Bulls sign Alex Caruso - 4 years, $37 million

[Michael Jackson]

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Got to love his eye for the game based on this.

I always took note of him because him being a goofy looking dude he was a sneaky athlete and a good nose for the rim. He surely isn't a top tier creator but he is athletic and can take it to people if he finds the mismatch or in the open floor. With enough spacing he can make the other team pay if the sag off of him and that's what you need to keep defenses honest. We don't need another ball dominate guard, just one that plays D and is competent on offense. He has also proved he can play well in meaningful games, not just garbage time blowouts. Nothing sexy about this signing but it is a solid one for sure.

[ThisGuyFawkes]

Caruso should play well in that drop defense that we ran last season. Having a solid defender at the point of attack should make our bigs look better. Let's see what BD can do with them.

[GoBlue72391]

Caruso averaged 8 ppg in college. That's nuts. Grinder.

Only 1 PPG less than PWill.

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[StunnerKO]

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[Grodoboldo]

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We haven't seen this for a while around these parts. For those of us too young to know, this **** is called point of attack defense. It's quite important to winning basketball games.

[Almost Retired]

Caruso / Coby backcourt is not bad for backups.

You got that right. And Caruso takes the primary defensive assignment leaving Coby to be the back up scorer to Lavine. We have such good depth in the back court now. We should be able to keep everybody's minutes down thru the grueling regular season. Try to keep guys healthy. There were quite a few Playoff series determined by injuries this past season.

[Almost Retired]

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Those clips are impressive as hell. Not just Caruso's physical approach to defense. His understanding and flexibility is just as impressive. Great hustle. Great awareness. Trae is not going to be killing us from now on. We are going to see a whole different KIND of team next season. More toughness. More two way players.

[SaNdMiRkS]

Wow, i genuinely had no idea whatsoever that there were ppl out there who actually considered that summer league scrimmage thing to be an actual playoff bracket LOL! Nobody even tuned into watch that thing. There were no NBA playoffs/Finals in 2020 due to the virus

[Andi Obst]

Wow, i genuinely had no idea whatsoever that there were ppl out there who actually considered that summer league scrimmage thing to be an actual playoff bracket LOL! Nobody even tuned into watch that thing. There were no NBA playoffs/Finals in 2020 due to the virus

You keep telling that to yourself, my man.

[Grodoboldo]

Wow, i genuinely had no idea whatsoever that there were ppl out there who actually considered that summer league scrimmage thing to be an actual playoff bracket LOL! Nobody even tuned into watch that thing. There were no NBA playoffs/Finals in 2020 due to the virus

Yeah, I'm sure that if the Bulls had a deep playoff run that year you would have the same opinion...

[kodo]

I might be in the minority but I dont think he is miles better than what we have in Coby. Especially from a backup perspective. I hope he proves me wrong and also that we make more moves, but I wonder if we could have use those funds elsewhere.

TBH, if we don't have someone like Caruso we probably have to move on from Coby if we value winning.

The Lavine/Coby/Patrick trio was one of the worst in the league at -11.8 points per 100. Most of our 3 man combos are positive but we are always fighting uphill on how bad this 3 man starting perimeter performs.

You just swap out Williams for Temple, and all of a sudden Lavine/Coby/Temple is a positive +2.3 per 100. Because now there is at least 1 defender on the perimeter. Similarly, Lavine/Temple/Patrick was +3.9

Overall this is probably a good sign for White that we're going to try and make lineups with him work rather than getting someone competent on the defensive side to completely replace him. Because Caruso won't replace White's shot making.

[MrSparkle]

I might be in the minority but I dont think he is miles better than what we have in Coby. Especially from a backup perspective. I hope he proves me wrong and also that we make more moves, but I wonder if we could have use those funds elsewhere.

TBH, if we don't have someone like Caruso we probably have to move on from Coby if we value winning.

The Lavine/Coby/Patrick trio was one of the worst in the league at -11.8 points per 100. Most of our 3 man combos are positive but we are always fighting uphill on how bad this 3 man starting perimeter performs.

You just swap out Williams for Temple, and all of a sudden Lavine/Coby/Temple is a positive +2.3 per 100. Because now there is at least 1 defender on the perimeter. Similarly, Lavine/Temple/Patrick was +3.9

Overall this is probably a good sign for White that we're going to try and make lineups with him work rather than getting someone competent on the defensive side to completely replace him. Because Caruso won't replace White's shot making.

Good point. I got the sense from the season-ending press conference that AK was pretty disappointed in Coby (and Sato), but also patient and willing to see his improvement next year. Either way, I still think the guy's shooting skills are way better than his percentages indicate. He just needs to grow up, get stronger, and frankly play behind some more developed players. Hopefully Caruso and Lonzo push him.

It really isn't a big deal holding onto him, even if he sees a really reduced role. I can't imagine a quality return at the moment. I thought he might be needed to complete a Lonzo deal, but hey - we got 3 new versatile PGs without shedding a core-piece yet. And we have the MLE left. So if he comes back in January, might be a real boost to have an excited (to be back) scorer jump-start the bench.

