Thunder GM Sam Presti explains biggest hold up on potential Alex Caruso contract extension
09/25/2024 04:35 PM
Earlier this offseason, the Oklahoma City Thunder made one of the bigger trades of the summer by dealing guard Josh Giddey to the Chicago Bulls for three and D wing Alex Caruso. While the trade was an acknowledgement of a failure in drafting Giddey, the move should help bring increased perimeter defense and floor spacing to a Thunder offense that stagnated against the Dallas Mavericks in last year’s postseason.
One key question surrounding the Caruso acquisition was what the Thunder will do about his contract situation. 2024-25 is currently slated to be the last year on Caruso’s deal, and Giddey would seem to have been quite a bit to give up to get a one year rental for a player of Caruso’s caliber.
However, Thunder general manager Sam Presti seems to be confident that the team can work something out with the wing long term, even if it will take some time, per Rylan Stiles of the Locked on Thunder podcast on X, formerly Twitter.
“We can't have that conversation until December. When we can we will [have that conversation]…We know enough to want to have him here for a really long time,” said Presti.
How much does Alex Caruso improve the Thunder?
Probably quite a bit.
While Josh Giddey is a talented playmaker, he needs the ball in order to be successful, making his fit next to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander questionable at best, especially considering his shooting struggles.
Those struggles were fully exploited by the Mavericks in the playoffs, eventually forcing the Thunder to bring Giddey off of the bench.
Now Oklahoma City brings in Caruso, a steady three and D role player who is one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA even on the wrong side of 30 years old and is a reliable marksman from outside the arc.
Caruso figures to provide a stabilizing presence to a Thunder squad that showed their inexperience at times in the loss vs the Mavericks, and should also shore up their defense against the plethora of talented guards in the Western Conference.
The Thunder also brought in big man Isaiah Hartenstein from the New York Knicks in free agency, which should help the team address their other notable weakness, which was controlling the backboard.
With these new pieces intact, the Thunder will hope to once again secure the conference’s number one seed and this time make an even deeper push into the playoffs.
Oklahoma City begins its season on October 24 vs the Denver Nuggets.
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