Lakers' 'G-league All-Stars' trying to make the most out of the team's lost season

Lakers’ ‘G-league All-Stars’ trying to make the most out of the team’s lost season

Alex Caruso scored a career-high 23 points Sunday at New Orleans and became the first Laker since steals began being recorded to have at least 23 points, six assists and four steals off the bench.

April 1, 2019 7:40 PM PT

Alex Caruso wasn’t being rude, but he disagreed with the premise of a question asked after the Lakers’ Sunday win over the New Orleans Pelicans.

Caruso had scored a career-high 23 points in nearly 30 minutes and became the first Laker since steals began being recorded to have at least 23 points, six assists and four steals off the bench.

Was there satisfaction in a game like this?

“Satisfaction’s an interesting word,” the second-year guard said. “Because obviously this isn’t the epitome of where I want to go, what I want to be. New career high, that’s cool, winning the game is fun too. But for me it’s always just progressing to get better. That’s something I’ve been trying to do for the last two years I’ve been with the Lakers and I think I’m continuing to do it and it’s showing now because I’ve got a lot of opportunity.”

The end of the season is leading to opportunities for the Lakers’ two-way players Caruso and Johnathan Williams, and rookies who did most of their work in the G League, Isaac Bonga and Moe Wagner. When they play, they play to realize their dreams, and that energy shows on the court .

“Our G League All-Stars?” coach Luke Walton said recently after a game. “They have good chemistry. But it’s part of the reason that we like having the G League in house with us. …especially when you have guys like LeBron [James] or [Rajon] Rondo that can do a lot of that main work, and then you squeeze in some of the role players that are just happy to be out there, there’s an energy that I feel at least when those guys are on the court playing together.”

The G League lifestyle isn’t like the NBA lifestyle. Its players earn a base salary of $35,000 for their five-month season with the possibility of bonuses. Players on two-way contracts, like Caruso and Williams, can make up to $385,000.

The benefit for many of them is not the money. It’s the opportunity to be within an NBA system and the chance to chase a dream. For a player like Caruso, who has been on a two-way contract for the last two seasons, that’s meant stretching his body to its limits. Last season, as the South Bay Lakers were in the playoffs, Caruso once found himself playing four games in five nights in three cities.

“The last game in Austin when we lost in the conference finals, he literally didn’t have anything left,” said Coby Karl, the South Bay head coach. “He was a shell of himself. Those things are tough and [he] never complained about it.”

Karl has coached South Bay for the last three seasons and often discusses his players’ long-term goals.

“That’s a difficult conversation at that level, too, because the only power we have is in this moment now,” Karl said. “They’re not where they want to be. So how do we take advantage of this moment?”

With the playoffs out of reach for the Lakers, they have ended the seasons of four players who are starters or significant role players: James (sore groin), Lonzo Ball (ankle sprain), Brandon Ingram (blood clot) and Josh Hart (knee surgery). Ball and James almost certainly would be playing if the Lakers were headed for the playoffs.

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The Lakers have been cautious, too, with Kyle Kuzma (foot tendinitis) and Tyson Chandler (flu).

Caruso’s 29 minutes Sunday are increasingly the norm, and with the extra playing time he made a pair of plays that lit up the Lakers’ bench. First he splashed in a three-pointer, then he followed that with a dunk.

“They were more just excited I was playing well,” Caruso said. “That was right after I hit a three. So I was just kind of on a roll.”

He enjoyed it and he’s hoping for more.

“He wants what these other guys have,” Karl said. “… He wants to be part of the NBA fraternity, not the two-way but taking those steps. He had the G League his first year, he had the two-way with us the past two years. I think he just wants to be a full-time NBA player. The psychological and even the physical and mental toll that goes into being a two-way player is very, very intense. … It’s not for someone who can’t handle it. There’s not too many that can handle it the way he has.”