The latest round of 2021 NBA All-Star voting was released on Thursday, and one name grabbed the Internet's attention more than any other: Los Angeles Lakers fourth-year guard Alex Caruso.
In the updated tally, which revealed the top-10 vote-getters at each “position” per conference, Caruso is currently in 10th place among Western Conference backcourt players. He's the only Laker on the list not named LeBron James (the overall leading vote-getter) or Anthony Davis.
https://twitter.com/hmfaigen/status/1359910393355718657
In some ways, the CaruShow's inclusion shouldn't come as a total surprise. The combo guard has not only transcended cult status to become a mainstream favorite of Lakers fans, but he's genuinely turned into one of the most useful players and crunch-time contributors for the league's most high-profile franchise. (One year ago, he performed shockingly well in early rounds of fan voting, too.)
Is he an All-Star? No, that can't be justified. But, he has undeniably become one of the most valuable players for the Lakers this season, and his team is well-aware of it.
Two weeks ago, after he helped spark a last-ditch 11-0 run that nearly earned L.A. a victory over the Philadelphia 76ers, James praised Caruso's versatility.
“AC is whatever we need,” LeBron said in his postgame remarks. “AC is kind of a Swiss Army Knife, to be honest. Whether you need scissors, a wine opener, the fingernail clipper, a knife, he’s all of that in one. He can do it all. He just helps our ball club in so many different ways. … He can bring the ball up and play the point, he can play off of the ball. He’s shooting like a deadeye from three this year. He defends at a high level and he doesn’t make many mistakes. … You can live with a guy on the floor like that, who just plays championship basketball.”
Caruso made massive crunch-time plays throughout the Lakers 5-2 road trip. He helped seal a one-point win over the Boston Celtics with heroic last-second hustle, getting back on defense to help prevent a fast-break buzzer-beater.
“One of the best defensive plays of the year,” Lakers head coach Frank Vogel said after the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1-6QqM6DD8
Vogel doubled-down on his plaudits a couple of days later.
“He’s certainly one of our best players,” Vogel told reporters last Monday. “That’s the simplest way to put it. He typically moves the needle in a positive direction … Alex is just one of those guys that impacts both ends of the floor.”
Caruso is averaging only 5.5 points in 18.6 minutes per game, and he's missed seven games due to contact tracing and a hand strain. But, his value is evident, in the data and via the old' eye test.
Of the 11 Lakers who have played substantial minutes this season, Caruso has the highest Net Rating. He ranks first in NBA.com's Player Impact Estimate figure. He's fourth on the team in plus/minus. Furthermore, AC has been a part of five of the Lakers' 13 most-used lineup combinations. Four of those combos rank amongst L.A.'s best lineups. The outlier is the starting group.
In other words, the best team in basketball is always better when Caruso is on the floor.
Individual Net Rating is a flawed metric, but, FWIW, Caruso does rank third amongst Western Conference guards, behind Mike Conley Jr. (a likely All-Star) and Patrick Beverley.
Just track Caruso during a game, and you'll see a player who helps in a million subtle ways, displays elite instincts on both ends, and seemingly always makes a positive action, whether it's a swing, a backdoor cut, or a strategic deflection. He leads the Lakers in assist percentage and is shooting 47.3% from deep.
“(He) really, really impacts our defense, and his versatility offensively, the ability to knock down threes and also make plays off the bounce, be a good screener, be a crasher, be a roller in LeBron’s pick and rolls, they’re all ways that he impacts the offensive end as well,” Vogel said.
Alex Caruso should definitely be higher on the list 👀🐐 pic.twitter.com/7QuZ8cF8F5
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) February 11, 2021
Realistically, no #Lakers Twitter movement could feasibly gin up enough votes to earn Caruso an All-Star nod. He's the lowest vote-getter among anybody on that graphic, many hundreds of thousands of votes behind superstars Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic, and Damian Lillard. (Plus, the fan support accounts for 50% of the vote for the starters, while reserves are chosen by coaches.)
As amusing as it is to envision the CaruShow running with the stars in Atlanta, it would be a relative travesty if he qualified (though maybe not as criminal as having the game in the first place). Just for fun, here are some of the West guards who currently trail the Lakers' Caruso in All-Star voting: Conley, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, De'Aaron Fox, DeMar DeRozan, Malik Beasley, Victor Oladipo, John Wall, Jamal Murray, Eric Gordon.
For his part, Caruso understands his place in the league's hierarchy.
“I never want to take any credit away from guys that are truly deserving of being All-Stars that have had great seasons,” Caruso told Marc Stein of the New York Times last year. “The fan vote part of it is just, I guess, a compliment to how hard I’ve worked to get here.”
Perhaps the Lakers' Bald Eagle can soar in the dunk contest or Swiss-army-knife his way into the skills competition. If not, he'll just have to continue settling for his role as a key member of the championship frontrunner.
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