Alex Caruso leaves the Lakers after signing a four-year, $37 million contract with the Bulls

 According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Alex Caruso will not return to the Los Angeles Lakers next season because he has agreed to sign a four-year, value-added contract with the Chicago Bulls. 37 million USD contract. 

As an unrestricted free agent, Caruso is free to accept offers from other teams, but there are many reasons to be optimistic about his return to Los Angeles. For starters, his skill set is maximized by playing with star forwards like LeBron James and defensive coaches like Frank Vogel. In terms of health, the Lakers are the most suitable. 

In addition, the Lakers have all his bird rights, which means they can exceed the upper limit and re-sign a contract with him with the highest value. Obviously, they will never give Caruso a maximum salary, but if they want, they can have it, and not many other teams can say that.

The bad news is that Caruso's numbers still seem too high for the Lakers, or they just believe that there will be a comparable player under the veteran's minimum wage or the taxpayer's mid-level exception. Regardless of whether this is true (which is not the case), letting Caruso start from scratch is bad asset management. 

Even if the Lakers sign a good backup point guard for the veteran’s minimum wage-I am pretty confident they will do that they will not be able to find someone with Caruso's skills. I think they have better skills now. Worth Russell Westbrook is on the list. At least until 2023, they will not be able to increase Caruso's salary. 

Without Caruso, will the Lakers be all right in the end? Maybe, but for now, it's a bit stinging.