from this article it is a long one but i feel like we need a majority of that information to actually realize what is going on with caruso alex caruso will tell you why his offense to start in okc with the thunder uh at least in terms of efficiency hasn't been the fairy tale that acquiring him was he knows the numbers he'll nod his head upon mention of them through okc's first seven games all right and you know eight games now he's still around this you know percentage wise um so it's a little bit concerning but here it is caruso is shooting just 27.6 percent from the field and 16.7 percent from three while averaging the fewest two points attempts of his career and of how little he's shooting and then he'll shrug that's not out of indifference part of the bargain and snagging uh and snagging caruso was observing the qualities that have kept the 30 year old cool during his stretch the stretch the kind that might see others sink into an identity crisis and this is where i think like the whole josh giddey would have been better um kind of narrative takes a little dip here all right all love to josh over in chicago he's actually been doing decently to start off this season all right he's had some good games over in Chicago he's actually been shooting the ball very well and so it's nice to see him improve and I do want him to be very very good in his career I don't think that was going to be realized in OKC because he really needs to be the third option on a team a third or second option in Chicago he's going to have that opportunity he's going to be the main facilitator over there in OKC he was never going to be that with the rise of Shea, Dubb, and Chet all right we didn't expect Dubb to be this you know contention for second scoring option on a team we were expecting him to be a third or fourth option but now with this rise of him it kind of negated Josh Giddey and that's why we needed to trade him away and then boom so I still think in terms of the value that we got in return we still won this trade but Chicago also won it was a win-win scenario for both squads all right it truly was so the trade is still working out when you look at the defensive capability and passing ability that Alex Caruso is providing the passing isn't on the level of Josh Giddey but the defense is so much better and once Caruso gets going he is a better shooter than Josh Giddey now into the second part of the article here by Joel Lorenzi this is a quote from Giddey I just try to do what other team needs to win Caruso told Oklahoma after OKC's 102 to 86 win over the magic on Monday the last couple years in Chicago we had guys out I was on the ball a little more as a lead guard but here we got Shea we got Dubb even Cason Wallace on the ball a little more we got a lot of options so for me it's just about figuring out how I help us win games right now it's not taking 10 shots a night and he's not taking a lot of shots in Chicago I feel like he had to take a bunch of shots over there because realistically they don't really have a ton of scoring options especially when he was there you have Zach Levine who's very wishy-washy he can give you a 25 point game and then all of a sudden he doesn't even score a single point Vucevic isn't a great scoring option either really they only had Kobe White that's all they really had so Alex Caruso the majority of time had to be a third or second scoring option for the Bulls over here he might not even be a top five scoring option for us that's that's how good of an offensive team we are so we don't really need his scoring capability it's the defense all right there's an old term that goes defense wins championships and it proves true a lot of the time when you have a great defense it doesn't matter how your offense is looking if you're only letting up 90 to 95 points a game in the NBA every offense can score 100 and if we're holding teams under 100 a game i'll take that we'll still win even with Alex Caruso shooting horribly it's fine all right and also this last part of the article um I keep saying it this really summarizes I truly believe this summarizes what's going on with Caruso and the impact he brings he leads the league in deflections per game 3.7 uh is just five deflections shy 265 of De'Aaron Fox for the league crown despite far fewer minutes seventh in total loose balls recovered and is 17th in the league in steals per game he's averaging 1.7 here's a jarring parallel to some Caruso stats entering Wednesday Caruso has more steals than field goals and this still holds true after our loss to the Denver Nuggets as a facilitator Caruso has mastered the extra pass he's located as many corner shooters as anyone he hasn't started but per 36 minutes he's averaging the third most assists on the team on Monday he joked of dreams of leaving Chicago in hopes of spending more time on the wing carrying the tone of father retiring to reconnect with his family this is really like what summarizes it right here the definitive wing spot has gradually become his estranged son with the Bulls he spent time as a four and with the Thunder he's played up to the five and some lineups toying with the idea of being a role man so it's one of those things where he hasn't truly played his position you know he's really like you can play him at the four at times all right but playing with the five that's dangerous okay it is dangerous really he needs to play the one through three all right if he needs to play the four so be it that happens but he shouldn't be playing the five and part of that is just due to the you know bad luck of injuries that we've had so far Jay will is still out Isaiah Hartenstein still out Kendrick Williams is looking nice he should be back soon but even then he's not a huge body down low we just don't have a ton of size Uzman James been playing well but he hasn't been getting a ton of minutes is the problem so it's one of those things where we don't have the size right now so he has to play the center position and so sometimes it's just hard for him to score being guarded by taller opponents where he can't see the basket once we have Hartenstein back and he's you know more matched up on a three it'll be fine i think you can see scoring uh output from him increase we saw in the preseason Alex Caruso was scoring the ball decently well especially if Isaiah Hartenstein's on the court and everyone was scoring better with Hartenstein due to Hartenstein's passing ability to find everyone and his screen setting ability on and off ball to get guys open for shots all right when Hartenstein's back i think we're going to see an increase in Caruso's offensive production and really everyone's offensive production this offense is really going to unlock with them so i'm not worried about Caruso's slow start offensively not at all okay i get there's reasons to be concerned i truly get that however his defensive ability and passing ability have been negating that fact we are fine the shooting will come you also got to remember we have the best shooting coach in the league with Chip All right, we're going to be fine offensively with Caruso. He's going to figure it out It's a slow start shaking rust off getting used to a new team and also playing out of position Having guards taller than him by six seven inches guarding him where he can't even see the bucket Sometimes he has to bang down low. It doesn't help him out very much. It doesn't so it's going to come All right, you have to have faith in the guy you have to trust that it's going to come along Especially once we are a healthy team. That's all I got for this video if you guys don't agree with me Joel, I know you're going to see this and you're going to disagree with me um but give me your guys's reasons why it's still concerning like we should still be concerned or like yeah you agree with me you know it's going to be fine especially once we get Hartenstein back let me know down in the comment section below I'll see you guys in the next video