Alex Caruso brings a different look to the Chicago Bulls lineup filling in for Zach LaVine: ‘It’s a different style of basketball’

For Alex Caruso, game day preparation doesn’t change regardless of his position in the Chicago Bulls rotation.

There are physical basics — warm up more vigorously if he’s starting, make sure to stay alert and loose if he’s on the bench — but Caruso feels his role stays the same whether he starts or not.

“Mentally I’m just flipping that switch a little earlier,” Caruso said.

Caruso is already back into a familiar carousel of uncertainty this season. He entered the season prepared to be a bench leader for the Bulls, leading a reinvigorated secondary unit that now includes Goran Dragić and Andre Drummond.

But Zach LaVine’s lingering knee injury now requires more flexibility from Caruso, who will be in and out of the starting lineup on a game-to-game basis until LaVine is healthy.

Swapping LaVine for Caruso creates a different look for the Bulls. No team is going to have a like-for-like replacement for a max contract star like LaVine, who averaged 24.4 points per game despite playing through injury for the latter half of last season.

Caruso is a facilitator — averaging 7.4 points and four assists last season — and doesn’t aim to replace LaVine’s scoring. But his inclusion in the starting lineup allows the Bulls to start the game with an emphasis on pace, pushing ball rotation alongside second-year point guard Ayo Dosunmu to spread the floor and feed top scorers like DeMar DeRozan.

While the Bulls will deeply miss their star guard, Caruso sees that versatility as a silver lining.

“Teams are going to have to prepare for us differently depending on who we have on the court,” Caruso said. “We might lose some scoring, but we make it up with more screening actions with me. It’s a different style of basketball but I don’t think it’s too much of a step back.”

The Bulls benefited in the season opener against the Miami Heat, moving the ball more efficiently to keep one of the most physical defenses in the league on the back foot. Caruso finished the game with the type of under-the-radar stat line that has become his standard — six points, four assists, five rebounds, two steals.

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With Caruso and Dosunmu guiding the offense, the Bulls also noticeably improved their transition, moving the ball quickly up the court against the Heat.

That doesn’t always show up in the box score — the Bulls scored only eight of their 116 points in transition — but their insistence on pushing the pace prevented the team from getting bogged down in unimaginative half-court setups.

“Transition is one of the hardest times for defenses to pick up on guys and to match up and play through their principles defensively,” Caruso said. “It’s just about trying to create that advantage before they can get set up.”

Caruso feels that advantage is a particular benefit of playing off the ball alongside Dosunmu, who is growing into the point guard role this season as a fill-in for Lonzo Ball during his extended injury absence.

Last season Caruso served as another point guard backup, rarely playing off-ball alongside Dosunmu. But with the addition of Dragić, Caruso can now factor into more rotations as a facilitating guard, which gives the team more punch in transition and the half court.

And adaptability among the guards will be a key to the Bulls’ approach this season.

“That’s the unique thing about our team,” Caruso said. “Both of us — including a couple other guards too — can play off the ball as well as on the ball. We fill in seamlessly off the ball, we can play complement to whatever action is happening if we have the ball. We’re trying to be strong and structured and get everybody set up to where they need to be.”