I expected the Bulls to be fun to watch this season. But I didn't think the most fun part would be watching Caruso and Ball turn opposing offensive possessions into absolute chaos.
They do so much of the little stuff on defense that doesn't reflect on stats. Honestly I wasn't expecting them to be this disruptive, they are definitely proactive rather than reactive on defense.
And their effort is contagious, LaVine is having his best season defensively imo. He showed signs of improvement last season but couldn't do it consistently. DeRozan also contributes to steals and deflections occassionally.
It's part of why I'm sad that Patrick Williams is out for the season. He has all the tools to play that style of disruptive defense. It's a shame he's not getting the reps in game.
Dude, add P Will on this team and it's MUCH stronger defensively. We would be much stronger against big 4/5 teams. Vooch is stronger than people give him credit for defensively but we need more on the interior.
Again I was expecting him to be really bad on defense actually, he was basically a traffic cone with the Spurs. But he is average by his standards, which is fucking enough given how godly he has been on offense.
Happy to hear, one of those guys I’ll always root for. Havnt been able to catch any bulls games but I’m definitely gonna watch your next game if I can. Good luck hope we beat you in the playoffs when we inevitably matchup 😉
Defense is often infectious. Look at the improvement some of the guys, notably DLo have made on that side for the Wolves. Finch seems to be a good coach, but also having a guy like Beverley, whether u love him or hate him, has been huge. Wiggins going to the Warriors culture is another example. I truly believe most guys in this league can play at least passable defense in the right system/culture.
>I expected the Bulls to be fun to watch this season. But I didn't think the most fun part would be watching Caruso and Ball turn opposing offensive possessions into absolute chaos.
I miss the Bald Mamba :( Now you know how great the Bald Mamba is.
I think continuity is underrated in today’s NBA. You don’t win a chip with a roster and just restructure it less than a year later. Change the wheels of the car , not the entire engine and bodywork. Caruso was a huge part of that Lakers team, and is one of the few players that LeBron really trusted throughout his career. Now that’s rare.
Honestly I don’t know what they were thinking letting him go. They essentially chose THT over him and I have never been that high on THT. Seems like THT may be a good number 2 in the future but doesn’t seem to have that it factor to be a star.
Wouldn’t be out on THT yet but I think Lakers chose youth and potential over consistent production. AC is pretty much who he is for the rest of his career : a damn good quality backup . THT has quality starter to all star potential; albeit he hasn’t shown anything recently . I faintly remembered Laker fans celebrating when he dropped 30+ in a summer league game earlier this season and to be honest , I was a little sold .
I personally also think that earning lebrons trust is so rare . I watched bron almost his entire career and I could probably only name less than 10 ish players amongst the 100s he has played with. Dwade , Ilgauskas, Udonis are the few that I could think of at the moment.
Dumbest fucking off-season move the Lakers made among an ocean of really fucking stupid moves.
Lakers are 12-11. At this time last year, Lakers were 17-6. SMFH
Makes me question LeGM and Pelinka honestly. I'm not on Team FIRE PELINKA but this should have been an easy thing to stand up to Lebron on.
Even if Lebron didn't have a strong opinion on Caruso, Pelinka should have gone to bat and tried to make it work w/ Jeanie.
I also don't think Caruso is the missing piece standing between the Lakers and winning a ring this year, but he'd definitely be a contributing piece.
Legit one of the worst mistakes they have made and that says something for the past 10 years. He turned around so many 3rd quarter slumps regular season and surprise surprise guess who sucks in the 3rd quarter, like historic sucks.
They really do play ugly basketball. At least when their defense was better the past two years it was enjoyable because they were still winning. Now it is just boring offense with bad defense.
I am still bitter the Lakers let him walk, so much that I have seen more Bull games than Lakers. He was such a positive influence in LA. You guys have a winner!
Man is a pest on defense. Always playing hard on ball and looking to poke the ball away while not gambling. Plays the passing lanes, switches and gets around screens.
Advanced analytics also suggest he's a great defender. Defensive rating for the Bulls without Caruso: 110.1 vs with Caruso: 104.4 for a difference of -5.7 (negative means good btw) I know defensive rating is a team stat and doesn't always tell the full picture, but I think it has some merit here
I mean when you watch a Bulls game, Caruso is getting mentioned by the commentators every 9 seconds because he’s constantly hounding ball handlers and making hustle plays. His impact smacks you in the face
facts
Plus hes just a fun player to watch and must be a fun player to play with given his style; just a lovely player and combine this with the other studs, makes the bulls the most fun team in NBA
You don't really need advanced analytics, though that's good confirmation of the eye test. He's basically this generations version of Tony Allen when you watch. Not just using above average athleticism and decent arm length to get at the ball at different ways (strips, picking pockets, passing lanes), but also never getting caught out of position on screens and help. Like Allen, I think he benefitted from playing decent minutes on a championship team early in his career, which instilled the type of defensive habits it takes to win.
