Reversal of life! Thunder corrected the mistake and dug back the 31-year-old champion puzzle to win the championship, and the Lakers threw away the 3D ace in vain

When Alex Caruso first arrived in Oklahoma City, he was still full of hair and was full of longing for his NBA career.

It was September 2016, and the Thunder invited Caruso to participate in the Exhibit 10 contract trial. The contract has a $50,000 bonus and will also give him the opportunity to join the Oklahoma City Blues, a Thunder’s Development League affiliate team.

Caruso is one of six players to participate in the trial, but he is actually the only player the Thunder management and coaching staff really want to see.

The Oklahoma Blues coach was Dagenot at that time. He admired Caruso's unyielding fighting spirit when he was studying at Texas A&M University. During the trial, Caruso played the role of interim leader. "Caruso soon discovered that they had no idea what was going on," recalls Degnott. "When the training was halfway through, he started coaching the training. He was doing what he should do."

That afternoon, Caruso received the Exhibit 10 contract from the Thunder, and in addition to the signing bonus, he also received a salary of $13,000. Caruso eventually went to the Thunder affiliate Development League team Oklahoma City Blues to play. In one season, he became the leader of the Blues, serving as a point guard, leading the team to a record of 34 wins and 16 losses and advanced to the second round of the Development League playoffs.

But Caruso admits that his season in the Development League is frustrating. The Blues teammates were recruited by the NBA, but no one cared about him. Although Dagnott and then Blues general manager Brandon Barnett supported him, the Thunder did not offer him a two-way contract.

"Presti admits to me that he made a mistake." Caruso said recently with his usual cold humor. Caruso left Oklahoma City after the 2016-17 season. He got a summer league contract from the Lakers, and then impressed the Lakers with his outstanding performance and obtained a two-way contract. Caruso then turned a two-way contract and obtained the Lakers' regular NBA contract. In the 2019-20 season, Caruso became an important rotation player for the Lakers. In the Lakers' championship journey, Caruso played an important role as a defensive substitute guard.

Caruso became the champion defender. In the summer of 2021, Caruso and the Lakers' contract expired and became a restricted free agent. The Bulls offered Caruso a contract offer of 37 million for four years. Caruso wanted to stay with the Lakers at the time, but also wanted to get a good contract. He hopes that the Lakers will match this offer and specifically leaves enough time for the Lakers management to discuss.

But the Lakers chose to renew their contract with Taron Horton Tucker for 31 million US dollars, and did not choose to leave Caruso. So Caruso went to the Bulls, and he was selected for the NBA regular season best team in the following two seasons. The Lakers gave up Caruso and chose to renew Tucker Jr., becoming a big failure for Pelinka during his time as Lakers general manager. It is also another case in the league that underestimated Caruso.

Thunder General Manager Presti finally got Caruso through the trade in the summer of 2024, and he corrected his mistakes. In order to get Caruso, Presti traded potential defender Josh Gidey to the Bulls and gave Caruso a four-year, $81 million early contract renewal. Presti hopes Caruso will be a key figure in the Thunder Championship puzzle. The Thunder lineup needs a 3D defender like Caruso, and a player with championship experience also needs to help young players grow.

"It's great that he's back," said Dagnot. "I love coaching him. I used to like coaching him. But it's exciting that now we're more focused on the future than the past. We have a long history, and we have more room to move forward together here."

Caruso is both one of the league's most destructive defensive players, an offensive linker, and has experience as a supporting role for superstars. “I immediately felt that it would be a perfect combination from what I was capable of and what the team needed,” Caruso said. “And I was a little proud to think of wherever I went.

Caruso turned 31 in February and he helped the young team a lot. “He is a very competitive player and we want to have as many of these players as possible,” Presti said. “Specifically, I think if you have such a mind, you can improve the level of the entire team, and we really want the team to have a heart full of passion and intelligence.”

Caruso showed versatile defensive skills in this year’s playoffs. From the Grizzlies' extremely fast point guard Morant to the super center Jokic, Caruso can actually make his opponent suffer.

"It's interesting because he's like a crazy scientist genius who likes to adjust and apply tactics to find the subtleties and rules that can be exploited," Caruso said of Degnott asking him to defend Jokic. In the tiebreak battle with the Nuggets, Dagnot used Caruso to defend Jokic.

Caruso weighed much lighter than Jokic, but his lower plate was stable and stuck to Jokic like a plaster. Caruso started quickly and harassed Jokic in various ways, which made Jokic very uncomfortable. In that game, Caruso faced Jokic in 40 positional battles, which was the most defenders defended in the regular season and playoffs in Jokic's career. Caruso conceded only 0.78 points per leg, while Jokic's turnovers (5) were comparable to the number of shots, while the number of shots in the game was only 9.

"He never wanders. He is always competitive." Thunders 21-year-old sophomore guard Carson Wallace proudly pointed out, "Caruso is the first bald teammate I have ever met.". The Thunder team has an average age of 24.5 years old. Caruso is the oldest player in the team. He is often mentioned by his teammates as a joke.

"Always like this, it's crazy because I still have many years to play in the NBA," Caruso said. Caruso believes that kind-hearted irony is also a love, so he is happy to accept these jokes. For Caruso, building trust in the Thunder locker room was also his top priority, not just being a master of all things.

Caruso played a role in passing and leading the way in the Thunder. He was helping the young Carson Wallace grow up and taught Wallace some defensive experience. Caruso said Wallace's excellent ball-handling ability reminded him of former Lakers teammate Bradley.

"He says whatever he sees," Wallace said. "He will say what he thinks. You can tell him something. We are all good at listening to each other. That's it from day one." Shortly after joining the Thunder, Caruso began to dominate informal meetings that the players held every few weeks on the training ground. "We didn't have the difficulties he had to overcome, we were ready to listen to him. We understand why Sam (Presti) brought him in," said teammate Jaylen Williams. "He is someone we trust. We call him 'old man' and so on, but we cherish his experience from the Development League to now. Our team is very happy to take his advice. He always says it right, which makes us more willing to listen to him. Obviously, he's also doing well on the court."