They say ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder,’ and that old saw applies to sizing up basketball players, too.
Recently, Lakers’ sideline reporter Mike Trudell said that he thinks “Alex Caruso is better than Lou Williams, just straight up.” The comment struck a chord with basketball fans. Why?
One reason fans responded is that Williams beats Caruso in just about every statistical category. But (and it’s a BIG but) an asterisk is required. Williams played over 700 minutes more than Caruso. That means we need to compare performances using a per-minutes played metric.
Alex Caruso (photo, Zhong Zhi/Getty Images, and Sportscasting)
Per-minute, Caruso averaged .306 points, .099 assists, .109 rebounds, .016 blocks, and .059 steals per minute. Translated, that means it takes Caruso three minutes to score a point, 10 minutes to rack up an assist or rebound, 62 minutes to get a block, and 17 minutes to steal the ball.
Williams, on the other hand, has these per-minute averages: .637 points, .190 assists, .106 rebounds, .006 blocks, and .023 steals.
It’s not hard to see what those stats say: Williams beats Caruso when it comes to points and assists. But the script flips on the defensive side of the game. There, Caruso prevails. I’d go so far as to say that Caruso is an elite defender, especially with respect to steals. Consider this. Ben Simmons is the NBA’s steals leader at a .060 per-minute rate. Caruso’s numbers (.059) are very close to Simmons’ number.
But stats aside, let’s be clear about another critical matter: Williams and Caruso are different types of NBA players. Williams, a 6th man, is starting-capable on offense but below-average defensively. Caruso is a role player–below-average offensively but a stellar performer on defense.
So who’s better? It depends on your perspective. And that’s what makes Trudell’s assertion plenty controversial.
