Alex Caruso: “A really big timestamp in my career was when Presti travelled with the OKC G-League team (in 2016). Someone asked what he’s looking for. He said, ‘how many positions can you guard, can you be a good teammate.'” 9 years later, Caruso was the primary defender on Nikola Jokic in a Game 7.

20 comments

1. Can’t lie. One of the wildest matchups I’ve seen in recent memory.

2. Caruso worked in the same way Tony Allen worked against Durant, because having a little guy who can hold his own and not allow “mouse in the house” situations can throw off a lot of post players.

   Harden used to be a decent post player even if he gave up height, just from a “not allowing dribbles, resisting back downs” kind of way. Off course, Caruso went about it differently than Allen, and Durant is diff player than the Big Horseman, but the principle is the same.

3. It was giving CP3 locking down KD.

4. i liked how caruso stole the balls even though he’s at the back, he’s trademark steal

5. Caruso wasted his years in chicago. He should’ve been on a contender every year

6. A bigger timestamp in his career was Rob Pelinka being allowed to “cook” and Jeanie Buss being cheap

7. TIL Alex Caruso was on the OKC G-league team.

8. Thank you Rob Pelinka.

9. Caruso dominated Jokic to the point where I couldn’t even believe people were calling this dude “unanimous MVP” and “top 15 of all time”. Glad he shut those narratives down QUICK lmao

10. „Can you be a good teammate?“
    „no“

11. Class act, a real gamer

    Jeannie buss fumbled that one

12. No, the refs were the primary defenders of Jokic in game seven.

    Caruso is great, but he was able to defend Jokic so well in game 7 because the refs were letting him get away with constantly mugging him.

13. # Alex Caruso’s primary defense: Let’s beat the fuck outta this mf cause the refs won’t call it cause apparently I’m the best defender

14. No wonder Presti extended Caruso in the middle of the season. He knew he got his man. He knew he got his foundation.

15. I’m so tired of this narrative that Caruso was this big game changer. He literally fouled the shit out of Jokic the entire game

16. If by defending Jokic you mean he was allowed to hug and drape himself all over him… yeah. Great job you bald kiddo.

17. I’ve been saying it since the regular seasos.

    The “inflated” stats of Jokic are due to him getting a lot more touches than any other player in the league.

    In game 7 he had “only” 81 touches instead of his normal numbers that are above 100.

    He still was the player that got the most touches in the game, but comparetively to SGA (2nd) who got 78 touches he was pretty close.

    The way to defend Jokic is to deny him the access to the ball, or at least make it very hard. If he gets the ball he’s way too good to stop.

    (The word inflated isn’t used to discredit the ability of Jokic to play the Point Center position. It’s a new way of playing the game, that I believe many centers will mimic in the future. And it is a direct result of the way the game has evolved, opening up the court and trying to find the open 3pt shot instead of trying to get the ball close to the basket.)

    PS. I think that in the NBA a lot of credit is given to players when it should be given to coaching and assigments to the players. I think there are other players that could effectively do what Caruso did if they were given the same instructions. I also think that we will soon see more players adopting the style of Jokic (maybe not as effectively in the beginning). But the game will move in that direction, both defensively and offensively.

18. if you body up on someone and get away with a lot of hand checking, you’ll get a few defensive highlights, maybe even during crunch time. as good as a defender caruso is, that game 7 was a hack job on jokic. didnt help that DEN other players didnt deliver tho.

19. People giving Caruso way too much glaze when it’s was really the refs letting them absolutely manhandle Denver and not call anything

20. In ten months, Giddey will be putting up 25/10/8 as he wills his team to the 9th seed in a terrible Eastern conference, and the nephews will not shut up about how Chicago won the trade.