The pinky finger on Alex Karuso’s right hand does not look like a specific pinky. Around the middle knuckle, it emerges as a small marble was transplanted under the skin. This will not be surprising for anyone, who sees Karuso playing basketball that this minor disintegration is the result of throwing his body around the court.
Karuso said during a phone interview before the 2025 NBA final, “When I was on the ground during a game, someone stepped on it,” Karuso said during a phone interview before the 2025 NBA final. However, it may be surprising that how old he was when hurt.
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“I think it was, eg, in the first or second grade,” he said.
So, yes, the player we have seen throughout the playoffs, and with the Oklahoma City Thunder in their first season, and in the last five sessions, caruso is always there. Running, diving, swiping, a spot of activity that looks like a tornado with weapons – all of this naturally comes to him. In court, this is the breathing version of Caruso.
(James Pawelczyk/Yahoo Sports Illustration)
“I remember when he first began playing with us,” a medical equipment recalled salesman Jason Bulad, who was part of a group of 30- and 40 years from the college station, Texas region, with Caruso played a pick-up while living in a middle school. “He runs around, protects everyone, takes and goes, and just creates all kinds of chaos,” said Bullard. “Some people will also get angry. This will happen, ‘Who is this small child who is trying to steal the ball every time?”
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Caruso was involved in the game – local businessmen, Blue Caller Workers, Texas A&M consisted of a professor – after stumbling in a night at night below the road from his home. He will quit dinner, showing his own ball 30 minutes ago that he would start and show off that he was there to shoot there, hoping that he would need another need. Within about a year, he was a regular.
The court has the ability to wreak havoc, which propelled 31, 31, 31 from an unpublished guard in 2016, close to a contract to play abroad in NBA. But what has been changed to one of the great players of this decade, which has been changed to the final matchup of Thunder in the final matchup on Indiana pacers. After the victory of the 123–107 series-hinging game 2, now there is only three wins from another ring, they have the ability to build and refine on those skills. These days, Caruso is higher than just one basketball version of the Tasmanian Devil. In fact, ask them about the tendency of their style to create anarchy and he will bat on that details.
“I think it is for another team when you use the word ‘chaos’,” he said. “To create chaos for them and think of them and guess another.
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“For us, I am trying to settle and make rhythm and flow.” More than this, Caruso said, “He is trying to understand what we are going to do and then putting people in positions where they can simply play and do not need to think.”
It took Caruso time to reach this point. Kobhi Carl said, “They needed to refine the risk/reward that he is now so well.” Karl recalled the current Thunder Head Coach Mark Dignalt during the 2017-18 season, when Daigneault was leading the G Leg team of Thunder. The conversation turned to Caruso, who spent the previous season with Daigneault before the thunder left. “He described him as Brett Favor,” Karl recalled. “It was so, whether he was trying to thread on a needle or trying to jump a passing lane for a theft, he was always going to go for it.”
When Karuso reunited with Daigneault on Thunder in the last summer after a business from Chicago Bulls, he became his own 2.0 version, a player whose ability to process the game has been required for his ability to influence him. Thunder coaches and players have surprised throughout the year how Caruso is capable of absorbing sports plans and identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing players. This is why so many so many credited him for the fourth leap in the defensive ratings in the last season – despite that Caruso averaged just 19.2 minutes per game per game in a regular session.
[Mark Daignault] He described him as Brett Favor. Whether he was trying to thread a needle on a nearby or trying to jump a passing lane for a theft, he was always going to go for it.
Kobi Carl, former G League Coach
Thunder Big Man Chet Holmagren said before the final, “One of the most important things he has come here and teaches us that it is important to execute the details.” “You will see many times that he makes a huge game there, and it actually comes down to an inch. Was it at the right place for a few inches? Is he able to reach the ball and remove it to a few inches? To know where you should be and when you need to execute it and show it really and it tells that it tells
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It is a role-Ulot for Karuso. The last time he was playing for a claimant, during the 2019-20 season, he was with Laks when he was a newbie who was trying to absorb as much as possible from the experienced team’s companions. There, Karuso was able to earn equal to the NBA master’s degree. He said that the key was the confidence of speaking and sharing his thoughts, despite being 25 years old out of G League.
