Caruso reached the Western Conference finals, and the Lakers were only willing to offer him $14 million for two years, and now they regret it

First of all, I will bring you James's latest news, this old man took his wife to a charity dinner yesterday, and the Chinese skier Gu Ailing, who we are familiar with, also posted a playful photo with Lao Zhan.

Today, the Thunder defeated the Nuggets 125-93 at home to win the tiebreaker and eliminate the opponent 4-3 to enter the Western Conference finals. The final four teams are the Timberwolves, Thunder, Pacers and Knicks. This year, there will be a team to end the championship drought, the Pacers Timberwolves have never won a championship, and the last time the Thunder Knicks won a championship was in the 70s of the last century.

The Nuggets' Aaron Gordon really fought today, he originally suffered a second-degree hamstring strain and needed to miss several weeks, but he started the game today, playing 24 minutes and getting 8 points and 11 rebounds.

After winning the Nuggets and advancing to the Western Conference finals, Alexander posted a picture with the caption: "When I smile, they think I'm messing around." ”

After the Nuggets led the Thunder 2-1 at the time, Alexander laughed as he left the court, which was criticized by the outside world. Now that the 4-3 reversal is promoted, Alexander, as the victor, has the confidence to send such a dynamic.

But the key figure to talk about today is Caruso. Played 25 minutes, shot 5-of-7, 1-of-3 three-pointers, scored 11 points, 3 assists and 3 steals, and the plus/minus was a game-high +40. In this round of the series, Caruso staged many steals and counterattacks to break fast, and also switched to Jokic, Gordon and others many times, and the effect of limiting Murray was also good.

Caruso shined, so Lakers reporter Trevor Lane tweeted after watching the game-stealing: "It makes no sense for the Lakers to let Caruso go in the first place, and this decision will only look worse and worse as time goes on!" ”

In the 2021 offseason, restricted free agent Caruso was willing to renew his contract with the Lakers for three years and $30 million, but the Lakers were only willing to offer a two-year, $14 million contract with an annual salary of $7 million. Caruso approached Lakers management many times, hoping that the team would increase wages or extend the length of his contract, but the Lakers just wouldn't do it.

At that time, Caruso was fragrant and sweet, and there was no shortage of families at all, and many teams threw olive branches to Caruso, and finally Caruso chose to sign with the Bulls for 4 years and $37 million, and the Lakers did not match the contract.

Caruso signed with the Bulls on August 3, 2021. The next day, the Lakers opted to sign Horton Tucker to a three-year, $32 million contract. That said, between Caruso and Tucker, the Lakers are more bullish on Tucker's future.

Everyone has also seen the rest of the story, in December 2024, the Thunder renewed Caruso with a four-year, $81 million contract. And this season's Tucker, playing for the Bulls, signed only a partially guaranteed contract. Caruso became an integral part of the Thunder, and Tucker's role with the Bulls was dispensable, perhaps even reduced to the point of no ball to play.

In the regular season this season, Caruso averaged 19.3 minutes per game, scoring 7.1 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.6 blocks, shooting 44.6% from the field, 35.3% from three-point range, and 82.4% from the free throw line.

In the playoffs, Caruso played an average of 22.5 minutes per game, scoring 9.3 points, 2.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.8 steals and 0.6 blocks, shooting 45.6% from the field, 41.7% from three-point range, and 66.7% from the free throw line.

The Lakers management has had a lot of tricks over the years, but in the case of Caruso, they made a mistake and was recognized as a huge mistake. Now your intestines are going to be repentant, right?