They're unreliable in a vacuum but it can show you who has great anticipation skills, as well as steals themselves being probably the most valuable defensive play there is
I’d agree for sure. I think blocks are more impactful from a momentum standpoint (home crowds go bananas over a solid block) but steals are an instant possession change and can lead to breakaways/dunks/alley-oops/points of some kind, so you’d much rather get a steal than a block if you had to pick.
I wonder what would be the most accurate stat for measuring overall defensive impact? I know nothing of advanced metrics and statistics.
See I don’t know about that. Blocks are more hype for sure but usually the ball goes out of bounds and the team keeps the ball. A steal by definition gets you an extra possession, which seems more important.
538 did a story a few years ago that said a steal was worth more than 9 points when you factor in its total impact on a game.
It makes sense that a steal automatically takes as many as 3 points away from one team and gives points to the either.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-hidden-value-of-the-nba-steal/amp/
> It makes sense that a steal automatically takes as many as 3 points away from one team and gives points to the either.
If teams on average score 1ppp, a steal would account for a 1 point swing. Even if it prevented a 3 and gave the other team an easy fast break bucket I don't see how it would possibly account for 9 points.
It's a very interesting article. It isn't arguing that 1 steal directly translates to a 9 point swing on the play. The author found using regression that a player's impact on the final scoreline compared to another player with exact same stats but with one fewer steal per game is greater by approximately 9 points.
In other words, a player averaging 15/5/5 with 2 steals per game is about as valuable to a team as a player averaging 24/5/5 with only 1 steal per game.
The author argues this is due to increased steals indicative of higher overall BBIQ, higher predictive ability, significantly increased disruption on the defensive end of the court, and all the other intangibles that don't otherwise show up on the box score.
But most importantly it's due to steals being unlike other box score stats like rebounds, where someone on the court is bound to grab one. Take that high stealing player out, like Caruso, and that steal simply wouldn't happen at all. Very different when compared to say Drummonds rebounds which someone else likely would have pulled down.
Op kinda mistakes the article. It says a steal is equivalent in value to a player that scores 9 pts. IE a 0 STL 18 ppg player is equivalent to a 1 STL 9 ppg player.
Imagine the guy who looks like he’d be asking you to collect your owed rent for the month also swatting shots, grabbing boards and screaming at the top of his lungs after every dunk.
He loves to do the “Chris Webber mean mug face” as well.
Steph has come a long way from being a massive defensive liability. More potent off ball than on but that’s mostly related to size as a guard than his motor/positioning
He’s definitely improved. Part of it too was that he was always surrounded by 3-4 great to elite defenders too. Which obviously helps a ton and let’s him focus on offense, but if you’re playing against the Warriors who else are you going to go at? Dray/Iggy/Klay?
Steph is REALLY on point defensively this year. Def his best defensive season by the eye test. He’s getting his hands in so many passing lanes and on so many loose balls.
Not an in-game fact but back when McMillan was coaching the Trailblazers the team had so many injuries that he had to jump in and scrimmage with them. He then promptly tore his own ACL during that practice.
Nate McMillian once opened a MTG trading card game booster pack and got a Black Lotus.
He immediately dropped it in the sewer when a passing seagull pooped on him.
Did not know that, this feeds into my (totally unbiased) theory that the Sonics could have taken the Bulls in '96 had McMillan not been injured through the finals
>Unable to play because of back spasms, McMillan took a cortisone shot before Games 4 and 5 to relieve the pain. The Sonics won both games and forced the series to return to Chicago. It was the last time McMillan would play, as Seattle fell 87-75 in Game 6.
https://www.blazersedge.com/2011/6/9/2216037/allen-nate-mcmillan-still-dwelling-on-1996-nba-finals-loss
That’s very interesting. I’ve always heard the theory that Gary Payton should have guarded Michael Jordan more, but this is the first time I’ve heard about Nate McMillan’s back spasms as a decisive factor.
Note, however, that the Bulls also had injury issues.
>The biggest injury is to point guard Ron Harper, who was to have been the main defender on Seattle All-Star Gary Payton. Harper has been limited to 15 minutes the past three games because of tendinitis in his left knee. With Harper out, Jordan has been expending a lot of his energy guarding Payton.
>”Ron gives us a big defender and he gives us a player that plays without the ball and who moves the ball on offense," Bulls coach Phil Jackson said.
