Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander offers ‘annoying’ evaluation of Alex Caruso at observe

On Monday, the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder held their annual Media Day, giving reporters and followers an opportunity to listen to from a few of their favourite gamers, together with final 12 months’s MVP runner up Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Gilgeous-Alexander enters this 12 months as one of many favorites to compete for the award as soon as once more, and the Thunder are extensively anticipated to be among the many NBA’s elite groups in 2024-25.

One of many causes why was the Thunder’s offseason acquisition of taking pictures guard Alex Caruso from the Chicago Bulls in trade for guard Josh Giddey, who by no means fairly discovered a task with the present iteration of this Thunder workforce.

After observe on Tuesday, Gilgeous-Alexander acquired hilariously candid about what it has been like going towards Caruso to date, per Brandon Rahbar of Every day Thunder on X, previously Twitter

“Precisely because it’s been prior to now: annoying as hell,” stated Gilgeous-Alexander. “Pesky, picks you up full courtroom, get beneath you. Then offensively, he makes the proper play, the good play.”

How a lot does Caruso carry the Thunder’s ceiling?

Most likely fairly a bit.

Perimeter protection was an space of concern for the Thunder throughout their second spherical playoff loss to the Dallas Mavericks a season in the past, and Caruso is without doubt one of the NBA’s absolute best in that division, persistently taking over opposing workforce’s greatest scorers and making them work for each bucket they get.

There may be additionally the proposition of some addition by subtracting in that, for giant parts of the postseason, Giddey was nearly unplayable as a consequence of his lack of perimeter taking pictures means. Whereas Caruso will not be a sniper from on the market, he’s nonetheless somebody who defenses need to respect from past the arc, which ought to present rather more spacing for Gilgeous-Alexander to have the ability to get to his spots.

The Thunder additionally shored up their different largest weak point, rebounding, by signing free agent middle Isaiah Hartenstein to a contract that will have been barely above his actual worth however continues to be going to take quite a lot of strain off of Chet Holmgren, who stays fairly skinny for a giant man within the NBA.

On paper, the Thunder have an excellent roster constructed to compete within the trendy NBA, and maybe the one factor wanted now’s extra expertise, because the workforce confirmed its lack of that at occasions of their loss vs the Mavericks.

In any case, Oklahoma Metropolis opens up its season on October 24 on the highway vs the Denver Nuggets.