It has been exactly six months since Alex Caruso was traded from Chicago to Oklahoma City, meaning the extend-and-trade restrictions imposed on the veteran guard during that half-year window have lifted.
Caruso is now eligible to sign an extension with the Thunder worth up to $81,096,960 over four years. Prior to Saturday, his maximum extension would have been worth $48,875,400 over three years.
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Speaking to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link), Caruso admitted he didn’t realized that Saturday was an important day related to his contract status, adding that he’s focused on helping the Thunder win games and compete for a title. But he did concede it “would be awesome” to sign a long-term deal to remain with the Western Conference’s top-seeded team.
“Obviously this is a place that I think is ascending and that’s something I want to be a part of,” Caruso told Fischer. “That’s why I’m here. I think the writing is on the wall. People don’t trade for guys in the last year of their contracts unless they expect to keep ’em for a while.
“That’s just the business part of it. So I’m looking forward to having that conversation with (Thunder general manager) Sam (Presti). Everything that the Thunder stand for are things that I stand for. I think their focus, their drives and desires, are the same as mine. It’s been a good fit and I’m looking forward to hopefully a couple more years.”
Caruso is earning $9.89MM in the final season of the four-year, $37MM contract he signed with the Bulls in 2021. He’s eligible to sign for up to 140% of this season’s estimated average salary ($12.93MM), which would work out to a first-year salary of $18,102,000, with subsequent annual raises of 8%.
It’s unclear if the Thunder are prepared to go up to that maximum extension amount in terms of both years and dollars, but Fischer says Caruso and his camp “would naturally welcome” that annual average value of roughly $20MM per year.
While the peak version of Caruso would probably be worth that sort of investment, he has gotten off to a slow start offensively during his first season with the Thunder, averaging 5.7 points per game with a .385/.270/.778 shooting line in his first 19 outings off the bench (20.2 MPG). The 30-year-old averaged 10.1 PPG on .468/.408/.760 shooting last season. Despite his struggles on the offensive end, he has been what OKC hoped for as a defender and a locker-room presence.
“He’s just all-team. He always has been,” head coach Mark Daigneault said, per Fischer. “He’s unbelievably present as a competitor. There’s never a time in the game where his feet aren’t on the ground and he’s not focused on the moment of the game and he’s also inside the team. I think over the course of a long game, a lot of possessions, over an 82-game season, that value compounds.”
If the two sides don’t reach an in-season extension agreement, Oklahoma City would hold Caruso’s Bird rights next summer, putting the team in the driver’s seat to re-sign him to a multiyear deal at that point.