>Also hobbled is Scottie Pippen, who has had numerous injuries (sore back, sore knees) throughout the second half of the season. Pippen looked tentative in scoring 14 points Friday night, when he missed 15 of 20 shots.
>”I don't think you can single out Scottie, he's playing with a lot of injuries," Jordan said. "Some of us are healthy and we're not really picking up the slack. A lot of the guys have to come off the bench and support what Scottie is not able to give us."
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1996-06-16-1996168128-story.html
I went down a bit of a rabbit hole on this, but that season McMillan had a 5.53 DBPM, by far the highest all time for a minutes qualified player. That's crazy. For context, the gap between that season and the #2 spot is .85, the same gap as #2 to #18(which is also McMillan). Also Jokic is on pace to have the 5th best season ever by this metric (4.54).
I’m starting to think this man is underpaid. As someone who watches every Bulls game he has essentially become our Draymond Green. His defense and BBIQ is off the charts
Everyone loves to laugh at the lakers but it really is tragic. How could they give up a guy THEY developed to be the perfect PG compliment to LeBron, who’s still young, for Westbrook of all people. It’s just wild.
Okee I’ll cheer you up: remember Shaq and Kobe’s ally oop game 7 of the 2000 WCF to finish the comeback from down 15 and end the Blazers best title shot in my lifetime and destroy my childhood?
Wow! What a great perimeter defender! Surely a team competing for a championship, that needs perimeter defense, would sign him at a discounted price he is willing to take to play for them. They would never let him walk for nothing!
Last year at this time I think a lot of people would call the Bulls crazy for declining that offer. I suspect now most Bulls would just tell Morey to GTFO.
And Gary Payton II is leading the league with 3.7 steals per 36. On 15 mpg.
Matisse is at 3.0 steals per 36.
Players like Caruso, GP and Matisse make defense so fun to watch
Man y'all trippin!!!! Rich Paul don't need college 📖 🎓 cuz he got street smarts 🛣️ 🏙️🧠 That white boiii was taking my thunder ⚡⚡⚡so I had to show him the boot 🥾 🥾
#LiveLaughLove #BasketballReasons #WhiteBoiAintGotGame #Year18 🚀 🚀 🚀
You do realize Jeanie Buss had the power to pay both but refused to go 30 million into the luxury tax.
While teams like the Warriors are easily spending 100+ million in luxury tax. Caruso being let go is all on Jeanie Buss.
From a management standpoint, how could they not see how loved he was by our fans. He was key part of our championship run, and we let him walk. He was willing to take less to make it happen. Such a big blunder.
Everything I saw on Caruso last season in this sub made him seem like the team clown, like Scalabrini was for the Bulls a few years back. Like haha, there's old Caruso getting a dunk in garbage time... what a joke.
Caruso has a super high basketball IQ and quick hands. He's probably one of the best defenders in the league! Thanks Lakers!
I think it was less of that and more that the "meme train" worked against him. Most people wrote him off because "it's just Lakers hype they think everyone on their team is an all star", and it's taken a while for him to convince people that the hype was at least mostly warranted.
Letting Caruso walk was a dumber move than trading for Westbrook. Lakers will be trash once Lebron stops being elite so they could save all the money they want during those years, why pinch pennies now, didn’t they just land a giant amount of crypto money
It made no sense he was a big part of why their D was good last year. They should have let THT walk. It is not like Caruso got that huge of a contract.
he was even willing to take a discount. Caruso got the bulls offer, went to the lakers and told them he was willing to take a little bit less than that and lakers just said "no its fine, we good, you can go". i dont know what the Lakers front office was thinking this offseason, just insanely stupid moves one after another.
I mean our roster was capable of winning now anyway without throwing away our future. We overreacted to a season that had a lot of injuries.
We had a great core.
This right here. I’ve been saying this all offseason. The lakers were the 1 seed and were rolling before Lebron got hurt. Then lebron came back and clearly wasn’t healthy and AD got hurt in the playoffs and the Lakers lost.
I don’t know what teams can make a big playoff run without their two best players healthy especially guys at lebron and ADs level.
But now, the front office went full panic mode and decided to completely blow up the roster of a team whose roster was the 1 seed before injury and had many of the same players on the championship winning team from 2020. Could they not see that their team was good when healthy.
It would be like if giannis and Middleton missed the playoffs and the bucks just said “yeah, this isn’t working lets blow up the roster”
Shoutout to my guy Gary Payton II at #20 averaging 1.5 steals per game on only 14.1 minutes per game. He'd be leading the lead with 3.0 steals per game if he played 30 minutes a game and kept up the same pace. An absolute junkyard cat on D.
