On Monday, the Oklahoma City Thunder held their annual Media Day, giving reporters and fans a chance to hear from some of their favorite players, including last year's MVP runner up Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Gilgeous-Alexander enters this year as one of the favorites to compete for the award once again, and the Thunder are widely expected to be among the NBA's elite teams in 2024-25.
One of the reasons why was the Thunder's offseason acquisition of shooting guard Alex Caruso from the Chicago Bulls in exchange for guard Josh Giddey, who never quite found a role with the current iteration of this Thunder team.
After practice on Tuesday, Gilgeous-Alexander got hilariously candid about what it's been like going against Caruso so far, per Brandon Rahbar of Daily Thunder on X, formerly Twitter
“Exactly as it’s been in the past: annoying as hell,” said Gilgeous-Alexander. “Pesky, picks you up full court, get underneath you. Then offensively, he makes the right play, the smart play.”
How much does Caruso lift the Thunder's ceiling?
Probably quite a bit.
Perimeter defense was an area of concern for the Thunder during their second round playoff loss to the Dallas Mavericks a season ago, and Caruso is one of the NBA's very best in that department, consistently taking on opposing team's best scorers and making them work for every bucket they get.
There is also the proposition of some addition by subtracting in that, for large portions of the postseason, Giddey was virtually unplayable due to his lack of perimeter shooting ability. While Caruso may not be a sniper from out there, he is still someone who defenses have to respect from beyond the arc, which should provide much more spacing for Gilgeous-Alexander to be able to get to his spots.
The Thunder also shored up their other biggest weakness, rebounding, by signing free agent center Isaiah Hartenstein to a contract that may have been slightly above his real value but is still going to take a lot of pressure off of Chet Holmgren, who remains quite thin for a big man in the NBA.
On paper, the Thunder have an ideal roster built to compete in the modern NBA, and perhaps the only thing needed now is more experience, as the team showed its lack of that at times in their loss vs the Mavericks.
In any case, Oklahoma City opens up its season on October 24 on the road vs the Denver Nuggets.
Follow Us
Subscribe
