Chicago Bulls projected starting point guard: Alex Caruso
With so much uncertainty surrounding Lonzo Ball’s recovery from knee surgery, the Bulls could turn to either veteran guard Alex Caruso, second-year incumbent Ayo Dosunmu, or the perpetually frustrating Coby White. In theory, Dragic could start for this team, but let’s hope things don’t come to that.
Caruso’s pliability with Chicago’s other star players should give him the inside track to crack the starting lineup. Last year, the former Texas A&M Aggie produced positive net ratings when sharing the floor with DeMar DeRozan (plus-9.9), Zach LaVine (plus-1.0), and Vučević (plus-0.5), with much of that value coming via his pestering defense (+2.1 defensive Estimated Plus-Minus, 94th percentile).
Caruso doesn’t offer much on offense outside of the occasional shrewd cut (1.42 points per possession on 0.6 cuts per game, per Synergy) and his sturdy screens (75th percentile in BBall Index’s Screening Talent metric [subscription required]), but his willingness to aggravate whoever the Bulls need him to on defense covers for whatever he doesn’t provide on the other end.
Chicago will need him to do that again this year — especially if Ball isn’t ready for the start of the season.