Alex Caruso sat quietly at his locker inside the Oklahoma City Thunder locker room, far removed from the noise surrounding another historic milestone.
Instead of becoming outwardly emotional over the Thunder securing the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed for a third consecutive season, Alex Caruso focused on various intangibles that explain his enduring value. Following a post-game workout, Caruso consumed a protein shake. He then iced his knees.
Despite missing over 20 games this season due to a mix of injuries, the 32-year-old has remained a constant with his two-way impact, hustle, and leadership. The Thunder (64–16) clinched the West’s top seed for a third straight year, becoming the seventh team in NBA history to accomplish that feat—firmly placing this group in dynasty-level territory.
While Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s MVP-caliber season headlines the run, OKC’s depth has been just as critical. That includes Caruso, whose championship DNA—built during his 2020 run with the Los Angeles Lakers carried over into last season’s title and continues to define this roster.
“He’s incredibly versatile on both ends of the floor,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said of Caruso. “He has a great understanding of what we want to get done. He’s a real catalyst when it comes to communication on the team on and off the court. So he’s incredible. He’s invaluable to us. He’s a total winner. He’s a team guy and is constantly present at every moment of the day and every moment of the game.”
Caruso spoke to EssentiallySports about the Thunder’s recent milestone, his success with defending NBA stars and his case for Gilgeous-Alexander to win a second consecutive regular-season MVP award. After his post-game routine, Caruso also shed light on LeBron James’ training regimen when they played together with the Lakers (2018-21).
Editor’s note: The following one-on-one interview has been edited and condensed.
I’m aware you all have bigger goals. But what does clinching the No. 1 seed mean to you?
Caruso: “It’s important. It’s important to us given how the playoffs shaked out last year. You never know when you’re going to need to have home-court advantage in a crucial game. From that aspect, it’s really important. Then obviously you want to have that chip on your shoulder as the best team in the league and still defending your crown. So for us, I think it was about slowly chasing that throughout the season. For us, it’s a long season. It took us 80 games to get it done this year. So it’s diligent work. Guys are in and out the whole season. It’s a team accomplishment.”
You all have a lot of talent, including yourself. But when you look at the big picture, why do you think you have done a good job with avoiding the ‘championship hangover?’
Caruso: “We got really humble [guys]. Humility is a big thing on this team and this organization with players from a leadership standpoint. Some of our old guys like me and K-Rich [Kenrich Williams] down to guys that have played no years, or one or two years.
We’re all still motivated to be better, accomplish something and have a standard. I think that’s something that is free-flowing through this team. It makes it easy to show up night in and night out. No matter who is playing, we go after it.”
Mark praised you for how you communicate with the guys on and off the court. What has been your messaging?
Caruso: “It’s not really like a message. But different times throughout the year, there are different things that I think I’ve worked on as a pro, just as far as perspective and being present and understanding situations and being able to step out and look at something and analyze and then be back in the moment.
A lot of times, young guys can’t do that just due to lack of experience and not being in those moments and situations. I’ve been through a bunch of different ones, some crazy ones and some pretty normal NBA stuff. So I’m trying to keep their minds occupied and focused. Through this course of the season, you can hit lulls and get distracted.”
Beyond talent and depth, why have you all been able to absorb all the team’s different injuries?
Caruso: “We’re a ‘no-excuse’ team. That’s our thing. Whoever is playing, go out there and play to win and get the job done. That’s how you have to do it. The depth helps, obviously, and the amount of talent that we have. But we’ve played big lineups. We’ve played small lineups. There have been times this year where our three main ball handlers were all out. We were playing ‘get’ action with makeshift point guards with me and some other guys.
But it’s just the NBA. Every season is unpredictable. It’s a new script that you don’t know what’s going to happen and what’s going to come about. So you have to just be ready for whatever comes.”
For you personally, how did you deal with all of your different injuries from both a physical standpoint and being in and out of the lineup?
