What's remarkable about that is that he never turned his head. How the hell did he know where to put that ball?

Sports-Ag said:

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Caruso getting some love on TNT. Great block.

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ALL BALL.

Iowaggie said:

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PatAg said:

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Jarrin' Jay said:

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It seems that way and certainly we would all like him to get much more PT. However, there are plenty of games where he gets the most minutes of anyone on the bench and some games where he gets more PT than a starter. it just seems to ebb and flow. When you are not a starter you may play 6-8, you may play 20-24.

Vogel has effusive praise for Caruso and talks about how important he is, they did not trade him, and he is a regular contributor. If I was a Lakers super fan I would want Caruso playing enough that he would be the 6th man award winner (if that is still a thing), not to win the award but because he probably should be the #1 guy off the bench and getting the most minutes off the bench every game IMHO.

The important thing is for Caruso to continue to maximize his opportunity and stay humble. He has so many great highlights and a cult following (I own a Bald Mamba shirt), but his value is in defense, hustle, assists, and ball circulation when he is on the floor. He is having fun but needs to guard against trying to get too "showtime", he just needs to play his game and not get too caught up in being part of the Lakeshow. The "assist" to LeBron clip shown above, he should have just taken it to the rack and scored. Great highlight w/ LeBron, but if they mess up that play and lose by 1 or 2, that would really make a coach angry.

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Except making LeBron happy is the #1 thing any player can do to stay on a team with LeBron.

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Bird-like.

fat girlfriend said:

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What's remarkable about that is that he never turned his head. How the hell did he know where to put that ball?

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lebron is shouting to caruso that hes right behind him. when caruso hears that, he trusts lebrons judgement and just has to get him the ball anyway he can even if he cant fully see where he is

Caruso led +/- with + 20 tonight.

17 strong minutes last night.

My understanding is he was signed off his 2-way contract in no small part due to the input of #23. I would be very surprised if Caruso is traded if James has any input or anything to say about it. Quite the opposite, I could see him getting more minutes and being part of the 6-7 man rotation for LA next season.

Then again, this is a league of packaged trade deals and I could see him getting bundled in a trade.

Either way, very glad to see Alex having this success and a trade may be good for him if it makes him a fringe starter or a guy who gets 24+ minutes a night.

And he will have had a great season with LA on his resume, and maybe a ring to boot...

Junkhead said:

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The fans love him and most importantly LeBron loves him. Alex ain't going anywhere.

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Even ignoring he's one of our own, what's not to love? He's great fun to watch.

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Caruso getting some love on TNT. Great block.

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Stole Ball's soul like he was Voldermort.

At $5.5 million per with crowd fave and quick impact status, Caruso is very attractive to any franchise looking for either for bench depth or energizing a home base. On the other hand, at $5.5 mil Caruso gives the Lakers a low budget Lebron-accessory, crowd-crazy impact player. The crowd goes nuts when he enters the game. Every time he makes even simple plays, they go more nuts. He shifts the momentum of a game with more than just hustle. Lebron and GM Rob Pelinka know that.

They'd be stupid to trade him for the moment. They're right to ask the moon for him. And they got him through next year. There's a ceiling to his abilities, but we haven't seen it yet. I'm going to enjoy watching every minute.

That was 2 years for $5.5MM.

Junkhead said:

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That was 2 years for $5.5MM.

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Even more a bargain!

https://www.silverscreenandroll.com/2020/2/26/21154683/lakers-editorial-alex-caruso-minutes-frank-vogel-rotation-rajon-rondo-defense-stats-lebron-james

Caruso apparently has the best overall defensive rating of any NBA PG who has logged at least 800 minutes this season. And he is Top-10 in the league in overall defensive rating for any position.

Author says even if Vogel want to keep Caruso's minutes down as a 'secret weapon' for the playoffs, that it is time to let the bald eagle out of its cage.

DukeMu said:

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Caruso led +/- with + 20 tonight.

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When I first tuned in, Caruso had 6 assists in 6 minutes of playing time.

BigJim49 AustinNowDallas said:

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mdanyc03 said:

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[He is what is wrong with sports. ]

He's undeniably one of the greatest of all time, a devoted father and philanthropist.

Yeah, that's totally what is wrong with sports.

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Didn't he settle a rape case ?

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uhhhh what. where do yall come from with this stuff

Big Jim: I recommend you erase your comment. That's reprehensible.

Even if true ?

BigJim49 AustinNowDallas said:

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Even if true ?

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If there is any substantiation whatsoever, post it. Otherwise it's reprehensible.

Player performance depends on many extrapersonal factors such as which other 9 players are in the game as well as some broad characterizations of the dynamic scenario (e.g. blowout win, blowout loss, playoff game, etc.).

Making inferences (including comparisons) based only on a single player, or even a duo (e.g. AC + Lebron), implicitly assumes that all of the extrapersonal factors are i.i.d. Guess what, htough. In reality, they're not i.i.d. at all.

Now the clause about "...among players playing more than X minutes" is meant to ensure some level of uniformity among extrapersonal factors -- something in the direction of i.i.d.

But we also know that AC is in his first NBA season (small sample size, dominated by adjustment to NBA level of play) and in a pretty unique situation in LA, with Vogel only using him situationally, usually with Lebron in at the same time and some times Lebron + AD as well. In other words, we can pretty sure, qualitatively, that extrapersonal factors for AC are not i.i.d. w.r.t. other players at all.

So the point is that any quantitative stats about AC, outside of minutes, salary, and rings, are going to necessarily be meaningless, even if they're qualified with "...among players that XYZ" clauses.

What I mean to say is, keep your facts and stats very very far away from my generational man crush on the phenomenon that is AC.

BigJim49 AustinNowDallas said:

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Didn't he settle a rape case ?

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BigJim49 AustinNowDallas said:

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Even if true ?

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Its honestly remarkable that we live in a world where people can just say.....stuff without any inclination of what they are saying being true

Caruso starting tonight!

Indignitas said:

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. . .
But we also know that AC is in his first NBA season (small sample size, dominated by adjustment to NBA level of play) and in a pretty unique situation in LA, with Vogel only using him situationally, usually with Lebron in at the same time and some times Lebron + AD as well.
. . .
What I mean to say is, keep your facts and stats very very far away from my generational man crush on the phenomenon that is AC.

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It likely helped AC to play in 52 NBA games in 2017 and 2018 before this, his first NBA season dominated by adjustment to NBA level of play.

greg.w.h said:

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BigJim49 AustinNowDallas said:

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Even if true ?

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If there is any substantiation whatsoever, post it. Otherwise it's reprehensible.

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Big Jim obviously has no idea that this is not a thread about Kobe Bryant.

Guess he didnt do anything last night, nothing posted.

Here is a new highlight vid that I hadn't seen before. Caruso 'defensive highlights' during games this January.

greg.w.h said:

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BigJim49 AustinNowDallas said:

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Even if true ?

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If there is any substantiation whatsoever, post it. Otherwise it's reprehensible.

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Check ALL the newspapers at the time. Why did he buy his wife a 250K ring at the time ?

SunrayAg said:

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greg.w.h said:

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BigJim49 AustinNowDallas said:

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Even if true ?

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If there is any substantiation whatsoever, post it. Otherwise it's reprehensible.

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Big Jim obviously has no idea that this is not a thread about Kobe Bryant.

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See Los Angeles Ag comments about Bryant .