Cleveland Cavaliers: 2 key sellers for FA target Alex Caruso

#1: Caruso would help the Cavs defense, and would be multi-positional there

The first key seller for Caruso is how he’d help Cleveland’s defense, feasibly in bench minutes.

He’s more than capable of guarding 1s and 2s, and while him playing with the Los Angeles Lakers hasn’t hurt, his positioning there on-ball is sound. And in non-Darius Garland minutes, or with him, whether or not Sexton is traded, Caruso could handle things against key guard scoring/playmaking threats.

He is a player whose ball pressure makes him a factor in preventing penetration, and that could give Cleveland’s defense a boost with his point-of-attack work allowing others to be more aggressive.

Off-ball, Caruso is also a player that the Cavaliers could trust to be in the right spots as a rotator to aid in contesting shooters, and his recognition and effort makes him impactful stunting to drivers/slashers and his activity level makes him a threat jumping passing lanes/skip feeds. Caruso in the past two seasons has had 2.1 and 1.9 steals per-36 minutes for LA.

In turn, that could very well help the Cavs get some more transition production in games, admittedly, in a similar way to McConnell in that sense.

But a stark contrast between those two, as was touched on, with Caruso being 6-foot-4, even with him on the thinner side, with his feel and ability to shut off driving lanes even against 2s, and being more viable in deterring pull-ups, he’s very effective against 2s on-ball, too.

So the defensive abilities, to go with the multi-positional stuff, is one key seller for Caruso as a 2021 NBA Free Agency target for Cleveland.