Alex Caruso Explains Decision to Leave Lakers for Bulls Ahead of Return to LA

Alex Caruso signed a four-year, $36.9 million contract with the Chicago Bulls in the offseason, but he told Bill Oram of The Athletic that he gave his former team, the Los Angeles Lakers, the chance to make a counteroffer. 

Per that report, after the Lakers initially made an offer of three years and $21 million, the Bulls swooped in with theirs. Caruso said he came back to the Lakers, willing to take a two-year deal worth $20 million, but the Lakers stuck to their original offer. 

"No dollars and cents higher than that ever came back," Caruso said. "There's no counters. It was just, I think, that was kind of all they had. And at that point, it was like, OK, I have to make an executive decision based on real life here."

So Caruso took Chicago's offer, and L.A. used the money to sign Kendrick Nunn and re-sign Talen Horton-Tucker on a three-year, $31 million deal.

"I'm sure if it was an even playing field, and they were able to offer me the same amount of money and give me the same exact back and we would have rode off into the sunset again and tried to go do this thing again," Caruso told Oram. "But the NBA is not a perfect world."

The Bulls will face the Lakers for the first time this season Monday at Staples Center.