Since the Oklahoma City Thunder sent Josh Giddey to the Chicago Bulls for Alex Caruso, the move has paid nothing but dividends.
Caruso has been limited during the regular season to preserve his health, but he's been a major factor in each of Oklahoma City's last two playoff runs. He's the type of player that can dial up the intensity—and the clutch perimeter shooting—in the biggest moments of the season.
To this point, though, Caruso's presence has largely been a luxury for the Thunder. He is an extra, capable weapon in a stacked backcourt that could be leveraged whenever the team needed an extra dose of perimeter defense.
With the departure of Lu Dort this offseason (and, to some extent, Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe), Caruso's role has now become infinitely more important. He's now one of the two remaining elite perimeter defenders on the roster, and Oklahoma City may need to ask him to set aside some of the minutes restrictions that have defined his tenure with the team.
Alex Caruso is going to need to take on a larger regular season role for the Thunder. Will it matter when the playoffs arrive?
Can Caruso play extended regular season minutes? Absolutely.
Although he was largely a bench contributor during his four seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, he averaged 28.0, 23.5, and 28.7 minutes across his three seasons with the Chicago Bulls.
When he arrived with the Thunder, though, the team had the luxury to reduce his workload in order to avoid some of the injury issues that plagued him during his time in Los Angeles. He's averaged just 19.3 and 18.2 minutes over his two campaigns in Oklahoma City. As long as he was good to go for the playoffs, the Thunder had the depth to survive the regular season without him.
But the margin for error is rapidly decreasing in the Western Conference. Not only did the San Antonio Spurs put up a real challenge for the one-seed last season, but the Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers, and Minnesota Timberwolves should all be able to take strides forward in 2026-27.
It's not like Oklahoma City has simply brushed off the regular season over the past two years. But they'll likely need all of their weapons available if they want to come away with the top seed again.
So much of their swarming defensive scheme, moreover, is reliant on having capable perimeter defenders on the floor. Cason Wallace is one of the most disruptive in the league, and if he slides into the starting lineup over Ajay Mitchell, that problem will be solved pretty immediately. But who takes on that mantle for the bench unit?
The answer is obviously Caruso. Perhaps it's simply a workload increase of just a couple minutes or a game here or there where Caruso otherwise would've rested but the Thunder need him to play.
But those things add up over the course of an 82-game regular season. Oklahoma City will, therefore, be presenting Caruso with a test of endurance and availability that he hasn't faced since he left Chicago.
A major part of the Thunder's season could be riding on his ability to meet that challenge head-on.
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