The NBA’s Best Backcourt?

To answer the question in the title, no, Alex Caruso and Talen Horton-Tucker (THT) are not the best backcourt in the NBA. But, they have a good case for the best bench backcourt. While they may not be the fanciest duo, their prowess goes beyond basic stats. Only the power of advanced statistics can fully communicate how great THT and Caruso truly are. But first, a basic rundown of the important advanced statistics: offensive rating is how many points a player or lineup produces every 100 possessions, defensive rating is how many points a player or lineup allows every 100 possessions, and net rating is the difference between offensive and defensive ratings.

Caruso is exactly what you want from your first guard off the bench. He is one of the best defensive guards in the league as evidenced by his Lakers’ best defensive rating (among players who play at least 10 minutes per game) and third best defensive rating in the NBA (among players who have played at least 15 games). When Caruso is on the court, the Lakers’ league-best defense becomes an all-time great defensive lineup. On top of providing outstanding defense, Caruso has an insanely high basketball IQ, always making the right passes on offense and the right rotations on defense. LeBron James, arguably the greatest basketball mind ever, described Caruso in an interview with The Wall Street Journal: “We’re one and the same when it comes to winning basketball, to see our chemistry together [...] I think it comes with our minds.” These traits alone would be a great asset for any championship team, but on top of his high level defense and basketball IQ, Caruso’s recently drastically improved his three-pointer. In the playoffs last year, he shot an abysmal 28 percent from three, but this year, he is shooting 44 percent, which puts him amongst the NBA’s elite shooters.

THT may not contribute to winning games as much as Caruso does right now, but he has a much higher ceiling given his scoring ability. THT has both the longest wingspan and the heaviest weight for any player at his height (6’4”) in the NBA. This combination, along with his agility with and without the ball, allows THT to manipulate and bully defenders while attacking the hoop, which has already paid dividends. In the Lakers’ most recent game against the Clippers, he scored on Kawhi Leonard, one of the NBA’s premier perimeter defenders, by pushing him off his spot, leading to an easy layup, something not many people can do, especially against Leonard. THT has shown glimpses of his full potential as he grows as a player, as seen when he scored 33 points on the Clippers in the preseason. One of his teammates and locker room leaders, Jared Dudley, really believes in THT, going so far as to say on an episode of Inside the Green Room, “I know he may have just turned 20, and I’ll be shocked if he’s not starting next year.” Although it may take some time for THT to become a force of nature offensively, he is still earning his playing time by being one on the defensive end. THT’s per 36 minutes stats include two steals and one block, which is only matched by six other players in the league.

There is no better backcourt coming off the bench in the NBA than THT and Caruso right now, and the only ones that can compete provide very little defensive value, relying primarily on shooting and scoring to make an impact. The Clippers’ bench duo is led by multiple time Sixth Man of the Year award winner Lou Williams, who is an automatic bucket for his team and the opposition. The Jazz’s duo is led by Sixth Man of the Year frontrunner Jordan Clarkson, who is doing his best Williams impersonation by providing simple points and not much else. The last bench backcourt that even sniffs THT and Caruso is the Mavericks’ backcourt of Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr., who both provide a scoring punch and spacing but do not do the Mavericks’ bottom five defense any good. Their astounding defensive work and contributions to the Lakers winning games make THT and Caruso far and away the NBA’s best bench backcourt. As long as Jeanie Buss is willing to go over the luxury tax to retain the current roster quality, the Lakers should keep on competing for championships for the foreseeable future as Caruso and THT continue to blossom.