Chicago Bulls players that were stolen away from the Lakers: Alex Caruso
There is no better definition of a player that the Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley stole away from the Lakers than the defensive stopper point guard Alex Caruso. Karnisovas and Eversley signed Caruso away from the Lakers in free agency during the offseason.
It sounds like the price tag that Karnisovas and the Bulls were willing to pay for Caruso was just bigger than Rob Pelinka and the Lakers were willing to give him. The Bulls signed Caruso to a four-year contract worth a total of around $37 million. That seemed a little bit pricy at the time, but the defensive impact that Caruso brings to the table for the Bulls is untold.
The price tag that the Bulls signed Caruso to seems to be worth it right now.
Caruso currently has one of the best defensive box plus/minuses on the team. And he’s shooting north of 35 percent from beyond the arc, adding a valuable floor spacing component to this backcourt unit.
The fact that Caruso is capable of playing in the starting five shows just how valuable he is to this team. Donovan and the Bulls have the most effective five-man combination of the regular season thus far with four of the remaining healthy starters right now along with Caruso. It’s looking like a really solid move at the moment for the Bulls’ front office to sign Caruso away from the Lakers in free agency during the summer.