“I was not afraid of being wrong,” he said, “and this helped me grow. Sometimes you get correct through mistakes.”
In LA, playing with Lebron James and Anthony Davis, Caruso completed the role of Wingman for the stars. The coaches of Lacs surprised how he often predicted that Lebron preferred to stay at home and then rotated his rotation for him, or on the crime, or how he felt well to make an off-goal cut to get the ball, but to trigger a shift that would benefit a teammate. And certainly more clear drama, 3S and rapid break and theft and deflection. Caruso became one of the most frightened defenders in the League, a major cog of the 2020 title of Lakes.
Alex Caruso played an important role for Laks during his 2020 title. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
(associated Press)
Caruso was ready to lead an NBA team on his own until he left as a free agent for Bulls in 2021. Like the LA, his basketball IQ awakened Chicago’s coaching staff, as he stepped into court, as he stepped into court.
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But the group was most impressed that he had an understanding to communicate with the teammates. It is said that a player was having difficulty in absorbing a plan or concept during the morning of a game. “If this is someone who can be hard work, he will give them, like, a harsh ‘Come!” Clap and say, ‘We need to get this right!’ ‘Longstaff said. “And if it is someone who needs to contact more slowly, he takes his time, draws it to one side and says something on the lines of, ‘We need you for this game, if you come to the game, we need to do this,’ and he will do all this while putting his hand on his shoulder.”
Bulls gave a big role to Karuso, and they responded with their best statistical sessions, as well as a pair of all-defensive team honors. Chicago, however, was not ready to compete for a title. Thunders were – and they were looking for another piece to help give place to their championship puzzle. General Manager Sam Presti, who allowed Karuso to run eight years ago, believed that it was caruso. He always lived due to skill, but also new people who added on the way.
“I think it helps to elevate the entire group if you can have those types of brains, and we really wanted the heart and head in the building,” Presty said during a presence press conference after receiving carcoses in the business of 21 -year -old point guard Josh Gide.
The evaluation and instinct of prestio turned out to be correct. In court, the influence of caruso is clear. When he is playing, the thunder already improves in the historical point. They have spent shading the playoffs, and bottom, all skills and size players, from explosive guards such as J Mirent, to hurt veterans like Nicola Jokik. No NBA player has passed more passes towards this poston. He has been drilled by more than 40% of his triple. In December, Thunder signed him four years, $ 81 million extension.
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But ask Caruso to name some moments that he is the most proud of, and he would point to a game where he scored just two points in less than 10 minutes. This was the second round game 2. The thunder was facing the nuggets, and a crushed 121–119 was coming from the loss of the house, in which the thunder had a double-point lead. Later in the locker room, Caruso can understand “some angle and disappointment from people”, he said. It reminded him of his 2020 title run, when Laks had dropped the first game in each of the first two rounds.
“I remember a lot that those conversations have been included especially with Lebron, [Rajon] Rondo and other old people during that run, “Karuso said.” And his original message was, ‘We are going back and watching the film and we will see that we have messed up the game plan goods, and it is easy to fix all this. “And so he was here, after five years, after the game 1 playoff necklace, he sat in a cold tub, ready to provide the same text.
“I told the group,” These were our mistakes. We gave them, we are going to correct it, and it will be fine, “he said. Thunder came out of the next game and ran the Nagets from the floor in a 43 -point win.
After the loss of his game 1 in the final, the Thunder returned to a similar position. And once again, there was a calm effect for the caruso group. Talking to reporters a day after the loss, he sang a few areas where he believed that the thunder could improve – “being a little more efficient in the infection and perhaps not forcing it to the rim and was playing two feet ago in the game and was spraying the ball a little” – but he clarified that he was not worried.
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Two days later, the Thunder returned to the floor, and this time Caruso decided that he was going to take matters into his hands. He was everywhere, bending the ball-handlers and blowing the screen and flying over and down the court and removing 3S. He ended with 20 points – a mark that he never hit during a regular season – in 27 minutes of action from the bench, including four 3s, inspired Oklahoma City to win.
After the game, a reporter asked Holmagren about Caruso’s “Energy levels for a 30 -year -old man”.
Holmagren smiled because he thought how to answer.
He said, “Do not disrespect our goat in this way,” he said.