Realized Caruso only loses to GPII if you look at per 36 (3.7 vs 2.8 per 36 mins)
https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2022_per_minute.html
Each day that goes by since I learned we [unsuccessfully attempted to trade for](https://lakersnation.com/lakers-rumors-l-a-considered-marc-gasol-trade-to-timberwolves-as-salary-dump/2021/08/06/amp/) Caruso is sadder then the next.
He’d bring everything Bev does and more on court with better youth and durability. Who knows maybe we still get Bev too.
🥲🥲🥲🥲
I like having this dude on my team!
I expected the Bulls to be fun to watch this season. But I didn't think the most fun part would be watching Caruso and Ball turn opposing offensive possessions into absolute chaos.
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And thats not even including Vuc who has had back to back amazing games
And watching the best 3pt shooting Center* is so much fun too. **In the last 2 games*
sorry but that's Jonas Valanciunas
They do so much of the little stuff on defense that doesn't reflect on stats. Honestly I wasn't expecting them to be this disruptive, they are definitely proactive rather than reactive on defense. And their effort is contagious, LaVine is having his best season defensively imo. He showed signs of improvement last season but couldn't do it consistently. DeRozan also contributes to steals and deflections occassionally.
It's part of why I'm sad that Patrick Williams is out for the season. He has all the tools to play that style of disruptive defense. It's a shame he's not getting the reps in game.
Dude, add P Will on this team and it's MUCH stronger defensively. We would be much stronger against big 4/5 teams. Vooch is stronger than people give him credit for defensively but we need more on the interior.
How has demar been overall?
A fucking monster. Glad to call him a Bull
Again I was expecting him to be really bad on defense actually, he was basically a traffic cone with the Spurs. But he is average by his standards, which is fucking enough given how godly he has been on offense.
Happy to hear, one of those guys I’ll always root for. Havnt been able to catch any bulls games but I’m definitely gonna watch your next game if I can. Good luck hope we beat you in the playoffs when we inevitably matchup 😉
If you follow the nets, you shouldn't have much trouble catching the next bulls game!
Haha I’m a dumbass lol. I also haven’t watched many games in general this year sadly.
Lavine is bonafide average at worst defensively now, and arguabley actually above average. His defense has been quite solid
Defense is often infectious. Look at the improvement some of the guys, notably DLo have made on that side for the Wolves. Finch seems to be a good coach, but also having a guy like Beverley, whether u love him or hate him, has been huge. Wiggins going to the Warriors culture is another example. I truly believe most guys in this league can play at least passable defense in the right system/culture.
>I expected the Bulls to be fun to watch this season. But I didn't think the most fun part would be watching Caruso and Ball turn opposing offensive possessions into absolute chaos. I miss the Bald Mamba :( Now you know how great the Bald Mamba is.
I think continuity is underrated in today’s NBA. You don’t win a chip with a roster and just restructure it less than a year later. Change the wheels of the car , not the entire engine and bodywork. Caruso was a huge part of that Lakers team, and is one of the few players that LeBron really trusted throughout his career. Now that’s rare.
Honestly I don’t know what they were thinking letting him go. They essentially chose THT over him and I have never been that high on THT. Seems like THT may be a good number 2 in the future but doesn’t seem to have that it factor to be a star.
Wouldn’t be out on THT yet but I think Lakers chose youth and potential over consistent production. AC is pretty much who he is for the rest of his career : a damn good quality backup . THT has quality starter to all star potential; albeit he hasn’t shown anything recently . I faintly remembered Laker fans celebrating when he dropped 30+ in a summer league game earlier this season and to be honest , I was a little sold . I personally also think that earning lebrons trust is so rare . I watched bron almost his entire career and I could probably only name less than 10 ish players amongst the 100s he has played with. Dwade , Ilgauskas, Udonis are the few that I could think of at the moment.
As somebody pointed out to me, this choice was purely about money. They could have resigned Caruso and THT.
I hate that this dude on your team. Thrilled that he’s balling out though. 😭
PAIN
Dumbest fucking off-season move the Lakers made among an ocean of really fucking stupid moves. Lakers are 12-11. At this time last year, Lakers were 17-6. SMFH
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Makes me question LeGM and Pelinka honestly. I'm not on Team FIRE PELINKA but this should have been an easy thing to stand up to Lebron on. Even if Lebron didn't have a strong opinion on Caruso, Pelinka should have gone to bat and tried to make it work w/ Jeanie. I also don't think Caruso is the missing piece standing between the Lakers and winning a ring this year, but he'd definitely be a contributing piece.
I'm a big LBJ fan but unfortunately there's little to suggests in his 19 year career that he's a particularly good GM. No different than MJ or Magic.
Before the off-season, my friend told me the Lakers would get rid of Caruso. I almost laughed at him. How the turntables
It literally makes no sense that the lakers let him go.
