RealGM

Simple question........

Given minutes played. Jalen.

Per minute arguably Caruso.

Against Minnesota was Chet. Him at center was the key to allowing them to play that scheme that slowed down Ant.

Caruso, jalen or chet all have good arguments

Caruso lowkey has been the difference maker in a lot of games and doesnt have the stinker series like jalen had vs denver

But being real, it probably is chet, he has been a constant defense anchor for okc even in tougher matchups like jokic nuggets, and his spacing/driving is valuable to a sometimes shooting challenged team

Caruso/jalen would be close for 3rd

In the highest leverage moments of their run (so primarily the Denver series), Caruso has been the most reliable and has had the biggest per minute impact. With how Jalen/Chet have played in the WCF idk if I can put Caruso over them for the whole run in aggregate, but the Denver series is what mattered most thus far so I’d weigh that higher

I voted Caruso. You take him away, and they lose a lot on the floor.

jalengreen wrote:In the highest leverage moments of their run (so primarily the Denver series), Caruso has been the most reliable and has had the biggest per minute impact. With how Jalen/Chet have played in the WCF idk if I can put Caruso over them for the whole run in aggregate, but the Denver series is what mattered most thus far so I’d weigh that higher

I dont disagree w/ your reasoning and per minute impact is important but its also 360 minutes for Caruso compared to 553 for Jalen and 473 for Chet. Thats a big difference Caruso can go balls to the walls in his minutes and foul trouble isnt much of a concern since they dont rely on him at all for offensive production

I love this forum so much. It's great to see Caruso get the recognition he deserves.

Chet. He's the unicorn that makes it work.

From Edey to MVP to 4 time DPOY

His matchups evolve and his database is growing

Statlanta wrote:Chet. He's the unicorn that makes it work.

From Edey to MVP to 4 time DPOY

His matchups evolve and his database is growing

He wasn't much of a factor in the Jokic matchup though. He looked like a little boy against Nikola Ihart was much more of a factor defensively and then the help defense from their perimeter defenders and even Caruso as primary. Chet was like an annoying bug lol buzz around but didn't do anything. Offensively he didn't exploit Jokic much either.

1 caruso
2 cason
3 chet
4 jdub

imo

the triple c (caruso, cason, chet) has really been the axis of the thunder's most successful lineups all throughout these playoffs

check net ratings of their three man combo lineups and the 2 man combination lineups between them... all of them are blowing by like +20.

jdub has been a mixed bag though, specially offensively, and he should be looking a bit better right now specially given how much time he plays vs bench.

While Jokic forced them to work around him, I think Chet is looking like their 2nd best player as a terror on defense while spacing the floor and being above the rim target.