For the second-consecutive season, Chicago Bulls guard Alex Caruso has been named to an NBA All-Defensive Team. Following his First Team appearance last season, the rules changed in 2023-24 allowing All-NBA and All-Defensive teams to be positionless. As a result, Caruso was named to the All-Defensive second team in 2023-24.

Personally, I think the NBA should go back to positions on the All-Defensive squads. Even more so than the All-NBA Teams, where you’d want to see the best players representing those teams.

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On the defensive end, there are so many different roles required for a team to succeed. Only recognizing one of those roles marginalizes what perimeter defenders do, even though it’s a huge part of team success.

Caruso had thoughts on that topic, and many more. Enjoy this Q&A with Caruso on his ascension to the elite of the elite on the defensive end, how he evaluates good defense and what is yet to come.

This interview was conducted on April 14 following the Bulls regular season finale in New York.

In your mind, what are the qualities that make a good defender?

“Be competitive. There’s things where I think it’s just a baseline you’ve got to have. You have to be competitive with yourself. You have to be competitive to try and win. You’ve got to be tough, you’ve got to be smart. And just resilient. There’s gonna be times like, there’s times tonight, I was guarding Jalen (Brunson) and I hit the ball on the way up and he still made the shot. That’s just part of it. Like you gotta have amnesia to just be able to compete. Each and every possession, even when they score, even when they have a good one. You might have a bad possession. Come back the next one and keep going.”

Defense is a difficult thing measure, especially for fans from the outside looking in.

“It’s just it’s like any pro sport. We see it and understanding at a different level than a regular fan because regular fans see the threes, they see the dunks, they see big blocks, but they don’t see guys getting through ball screens and not creating a two-on-one so that nobody else has to help or boxing out or tapping a ball to somebody to win a possession back. So for them, it’s a little more casual viewing entertainment based. Obviously for us it’s details.”

“I mean, that’s the thing is it changes the game to like, we don’t just have one thing. We’re changing coverages. We’re changing pressures we’re trying to deny. We came out second half, trying to deny Jalen (Brunson) a couple times and they were running sets get him back cuts off the pinch post or elbow catch from (Isaiah) Hartenstein and he’s like, alright, well, we got to change the coverage now. So we changed it, went back to regular ball screen coverage and stuff like that. Being able to roll with the punches and understand that it’s not gonna be perfect.”

What do you think about the All-Defensive Teams being positionless? Do you think it’s fair that bigs always get more credit than perimeter players on that end?

“I don’t know if I knew that. They always give the big guys a little more love.”

Do you think what guards do on the perimeter gets overlooked?

“It’s easy to see a big grab a bunch of rebounds or block shots at the rim. But, you know, people don’t understand how hard it is to trail and get over screens and not get screened and navigate and go under and then get reattached and then play one-on-one from there. Like it’s an art form. And it’s something that I’m continually trying to find an edge at, and try to grow and learn from and I think the last few years, I’ve done a really good job of that.”

What are some things you want to continue to improve upon?

“Just moving forward, try and teach the other guys. Try and teach Dalen, trying to teach Ayo. They’re getting better at it. But I think that’s probably the next step for me is sharing the knowledge.”

At what point in your career did you know you could become an All-Defensive Team caliber player?

“I don’t think I ever had the full on goal like ‘oh, I think I can do that’. I think once we played in LA my second year played in the Play-In against the Warriors. And I played really good. And I was guarding Steph. I was chasing, I was guarding him one-on-one. And I just got to a good groove and I was like, ‘well, if I can compete with this guy like I should be able to compete with just about everybody in the league’.”

“So leaving LA that summer coming here, building on it playing with Zo getting after people, I just kept getting better and I kept realizing like, ‘Okay, this is something that night in and night out I can do. And obviously like you said last year, just consistent, you know, and then from there, it just became easier. Like it wasn’t something that I had to really focus on. It’s just go out there and do my job and through that.”

You’ve said before that the recognition from your peers matters more to you than actually making an All-Defense Team. But what does it mean to you that the general NBA fan now has an appreciation for all you do on the defensive side, that your reputation on that end has become mainstream knowledge?

“It’s awesome. You know, it’s creating leverage for yourself. It’s carving out a role for yourself in the league and I that was always the thing that I was trying to do. Undrafted, went to the G League for a full year. People understand, they can easily see it now where I’m at, but they don’t understand the seven year process that I went like five years before these last two years to get here. I’ve pushed myself so much to try and get better. Consistently, every summer. Chase something, chase something, chase something. And I think that’s the thing. We talked about, not so much the accolades, but having people around you, your co-workers, people like that, like recognize, ‘Oh, this guy’s getting better’. Like that’s what you’re talking about being a brotherhood, fraternity. Like at the end of the day, you respect to people that keep getting better and competitive.”

Would you ever get into coaching following your career?

“Maybe if it’s the right thing. I’ve had people ask me before, college, NBA, even high school. That’s hopefully many years down the road. Not something I’m worried about right now. There’s got to be a lot of things that would have to be aligned for me to be able to. It’s a lot of time away. I’ve made a lot of sacrifices to be away from my family, being away from girlfriend, being away from friends. So that’s always something that goes into consideration.”