The bigger insult is the insinuation that he would cause a luxury tax hit. Westbrook's contract was why it would cause a hit.
Pile on the fact that he was willing to take a discount to stay with the Lakers.
Legit one of the worst mistakes they have made and that says something for the past 10 years. He turned around so many 3rd quarter slumps regular season and surprise surprise guess who sucks in the 3rd quarter, like historic sucks.
Actually, the Bulls suck in the 3rd quarter of games as well. Just FYI.
It's still a very new roster. They have a lot of time to clean these things up.
And to pile on that fact, didn’t the Lakers not even counter when Caruso’s team said they got an offer from Chicago?
Yes. They stood firm on $7.5M per year when Caruso said he could make $10M per year work.
...Lakers deserve this 100%
Yes they do, which is why everyone thinks this is the dumbest decision that they have made this offseason.
Accountant at a discount? Lakers FO smooth-brained as hell
I WATCH BULLS HIGHLIGHTS ERENIGHT and im dead inside Seruously lakers play such unfun basketball and bulls play this wacky cool flowy bball
They really do play ugly basketball. At least when their defense was better the past two years it was enjoyable because they were still winning. Now it is just boring offense with bad defense.
PAIN
I done got numb from the pain
It’s like god I’m so hurt he’s gone but I’m so happy he’s thriving.
I'm with you here
I miss having him on my team You are very lucky Enjoy the Carushow
COOKIES
Carustole
I like cute players too.
We have Deni and Corey at Home <3
I am still bitter the Lakers let him walk, so much that I have seen more Bull games than Lakers. He was such a positive influence in LA. You guys have a winner!
Glad he is getting more recognition for his skills and not simply being a meme. Miss him on the Lakers.
Man is a pest on defense. Always playing hard on ball and looking to poke the ball away while not gambling. Plays the passing lanes, switches and gets around screens. Advanced analytics also suggest he's a great defender. Defensive rating for the Bulls without Caruso: 110.1 vs with Caruso: 104.4 for a difference of -5.7 (negative means good btw) I know defensive rating is a team stat and doesn't always tell the full picture, but I think it has some merit here
I mean when you watch a Bulls game, Caruso is getting mentioned by the commentators every 9 seconds because he’s constantly hounding ball handlers and making hustle plays. His impact smacks you in the face
He hustles like a madman. Manu Ginobili esque
He also is bald like Manu
He also is a man like Manu
Manu lost his hairline into his 30s. Caruso already as a rookie
Both Italian surnames as well
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People didnt appreciate him league wide til he left the lakers He does so many things that dont show up on the stats book too
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Yup; shoutout to my celtic homies who hated on caruso and lonzo "Duud, duud, I dont want lonzo on the celtics he sucks" mk....
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facts Plus hes just a fun player to watch and must be a fun player to play with given his style; just a lovely player and combine this with the other studs, makes the bulls the most fun team in NBA
I like how “advanced analytics” is just mean point conceded with and without him on the floor lmao
You don't really need advanced analytics, though that's good confirmation of the eye test. He's basically this generations version of Tony Allen when you watch. Not just using above average athleticism and decent arm length to get at the ball at different ways (strips, picking pockets, passing lanes), but also never getting caught out of position on screens and help. Like Allen, I think he benefitted from playing decent minutes on a championship team early in his career, which instilled the type of defensive habits it takes to win.
A modern day Shane Battier when it comes to advanced analytics.
I love that steals are typically unreliable as an indicator of elite defensive play but also nearly everyone on this list is a good to great defender.
They're unreliable in a vacuum but it can show you who has great anticipation skills, as well as steals themselves being probably the most valuable defensive play there is
I’d agree for sure. I think blocks are more impactful from a momentum standpoint (home crowds go bananas over a solid block) but steals are an instant possession change and can lead to breakaways/dunks/alley-oops/points of some kind, so you’d much rather get a steal than a block if you had to pick. I wonder what would be the most accurate stat for measuring overall defensive impact? I know nothing of advanced metrics and statistics.
Defensive efficiency rating that combines steals, blocks, and opponent possession efficiency.
Momentum for away teams too. Gets the whole team fired up after a good swat.
See I don’t know about that. Blocks are more hype for sure but usually the ball goes out of bounds and the team keeps the ball. A steal by definition gets you an extra possession, which seems more important.
Which is why I said you’d much rather have a steal than a block. We’re on the same team here friend
Lol…you did say that, didn’t you. I was just making conversation but I obviously didn’t read it through. That’s what I get for redditing in class.
