Alex Caruso is a hand-in-glove fit with the Oklahoma City Thunder, an elite wing defender who is a threat from 3 and can do some secondary ball handling. Coach Mark Daigneault can bring him off the Thunder bench and they do not lose a step.
Last week was the six-month anniversary of Caruso’s trade to the Thunder, which means he became eligible to sign an extension with the franchise. He is open to it — saying it “would be awesome” — but he’ll want a massive raise from the $9.9 million he makes this season, likely double that number or more. Here is what Caruso told Jake Fischer at The Stein Line.
“Obviously this is a place that I think is ascending and that’s something I want to be a part of,” Caruso told me. “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 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.”
Oklahoma City, currently about $10 million below the luxury tax line, can afford to pay Caruso. This is what contending teams do: They pay their best players and keep their core together as long as possible to chase a ring, or ideally, rings.
The questions for ownership are coming though: How much are they willing to pay to keep this team together in a couple of years? In the summer of 2026, things get very expensive as both Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams will come off their rookie deals and be looking for max contracts (Williams is a steal right now, making just $4.8 million this season). There are team options for Isaiah Hartenstein and Lu Dort that OKC can pick up that summer, but both will be thinking about and asking for new contracts. And that’s not even getting into Shai Gilgeous-Alexander being extension eligible.
For now though, the Thunder are contenders and when you have an on-court and cultural fit like Caruso, you pay the man his money.
