Team: Oklahoma City Thunder · SG/SF · Age 32 · Standard contract · Base role: 17-minute defensive closer
Projection card
| GP | MPG | 3PM | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | FG% (M/A) | FT% (M/A) | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 58 | 17.0 | 0.9 | 5.6 | 2.6 | 2.0 | 1.2 | 0.3 | .430 (2.0/4.7) | .800 (0.7/0.9) | 0.8 |
Nine-category: steals stream in roto/deep leagues; low turnovers help but volume is insufficient for shallow formats. ESPN-default points: waiver player. Dynasty: aging contender specialist; Hashtag ranked him outside its top 300.
Why the line looks like this
Caruso averaged 6.2 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.3 steals in only 18.2 minutes across 56 games in 2025-26. His 29.3% three-point shooting should regress upward, but Oklahoma City's regular-season depth and age-management incentives make a large minute increase unlikely. He can play 25-plus in a playoff closing group without doing so for six months.
Cason Wallace and Luguentz Dort duplicate point-of-attack defense; Ajay Mitchell and Jared McCain supply more needed creation. Caruso's base therefore remains a specialist line.
Sources: Basketball Reference 2025-26, Hashtag dynasty rankings, RealGM roster.
Category shape
- Elite per minute: steals.
- Useful: low turnovers, guard blocks and occasional threes.
- Costs: points, rebounds, assists and fragile percentages on low volume.
- Build fit: specialist stream when steals are a weekly swing category.
Floor, base, ceiling
- Floor: maintenance reduces him to 45-50 games and 14 minutes.
- Base: 58 games, 17 minutes and 1.2 steals.
- Ceiling: injuries to both Dort and Wallace push him to 23 minutes and 1.6 steals, enough for deep top-120 value.
Risk and confidence
| Component | Confidence | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Roster | High | Multi-year contract and championship-level closing role |
| Minutes | Medium-high | Regular-season conservation is established |
| Rates | High for steals; medium for shooting | Defense stable, three-point result noisy |
| Availability | Medium | Age 32 and 56-game 2025-26 workload |
Career record
Pre-NBA: Texas A&M, four seasons (2012-13 through 2015-16). 137 games, 8.0 points, 4.7 assists and 2.02 steals per game across the career; scoring by season went 5.5, 9.0, 9.1, 8.1 with assists of 3.4, 5.0, 5.5, 5.0. He left as the program's all-time leader in assists (649) and steals (276), and as a senior took second-team All-SEC and SEC All-Defensive honors while leading the Aggies to the Sweet 16. Per-season shooting splits are not verified here. Draft: undrafted, 2016. Signed with Oklahoma City in September 2016 and was waived in October; spent 2016-17 with the Oklahoma City Blue of the D-League, averaging 11.9 points, 5.2 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 2.2 steals in 50 games (46 starts), then signed a two-way deal with the Lakers.
| Season | Age | Team | GP | MPG | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | 3PM | FG% | FT% | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-18 | 23 | LAL | 37 | 15.2 | 3.6 | 1.8 | 2.0 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.4 | .431 | .700 | 1.1 |
| 2018-19 | 24 | LAL | 25 | 21.2 | 9.2 | 2.7 | 3.1 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 1.0 | .445 | .797 | 1.7 |
| 2019-20 | 25 | LAL | 64 | 18.4 | 5.5 | 1.9 | 1.9 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 0.6 | .412 | .734 | 0.8 |
| 2020-21 | 26 | LAL | 58 | 21.0 | 6.4 | 2.9 | 2.8 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 0.9 | .436 | .645 | 1.3 |
| 2021-22 | 27 | CHI | 41 | 28.0 | 7.4 | 3.6 | 4.0 | 1.7 | 0.4 | 1.0 | .398 | .795 | 1.4 |
| 2022-23 | 28 | CHI | 67 | 23.5 | 5.6 | 2.9 | 2.9 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 0.8 | .455 | .808 | 1.1 |
| 2023-24 | 29 | CHI | 71 | 28.7 | 10.1 | 3.8 | 3.5 | 1.7 | 1.0 | 1.9 | .468 | .760 | 1.4 |
| 2024-25 | 30 | OKC | 54 | 19.3 | 7.1 | 2.9 | 2.5 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 1.1 | .446 | .824 | 0.7 |
| 2025-26 | 31 | OKC | 56 | 18.2 | 6.2 | 2.8 | 2.0 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.9 | .423 | .804 | 0.9 |
| Career | 473 | 21.8 | 6.8 | 2.9 | 2.7 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 1.0 | .438 | .762 | 1.1 |
Two championships (2020 Lakers, 2025 Thunder), All-Defensive First Team in 2023, All-Defensive Second Team and the Hustle Award in 2024.
Fantasy history: season-end 9-category per-game ranks are not publicly verifiable for most of his career, and I will not estimate them. What the box score supports: 2023-24 was the only season with a standard-league-relevant line (10.1 points, 1.9 threes, 1.7 steals, 1.0 blocks in 28.7 minutes), and it was a genuine top-75-or-better category season on volume alone. 2021-22 and 2022-23 were deep-league steals specialist seasons. Both Oklahoma City years, 2024-25 and 2025-26, were below standard-league rosterability in 12-team formats — the steals rate held but the minutes did not. Points-league shape is materially worse than the category shape throughout: his value is concentrated in steals and low turnovers, neither of which carries a points format, and he has never averaged double-digit scoring outside 2023-24.
Durability: GP by season — 37, 25, 64, 58, 41, 67, 71, 54, 56. The two lowest totals are role, not health: 2017-18 and 2018-19 were two-way seasons split with the G-League. The real injury seasons are 2021-22 (41 games, fractured right wrist requiring surgery after a January 2022 foul, plus back trouble) and the two Thunder years. 2024-25 (54 games) was a run of hip problems in November and December 2024, then recurring ankle issues in January, March and April 2025 plus two illnesses. 2025-26 (56 games) was a longer list of smaller things: concussion in late October 2025, hand in mid-November, quad at the end of November, finger in late December, back on January 5, a right adductor strain out of the January 19 game against Cleveland, load management in early February, ankle twice in late February, hip in early March, illness on April 1 and a rest day on April 9. None of it was structural; all of it was cumulative.
Trajectory: The one leap is unambiguous — 2023-24 in Chicago, where 28.7 minutes and a green light from deep produced 1.9 threes on 40.8 percent alongside 1.7 steals and 1.0 blocks. That was a role and shot-diet change, not a skill jump, and the trade to Oklahoma City reversed both immediately: minutes fell to 19.3 then 18.2 against a roster that has three other players who defend the ball at his level. The per-minute defense has not decayed at all, which is the important read — his steal rate is essentially flat from age 27 to age 31, and his 2025-26 turnover rate stayed near a career low. What has decayed is the shot: 35.3 percent from three in 2024-25 became 29.3 percent on similar volume in 2025-26, and at 32 that is more likely partial regression than pure noise. The aging-curve position is unforgiving. He is a low-minute specialist on a team with no reason to expand his regular-season role, his availability has settled into the mid-50s twice running from accumulated soft-tissue and impact injuries rather than one fixable problem, and the 2023-24 volume season is now two years and one franchise behind him. For 2026-27 the honest expectation is another 50-to-58-game, sub-20-minute season whose fantasy value lives entirely in steals per minute.
Career sources: ESPN career stats, StatMuse per-game by season, Wikipedia, FOX Sports injury log
Open questions
- How aggressively does Oklahoma City rest him on back-to-backs?
- Does the three-point shot rebound enough to keep him on the floor beside non-shooting groups?
- Will fantasy platforms retain multi-position eligibility?