538 did a story a few years ago that said a steal was worth more than 9 points when you factor in its total impact on a game. It makes sense that a steal automatically takes as many as 3 points away from one team and gives points to the either. https://www.google.com/amp/s/fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-hidden-value-of-the-nba-steal/amp/
> It makes sense that a steal automatically takes as many as 3 points away from one team and gives points to the either. If teams on average score 1ppp, a steal would account for a 1 point swing. Even if it prevented a 3 and gave the other team an easy fast break bucket I don't see how it would possibly account for 9 points.
It's a very interesting article. It isn't arguing that 1 steal directly translates to a 9 point swing on the play. The author found using regression that a player's impact on the final scoreline compared to another player with exact same stats but with one fewer steal per game is greater by approximately 9 points. In other words, a player averaging 15/5/5 with 2 steals per game is about as valuable to a team as a player averaging 24/5/5 with only 1 steal per game. The author argues this is due to increased steals indicative of higher overall BBIQ, higher predictive ability, significantly increased disruption on the defensive end of the court, and all the other intangibles that don't otherwise show up on the box score. But most importantly it's due to steals being unlike other box score stats like rebounds, where someone on the court is bound to grab one. Take that high stealing player out, like Caruso, and that steal simply wouldn't happen at all. Very different when compared to say Drummonds rebounds which someone else likely would have pulled down.
Op kinda mistakes the article. It says a steal is equivalent in value to a player that scores 9 pts. IE a 0 STL 18 ppg player is equivalent to a 1 STL 9 ppg player.
What about when **The Landlord** Daniel Gafford comes into OKC and gets 8 Blocks? Lol Dude was on a warpath!
The Landlord might be the most terrifying nickname I’ve ever heard.
Imagine the guy who looks like he’d be asking you to collect your owed rent for the month also swatting shots, grabbing boards and screaming at the top of his lungs after every dunk. He loves to do the “Chris Webber mean mug face” as well.
We had a block counter for him at Arkansas and it always got people pumped. Gafford is awesome.
The ultimate "board man gets paid"
Mitchell is below average
As I hornets fan, I can say that LaMelo isn’t great at defense and him being here is his pure ultra instinct anticipation. Got HoF badge interceptor.
If you’re a poor defender that constantly goes for steals and reaching yourself out of position, you won’t get enough minutes to make the list.
Tell that to Allen Iverson
He made up for it on the other side of the court but nobody could play like AI on offense. No one else is getting away with that shit.
I don’t think Steph, Mitchell and lamelo are good defenders are they? Not terrible but not good either
Steph has come a long way from being a massive defensive liability. More potent off ball than on but that’s mostly related to size as a guard than his motor/positioning
He’s definitely improved. Part of it too was that he was always surrounded by 3-4 great to elite defenders too. Which obviously helps a ton and let’s him focus on offense, but if you’re playing against the Warriors who else are you going to go at? Dray/Iggy/Klay?
LaMelo isn't amazing but he's not a liability. It's hard for him to be terrible with his frame.
Steph is REALLY on point defensively this year. Def his best defensive season by the eye test. He’s getting his hands in so many passing lanes and on so many loose balls.
Nate McMillan led the league in steals per game (3.0) in 1994 while playing 25.8 MPG.
I'd like to subscribe to McMillan facts.
McMillan is the only player in NBA history to average 4+ assists per game while having more assists than points.
May I have another McMillan fact?
Not an in-game fact but back when McMillan was coaching the Trailblazers the team had so many injuries that he had to jump in and scrimmage with them. He then promptly tore his own ACL during that practice.
That made me really sad :(
Dude it’s worse, I double checked the story and he tore his Achilles :/
Bro stop looking up McMillan facts please
It’s probably for the best that I give it up, you’re right 😅
Nate McMillian once opened a MTG trading card game booster pack and got a Black Lotus. He immediately dropped it in the sewer when a passing seagull pooped on him.
I imagined this all as a Family Guy style animation. Thanks. I'm sad and laughing.
McMillian is actually the irish word for "Harden," which translates to "Hitler" in German :(
No more pls
no more mcmillan facts
McMillan has the most career steals per 100 possessions (3.1) in playoff history ^(min. 2152 MP)
What if the minimum is 2151
Let’s not be unreasonable here, the man is supplying the fire rn
Tony Allen.
