The Thunder’s trade for Alex Caruso over the summer didn’t get quite as much attention as the Knicks moving heaven and earth for Mikal Bridges or the Mavericks’ sign-and-trade that brought in Klay Thompson. Those who have watched Caruso knew, though, that he was going to swing at least a handful of playoff games with his defense and hustle.
Caruso did exactly that in helping the Thunder erase a 29-point deficit in Game 3 of their first-round series against the Grizzlies. Ja Morant’s injury in the second half was the turning point, but Caruso’s impact in the fourth quarter took advantage of that opportunity. He was diving all over the floor, wreaking havoc defensively and making winning plays on both ends of the court.
Alex Caruso was incredible in the fourth quarter
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— Steph Noh (@stephnoh.bsky.social) April 25, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Caruso has been excellent in all of the Thunder’s three victories. His performance in Game 3 garnered the most attention simply because it was the only close game that they’ve played thus far. But he was making the same type of hustle plays to win his minutes in Games 1 and 2.
Alex Caruso first half highlights this man has zero chill
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— Steph Noh (@stephnoh.bsky.social) April 22, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Charles Barkley admitted on the TNT postgame show that their crew never watched the Bulls, but they were going crazy watching him lead the Thunder’s comeback. Caruso responded that this was how he had been playing for the past several seasons in Chicago.
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This is who Caruso is, and it’s why the Thunder made the shrewdest trade of the summer. Put aside that he’s averaged under seven points per game for his career. He does everything else so well that he is the missing title piece for the Thunder.
Alex Caruso is the best glue guy in the league
Lu Dort has gotten the credit as the Thunder’s best perimeter defender. Dort is certainly great, but Caruso is better.
Caruso is suffocating with his defense, both on and off the ball. His job is easier than Dort’s, because Mark Daigneault has smartly limited his minutes during the regular season. That strategy has unleashed the best version of him that we’ve seen.
Caruso is incapable of holding back at all on defense, which has led to numerous nagging injuries throughout his career. By playing shorter bursts, he is able to blanket his assignment and not even allow his opponents to receive the ball.
Grizzlies are trying to get it to Bane, Caruso won’t let him touch the ball. Then he switches onto Scotty Pippen Jr., harasses Edey, and completes a diving steal.
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— Steph Noh (@stephnoh.bsky.social) April 22, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Caruso is extremely versatile despite only being 6-foot-5. He’s a fantastic lockdown defender on the best guards in the league, and he’s also tough enough to stick with big forwards.
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He’s been on 6-foot-10 forward Jaren Jackson Jr. for most of this series and frustrated Jackson with his physicality. Jackson has resorted to tossing Caruso out of bounds in order to keep him off the glass.
Jaren Jackson Jr. is five inches taller and 56 pounds heavier than Alex Caruso. They’ve been matched up for a lot of this series and JJJ has had to maul Caruso in order to keep him off the offensive glass.
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— Steph Noh (@stephnoh.bsky.social) April 22, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Caruso has been able to compete with Jackson Jr. because of how great his hands are. He’s leading the playoffs with 17 deflections and is second with seven steals. Opponents are shooting just 28.6 percent within six feet against him and 40.7 percent overall, per NBA Stats.
Caruso is also a good decision-maker with the ball and a capable shooter. He’s hit 53 percent of his field goals and 44 percent of his 3’s through the first three games of the playoffs.
That makes him essentially the complete opposite of Josh Giddey, whom he was swapped for. Giddey wasn’t guarded from outside at all last season and found himself benched as Oklahoma City was eliminated in the second round.
Giddey put up good box score statistics for a mediocre Bulls team this year, averaging 14.6 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per game. He’s an interesting 22-year-old prospect.
Anyone who watched him in his lone Play-In game this season saw that he was being guarded in the exact same way as last year. The Thunder couldn’t overcome teams putting their centers on Giddey, and the Heat did the same with Bam Adebayo. On the other end of the floor, Giddey was relentlessly attacked on defense, giving up more than the 25 points he scored in that Play-In game. Giddey was a good regular season player. Caruso is a playoff beast.
The Bulls need to be tried in court for giving up Caruso without getting a pick from Presti, who only had, I dunno, a zillion picks at the time.
— Anthony F. Irwin (@AnthonyIrwinLA) April 25, 2025
Rather than watching from the sidelines, Caruso has been the spark plug at the end of games. He always finds ways to make impact plays, whether it’s by throwing his body into an opponent to force an illegal screen, karate chopping down at the ball to knock it loose, or hitting a big 3.
That shows up in the box score in different ways than the traditional ones. He has the second-highest plus-minus of the playoffs behind teammate Jalen Williams. Williams expressed why that is after Game 3, telling The Athletic’s Darnell Mayberry what Caruso fans already knew.
“He just knows how to win.”