Either way, there are very few shooters left on the market. Pretty much Monk, old Lou and Lauri. Sounding like Lauri's out. All I know is the Bulls don't want to lose all their shooters after finally address perimeter passing/defense. They couldn't do much else, but Coby and Lauri spaced the floor. Looking like they make more sense on this team now, than they did before.

[ATRAIN53]

not a great market for SG, but was there really other teams looking to pay him @ 10 mill per year?

I feel like a couple weeks ago if someone here had suggested signing him for this kinda $$$ that would have gotten laughed at.

The guy does play hard but this deal is pretty shocking to me.
Feels like if we signed him for $5 mil I'd be saying the same thing......

If he gets more $$$ on the market than Lauri that will be pretty funny.
Like we all assumed Markkannen would make his mark and $$$ in the NBA shooting 3's
Maybe it turns out if he played harder D he would be more coveted......

[sco]

I might be in the minority but I dont think he is miles better than what we have in Coby. Especially from a backup perspective. I hope he proves me wrong and also that we make more moves, but I wonder if we could have use those funds elsewhere.

TBH, if we don't have someone like Caruso we probably have to move on from Coby if we value winning.

The Lavine/Coby/Patrick trio was one of the worst in the league at -11.8 points per 100. Most of our 3 man combos are positive but we are always fighting uphill on how bad this 3 man starting perimeter performs.

You just swap out Williams for Temple, and all of a sudden Lavine/Coby/Temple is a positive +2.3 per 100. Because now there is at least 1 defender on the perimeter. Similarly, Lavine/Temple/Patrick was +3.9

Overall this is probably a good sign for White that we're going to try and make lineups with him work rather than getting someone competent on the defensive side to completely replace him. Because Caruso won't replace White's shot making.

Good point. I got the sense from the season-ending press conference that AK was pretty disappointed in Coby (and Sato), but also patient and willing to see his improvement next year. Either way, I still think the guy's shooting skills are way better than his percentages indicate. He just needs to grow up, get stronger, and frankly play behind some more developed players. Hopefully Caruso and Lonzo push him.

It really isn't a big deal holding onto him, even if he sees a really reduced role. I can't imagine a quality return at the moment. I thought he might be needed to complete a Lonzo deal, but hey - we got 3 new versatile PGs without shedding a core-piece yet. And we have the MLE left. So if he comes back in January, might be a real boost to have an excited (to be back) scorer jump-start the bench.

Either way, there are very few shooters left on the market. Pretty much Monk, old Lou and Lauri. Sounding like Lauri's out. All I know is the Bulls don't want to lose all their shooters after finally address perimeter passing/defense. They couldn't do much else, but Coby and Lauri spaced the floor. Looking like they make more sense on this team now, than they did before.

I hate Coby as our PG, but I am 100% open to him being our primary backup SG. Caruso gives us a guy who can be our back-up PG and take the tough defensive assignment and let Coby score. Moreover, Caruso can be our designated "Curry/Young stopper" (if anyone can do that). I can see him getting close to 30 minutes a night and being part of several rotation line-ups.

[SfBull]

I like Caruso.Just another good free agency move from AK showing one more time how his hiring was a tremendous upgrade over GarPax.

[FranchisePlayer]

Watch on YouTube

Got to love his eye for the game based on this.

I always took note of him because him being a goofy looking dude he was a sneaky athlete and a good nose for the rim. He surely isn't a top tier creator but he is athletic and can take it to people if he finds the mismatch or in the open floor. With enough spacing he can make the other team pay if the sag off of him and that's what you need to keep defenses honest. We don't need another ball dominate guard, just one that plays D and is competent on offense. He has also proved he can play well in meaningful games, not just garbage time blowouts. Nothing sexy about this signing but it is a solid one for sure.

I agree. I can't understand why people moan about the money and/or the term. On paper he's just the player this team needs.

An unselfish warrior with a clear head that tells you when and how to make the right moves. Like a rich man's Arci 3.0

IMO this could turn out to be a very sexy signing and I'm 100% straight.

[SfBull]

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Wow incredible, looks like coby is gone, where is gonna play?

Hopefully he'll develop his game playing for another team

[SfBull]

When the Lakers won the chip 2 seasons ago, he came through with timely play after timely play. He'll play some motivated defense and hit a big shot for us every now and then... but does this mean Coby is gone??

You're going for the logical conclusion,hope you're right.

[SfBull]

Would have rather signed Rose if they were spending that much

Drose was not taking less than 10 mil, the bench mob coming back

Drose got 3 yr 43 mil at 14 mil a year

Which is a deserved contract based on what he played for the Knicks last season.Happiness for him.

[SfBull]

Caruso stats per 21 MPG:

6.4ppg, 2.8ast, 1.1stl shooting 40% from 3.

He's 27, so those will be productive years. I like him much better than Sato. Dude's an energy guy on both ends. I think he learned a lot from LBJ. Will be a good role model. He's got good size at 6'4.

Lonzo is our starter with Caruso playing as his backup.Enough of Donovan's experiment starting Coby backed up by Sato.Huge,huge upgrade.