s*** you not like 90% of NBA fandom and a lot of Lakers Reddit for some reason thinks he can barely hack it as a backup in this league. The Caruso disrespect is real as hell man. I'm not sure if it's much different here on this board either.
It's because he's white, pale white, doesn't seem like a great athlete, and the old man hair thing but his performance warrants playing time I'd love to see what he can do with regular minutes. Not sure I'd dub him a starter yet, but I think he'd be great in 20 min a game.
I don't concern myself with folks on those other forums because they are made up of largely (not everyone) folks that overreact to little things and simply don't know what makes a good basketball player or team successful.
I might go 20. But I’d agree his limitations aren’t exposed as much in shorts stints. If he performs well beyond that, I think the Lakers should offer him free treatments at Bosley.
If we had AD, Lebron, and Kawhi around him, I’d trust Caruso with 30+. He’d be a deadly shooter with a lot of time and space to shoot, and good defender.
Caruso is absolutely adequate for 20 minutes. He plays defense, can shoot, we don’t need him to do too much. I am a big fan.
Caruso playing 20 mpg also means Caruso going up against Steph Curry, Dame Lillard, etc... I'm not sure I want to see that. He is a solid backup but against starting caliber PGs, his efficiency and defense will suffer big time. If we end up with a big 3, teams will try to attack our weakest links and then Caruso gets exposed. And while he can shoot, thats not really his game to take 5-8 threes a game. His style is more about going to the rim etc. which we frankly do not need with LeBron and AD. We need a 3 and D PG next to Bron.
If (I know it’s a big if) we get Kawhi, I’d feel good about Seth and Caruso taking care of the 1 position.
Caruso is actually a really good defender, but yes, I agree, he is not a starter for a title contending team and should be a 15-20 min max backup.
I think on a super stacked team like with the Cerberus we're trying to create, Caruso is definitely good enough to start; though likely not close out games. If Memphis buys out Iggy I could see him taking Caruso's spot in the closing lineup unless his shooting is a huge issue.
With Seth and Beverly gone, the PG defender market is drying up fast, so for the money we have left, Caruso might be about as good as we can get.
Caruso would be a much better defender than Rondo would against those players. That's for sure. Caruso isn't going to stop them but with his height and length he'll at least make those guys have to work harder.