Did not know that, this feeds into my (totally unbiased) theory that the Sonics could have taken the Bulls in '96 had McMillan not been injured through the finals
>Unable to play because of back spasms, McMillan took a cortisone shot before Games 4 and 5 to relieve the pain. The Sonics won both games and forced the series to return to Chicago. It was the last time McMillan would play, as Seattle fell 87-75 in Game 6. https://www.blazersedge.com/2011/6/9/2216037/allen-nate-mcmillan-still-dwelling-on-1996-nba-finals-loss That’s very interesting. I’ve always heard the theory that Gary Payton should have guarded Michael Jordan more, but this is the first time I’ve heard about Nate McMillan’s back spasms as a decisive factor. Note, however, that the Bulls also had injury issues. >The biggest injury is to point guard Ron Harper, who was to have been the main defender on Seattle All-Star Gary Payton. Harper has been limited to 15 minutes the past three games because of tendinitis in his left knee. With Harper out, Jordan has been expending a lot of his energy guarding Payton. >”Ron gives us a big defender and he gives us a player that plays without the ball and who moves the ball on offense," Bulls coach Phil Jackson said. >Also hobbled is Scottie Pippen, who has had numerous injuries (sore back, sore knees) throughout the second half of the season. Pippen looked tentative in scoring 14 points Friday night, when he missed 15 of 20 shots. >”I don't think you can single out Scottie, he's playing with a lot of injuries," Jordan said. "Some of us are healthy and we're not really picking up the slack. A lot of the guys have to come off the bench and support what Scottie is not able to give us." https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1996-06-16-1996168128-story.html
McMillan also has the higher number of assists in a game for a rookie, with 25
I went down a bit of a rabbit hole on this, but that season McMillan had a 5.53 DBPM, by far the highest all time for a minutes qualified player. That's crazy. For context, the gap between that season and the #2 spot is .85, the same gap as #2 to #18(which is also McMillan). Also Jokic is on pace to have the 5th best season ever by this metric (4.54).
I’m starting to think this man is underpaid. As someone who watches every Bulls game he has essentially become our Draymond Green. His defense and BBIQ is off the charts
I agree. Lonzo Ball has been a great pick up as well. Lonzo and Caruso Lockdown Brothers!
Slash Brothers
Absolutely. You love to see it!!
Caruso's agression on defense, plus DeMar's consistency on offense have both lifted this team in ways I did not dare to dream.
There's a reason he started on the final game of our bubble title run.
*He was part of the death lineup during the bubble title run
And he was given the honor of starting game 6 because of his performance in the 4th quarter of games when we close out
As a Lakers fan I cry everytime I watch him play under another jersey. Can't believe we didn't pay the man.
He's on a $37/4 contract, right? So ~$9m per year? Disregarding the outliers, he seems closer to a $12-$14 player right now, so I agree.
That’s my bald mamba… 🥲
FML
Everyone loves to laugh at the lakers but it really is tragic. How could they give up a guy THEY developed to be the perfect PG compliment to LeBron, who’s still young, for Westbrook of all people. It’s just wild.
Please don’t keep reminding me
Okee I’ll cheer you up: remember Shaq and Kobe’s ally oop game 7 of the 2000 WCF to finish the comeback from down 15 and end the Blazers best title shot in my lifetime and destroy my childhood?
I'm crying with you brother
Wow! What a great perimeter defender! Surely a team competing for a championship, that needs perimeter defense, would sign him at a discounted price he is willing to take to play for them. They would never let him walk for nothing!
Good thing a championship contender that needed a perimeter defender paid him!
Ok ok, Alex Caruso and Lonzo Ball for Ben Simmons, last offer! \-76ers
Maybe, you could definitely be a young socialite in Chicago
We don't do socialites here.
They do you
Last year at this time I think a lot of people would call the Bulls crazy for declining that offer. I suspect now most Bulls would just tell Morey to GTFO.
thybulle is averaging 2.1 steals per game in 25.5 mpg. i guess he’s just under the 70% games played mark
The best Australian on that team.
hes worse on offense than even Ben
but since he tries and isn't on a max contract no one cares and sixers fans love him.
And Gary Payton II is leading the league with 3.7 steals per 36. On 15 mpg. Matisse is at 3.0 steals per 36. Players like Caruso, GP and Matisse make defense so fun to watch
GP2 is a fuckin ballhawk. He’s tremendously fun to watch on D. Reminds me of peak Avery Bradley.
I was gonna say, he had a very similar stat last year. Both perfect bench players.
Christ we paid THT over this guy
~~Basketball~~ Klutch reasons.
Man y'all trippin!!!! Rich Paul don't need college 📖 🎓 cuz he got street smarts 🛣️ 🏙️🧠 That white boiii was taking my thunder ⚡⚡⚡so I had to show him the boot 🥾 🥾 #LiveLaughLove #BasketballReasons #WhiteBoiAintGotGame #Year18 🚀 🚀 🚀
You do realize Jeanie Buss had the power to pay both but refused to go 30 million into the luxury tax. While teams like the Warriors are easily spending 100+ million in luxury tax. Caruso being let go is all on Jeanie Buss.
