Where in the World is Alex Caruso? Elite Backcourt Defense, 76ers Keep Adding, and Other Bulls Bullets

I’m now a proud doggie daddy, and I wouldn’t be doing that role justice if I didn’t share some photos:

Now, let’s talk about basketball before she wakes up and demands to play fetch.

  • An Alex Caruso travel vlog is not the content I expected, but it’s now the content I crave!
  • What Caruso is doing overseas is anyone’s guess, but I can’t imagine the plan is to stay too long. Not only are players expected to return to the United Center in the coming weeks, but he has another visit already scheduled in a few months. The Bulls matchup against the Detroit Pistons in Paris is set for January 19th, so perhaps Caruso is using this time to scout good eats for later this winter. What a kind teammate!
  • I’ll give you a chance to guess:
  • The answer is deflections per game. And can you guess who finished right below Caruso and Gary Trent Jr.? That’s right, Lonzo Ball. I know we constantly talk about how vital the Caruso-Ball tandem was for the Bulls in their brief playing time together this season, but a stat like this is why. Having this top-10 duo as the first line of defense has an extremely important ripple effect across the roster. Ball and Caruso were masters of picking pockets, jumping passing lanes, and disrupting the point of attack. Losing each of these two for as long as the Bulls did is understandably a big deal, and it’s also reasonable for the front office to believe this team is capable of great things on both ends when they are healthy.
  • The problem, however, is assuming both can stay healthy. We all know Lonzo Ball’s situation remains as worrisome as possible, and Caruso has never played over 64 games in a season. Banking on this backcourt duo to anchor your defense makes sense on paper, but we saw how risky it could be last season.
  • If the Bulls find themselves in a position where they need to add even more defensive reinforcements down the road, doing so could be somewhat difficult. When it comes to tradable draft capital, the team is rather thin. As of now, the only pick that feels somewhat acceptable to part ways with is the lottery-protected first-rounder from Portland that the front office acquired as part of the three-team Lauri Markkanen deal. If this team is contending, could packaging that with Coby White at the deadline help fill a hole? I guess that depends on whether White can improve his stock this year.
  • After a rather underwhelming free agency period, the Bulls fall smack in the middle when it comes to David Aldridge’s offseason improvement rankings. Makes sense to me.
  • The Philadelphia 76ers will end up somewhere inside The Athletic’s top-10, especially after they continued adding solid role players on Tuesday with the signing of Montrzel Harrell. While the Bulls are now a little more formidable up front with Andre Drummond in town, I remain extremely nervous about playing this Philly team (especially considering they already swept Chicago last season). With Joel Embiid, PJ Tucker, and Harrell in the frontcourt, this team has solid options on both ends.
  • I’m sure this will all go over swimmingly!
  • Traded for the second-straight offseason, Lauri Markkanen may have had a rage-filled game for Finland in EuroBasket 2022. The former lottery pick dropped 34 points with 10 rebounds against former teammate Tomas Satoransky and the Czech Republic. After all the ups and downs the Bulls went through with this dude, I can’t believe he’s just 25 years old. He still has plenty of time to still carve out an impactful role in this league.
  • These are facts.
  • GIVE ME FOOTBALL!
  • written by

    Elias Schuster is the Lead Chicago Bulls writer at Bleacher Nation. He started with BN full-time in 2019 immediately after graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign with a degree in Journalism (yes, he started with the Jim Boylen Era). Since joining, Elias has been the driving force behind Bulls and NBA content for both the site and social accounts. You can follow him on Twitter/X @Schuster_Elias.

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