In some alternate universe, Alex Caruso would be the ideal successor to the now-departed Lu Dort in the starting rotation.
With Dort now out in Atlanta, Oklahoma City is looking to fill his vacated role as starting shooting guard. Given his incredibly versitile defensive abilities and well-documented leadership skills, one could make the case that Caruso is the ideal archetype to serve as the club's new primary two.
Unfortunately for him, however, the main drawback to thrusting him into such a role is his long-standing injury history.
Throughout his decade-long career in the association, Caruso has logged north of 65 games just twice and, even while holding a bench role during his two-season stint with the Thunder so far, has yet to play in as many as 60.
Thunder can't afford to push starting wear and tear on Alex Caruso
The primary goal for this OKC team is to dominate the playoffs and, ultimately, take home another NBA Championship.
Though Caruso has been and will certainly continue to be a core contributor in coach Mark Daigneault's rotation during the regular season, his importance to this team only doubles come playoff time.
From his second-best playoff plus-minus rating and net rating of plus-8.1 and 16.4, respectively, to his lights-out 44.6 percent success rate from long-range, once the lights are at their brightest come the postseason, the veteran has only proven himself capable of rising to the occasion.
With this in mind, and given his long-standing injury woes, one of the biggest tasks for this Thunder squad when it comes to Caruso should always be to find a way to keep him healthy and spry come playoff time.
Adding starter minutes and an uptick in usage to his plate certainly doesn't seem like the ideal recipe for accomplishing that.
Thunder have plenty of options to replace Lu Durt in starting lineup
Fortunately for the Thunder, they have a plethora of options that they could turn to in order to keep Caruso in his same vital role off the pine.
While the most likely Lu Dort replacement option is widely believed to be Cason Wallace, what with his established All-Defensive chops and the fact that he has regularly served as his replacement in the first-five lineup throughout his career to date, he is far from the only enticing candidate.
Let's not forget that the Thunder went 15-1 throughout the regular season, and then a ridiculous 7-0 during the playoffs, with Ajay Mitchell slotted into the starting rotation.
Jared McCain also found a way to up his level of play when called to enter the first five unit during the high-stakes postseason by dropping an impressive 16.5 points, 3.0 assists, and 2.5 rebounds on 41.7 percent shooting from deep in such instances.
Now, again, Wallace may be the most obvious choice for the role, as he just had the Thunder placing in the 94 percentile in point differential (plus-11.9), the 96 percentile in opponent turnover percentage (17.6), and the 97 percentile in opponent points per 100 possessions (105.7) when he was on the floor in 2025-26, but it's safe to say that coach Daigneault has a vast collection of options to choose from heading into training camp.
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