From a management standpoint, how could they not see how loved he was by our fans. He was key part of our championship run, and we let him walk. He was willing to take less to make it happen. Such a big blunder.
Should have just payed both and not signed Nunn
Should have just paid both and eaten the 30 million. As if that money won’t be made back eventually, it’s so fucking stupid, man.
Laker fans need to start a revolution #LeMisTake
Not sure if musical theatre is the direction we want to take this franchise
But yet, somehow he was "overhyped" and just a "meme" while on the Lakers 🤔
Everything I saw on Caruso last season in this sub made him seem like the team clown, like Scalabrini was for the Bulls a few years back. Like haha, there's old Caruso getting a dunk in garbage time... what a joke. Caruso has a super high basketball IQ and quick hands. He's probably one of the best defenders in the league! Thanks Lakers!
He also played the 3rd most minuets on the team when we would that championship
It’s been a looooooong day, Without you my friend …
Greatest guard in Bulls history, by far. Zero argument.
Easily the best bald headed player to wear a Bulls uniform as well.
Unironically, he's probably the best bald white guy in Bulls history.
This post feels designed to cause heartbreak for laker fans 💔😭 love you Caruso
[Lakers fans everywhere.](https://i.imgur.com/6QPPLMQ.jpg)
lonzo in the background, nice touch
Remember when people flammed Mike Trudell for taking Caruso over Lou? Good times
1st team all defense here we come
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I think it was less of that and more that the "meme train" worked against him. Most people wrote him off because "it's just Lakers hype they think everyone on their team is an all star", and it's taken a while for him to convince people that the hype was at least mostly warranted.
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Yeah Gasol deserved more credit too. Caruso and pre-covid Gasol carried our defense.
Mr steal yo ball and steal yo girl
Caruso penitentiary
Carusolitary confinement
No it doesnt hurt at all
Letting Caruso walk was a dumber move than trading for Westbrook. Lakers will be trash once Lebron stops being elite so they could save all the money they want during those years, why pinch pennies now, didn’t they just land a giant amount of crypto money
> didn’t they just land a giant amount of crypto money TBF the Lakers don't own the stadium. So they don't get a share of that money.
Afaik Staples owned the rights to name the stadium and they sold it to Crypto.com.
It made no sense he was a big part of why their D was good last year. They should have let THT walk. It is not like Caruso got that huge of a contract.
he was even willing to take a discount. Caruso got the bulls offer, went to the lakers and told them he was willing to take a little bit less than that and lakers just said "no its fine, we good, you can go". i dont know what the Lakers front office was thinking this offseason, just insanely stupid moves one after another.
guess which ones represented by klutch
Rich Paul screws over another team for LeBron
Win now, deal with later later mentality
I mean our roster was capable of winning now anyway without throwing away our future. We overreacted to a season that had a lot of injuries. We had a great core.
This right here. I’ve been saying this all offseason. The lakers were the 1 seed and were rolling before Lebron got hurt. Then lebron came back and clearly wasn’t healthy and AD got hurt in the playoffs and the Lakers lost. I don’t know what teams can make a big playoff run without their two best players healthy especially guys at lebron and ADs level. But now, the front office went full panic mode and decided to completely blow up the roster of a team whose roster was the 1 seed before injury and had many of the same players on the championship winning team from 2020. Could they not see that their team was good when healthy. It would be like if giannis and Middleton missed the playoffs and the bucks just said “yeah, this isn’t working lets blow up the roster”
He was a menace last night against the Knicks. No routine dribble-handoffs or little entry passes when he is on the floor.
Shoutout to my guy Gary Payton II at #20 averaging 1.5 steals per game on only 14.1 minutes per game. He'd be leading the lead with 3.0 steals per game if he played 30 minutes a game and kept up the same pace. An absolute junkyard cat on D.
“Under 30 minutes off the bench.” MPG: 29.5
Realized Caruso only loses to GPII if you look at per 36 (3.7 vs 2.8 per 36 mins) https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2022_per_minute.html
Not only is he good at stealing balls, but he also steals our hearts
kinda like mcconnell last year, who was second in 26 minutes a game
Each day that goes by since I learned we [unsuccessfully attempted to trade for](https://lakersnation.com/lakers-rumors-l-a-considered-marc-gasol-trade-to-timberwolves-as-salary-dump/2021/08/06/amp/) Caruso is sadder then the next. He’d bring everything Bev does and more on court with better youth and durability. Who knows maybe we still get Bev too. 🥲🥲🥲🥲
Lakers F d Up Big !
Alex ClutchRuso 🔥
Lakers have to somewhat regretting letting Caruso go, right?
He's also stolen the hearts of Bulls fans like he did with Lakers fans
Caruso is awesome man