Caruso: “I’m not going to lie. It’s not easy. I like to try and make it as simple as possible, sometimes. But with a short offseason, maybe the mental reset is harder than the physical reset, at least in my opinion. Just staying hungry, knowing you have the marathon of a season to play. But it’s part of the challenge of being great.
You want to be great and you want to win multiple championships. You want to be at the top at the end and win the last game of the season. There’s hardship and there’s trials that come with that. So for me, I try to embrace that, knowing that whatever happens is going to make me a better player.”
You’ve been a prized defender for a while. But I looked up your tracking data with some of the matchups against [Kevin] Durant (2-for-6), Luka Dončić (0-for-2) and De’Aaron Fox (0-for-2). What did you do to pull that off against those players?
Caruso: “Small samples. There used to be bigger samples when I was in Chicago and was playing a lot more on-ball as the main defender. But it’s the attention to detail. It’s competitiveness. You’re chasing greatness. Anytime you’re playing against guys that are All-NBA , Hall-of-Fame potential guys, you relish the moments to play against them. You’re going to be able to tell people down the road that you competed and played against them.
I guess we have YouTube and film now, so we can show them. But just being able to talk about battling against guys like that, that’s going to be something that carries with you forever. Then it’s also about being super competitive. I want to win. I want to stand toe-to-toe with them and give it my best shot and see how many times I come out on top.”
How do deal with their physicality, trash talk and skills?
Caruso: “It’s difficult. It’s not easy. Part of that is matching the competitive greatness that they have. If you don’t make it tough on them, they’re going to make you look silly. I think having that no safety net under you is probably what drives me. It keeps my anxiety high enough to focus in those moments. It’s fun. You relish those moments to always play against the best players. I’ve always been like that, no matter what level that I’ve been at.”
Speaking of having anxiety, you defended Wemby and held him to 2-for-5. I know it’s a small sample size, but that’s pretty successful….
Caruso: “Yeah, that’s normally below what he shoots, I think.”
What was the anxiety experience like and the key to still have it play out that way?
Caruso: “Yeah, when I say ‘anxiety,’ it’s that there is a no-safety net feeling. You know that you either succeed or fail. Wanting to win and not wanting to lose and being competitive is that ‘fight-or-flight’ feeling. I kind of live for that, and that pushes me to be at my best. You really can go only get there against the best players.”
I know Shai doesn’t like to self-promote. But with you being his teammate, what would be your case for Shai winning MVP considering what he’s shown and the field he’s competing against?
Caruso: “You can’t get bored with greatness. I think we’ve fallen into that trap with people before with LeBron or [Nikola] Jokić. This happens over the course of NBA seasons where you take for granted what somebody is doing. It’s the consistency that he has played with the whole season from the jump in game one to game 80. He’s been the same best player in the league and best player in the world since then. So for me, take a look at the guy. The guy is doing the exact same thing that he did last year after having no offseason and carrying a team to a championship. That’s pretty impressive to me.”
He gets that whole ‘free-throw merchant’ tag. But he does a lot of things to create those opportunities. What does he do so well with that?
Caruso: “Yeah, he leads the league in drives. He’s the top-2 in the league in drives with Giannis [Antetokounmpo]. He’s really difficult to guard. He’s shifty. He’s long. He’s athletic. His body control is elite. He can make a shot from anywhere on three levels. There’s no solution that you can just point to and say, ‘Okay, that’s how we stop him tonight.’ I think that’s probably what makes him dangerous.”
Given where LeBron is at in his career, what is your favorite moment that you observed about his regimen that explains his longevity?
Caruso: “He would be the first one in the gym. He’s the guy that shows up early for a 7 o’clock game. I had the first shooting time, and he’s on the court and going through his regimen. With he and Mike Mancias, he ices up after. He gets a pre-workout before that. He is one of the guys that I took to see that you have to have a routine. You have to be consistent. And this is how you stay in the league and have success.”
Mark Medina is an NBA insider for EssentiallySports. Follow him on X, Blue Sky, Instagram, Facebook and Threads.
