7 Players the Oklahoma City Thunder gave up on too soon

By Elaine Blum | Mar 24, 2023

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Alex Caruso, Oklahoma City Thunder front office mistakes

Alex Caruso (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /

6. Alex Caruso

In 2017, the Thunder waived Alex Caruso before he ever even suited up for a single game. To be fair, the Oklahoma front office was not the only one that didn’t have faith in Caruso, as he initially went undrafted. Since the Thunder waived him, he has won a title with the Lakers and then went on to become a reliable role player for the Chicago Bulls, though.

Caruso still isn’t a big scorer, but he can impact games beyond that. He carved out his role as a top defender, and his talent on that end of the floor is enough to earn him 24 minutes of playing time per game.

Night after night, the Bulls trust Caruso to take on some of the toughest defensive assignments. Despite guarding incredibly talented scorers and ballhandlers – the five players he has matched up with most this season are Donovan Mitchell, Stephen Curry, Tyrese Haliburton, Jalen Brunson, and Jayson Tatum – he generates turnovers at a high level and sits on top of the NBA leaderboard in deflections per game with 5.2.

So, it turns out that even though the Thunder gave up on him, Caruso found his place in the league.

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