Alex Caruso Rejects 'Narrative' of Wemby, Spurs Being a 'Bugaboo' for Thunder After Playoff Loss

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Alex Caruso isn't buying into any big-picture conclusions after his team's loss to the San Antonio Spurs in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals.

"There's nothing that needs to be solved," he said, per The Athletic's Joel Lorenzi. "We could have won the game (Saturday), and you would have been asking them the same thing. I don't think there's this narrative that this is a bugaboo. We should have played better and won the game and been in the NBA Finals.

"They're a good team, they're young. We're a good team, we're young. Both will probably be around for a while, so we gotta get better and try to win next time."

The Thunder's repeat bid ended Saturday in a 111-103 defeat. It wasn't a blowout, but San Antonio led for a vast majority of the contest.

Spurs-Thunder Highlights

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This wasn't how Oklahoma City wanted its season to end, and the Victor Wembanyama-led Spurs aren't going anywhere.

To Caruso's point, however, there seems to be a rush to overreact to a tightly contested series that could've gone either way.

Give the Thunder a fully healthy Jalen Williams in Game 7, and they might've won and advanced to the NBA Finals, where they would've been favored over the New York Knicks.

Instead, some are already arguing that coming up short means OKC may have to consider something as drastic as trading for disgruntled Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Months ago, general manager Sam Presti was building a dynasty around a group of key players all on the same timeline. Surely it's too soon to break up that core in a win-now trade.

And the people writing off Chet Holmgren while projecting future battles against Wembanyama are ignoring how younger players inevitably improve and adapt based on what challenges lie ahead.

Michael Jordan famously made a concerted effort to bulk up and tailor his game to overcome the Detroit Pistons in the early 1990s. The version of LeBron James on the Miami Heat was different from how he had played on the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Holmgren didn't have a great series against the Spurs. He's also a 24-year-old big man who has yet to reach his full form on the court.

For a lot of title contenders, standing pat basically means taking a step backward. The Thunder are an exception because a lot of the same reasons people thought they were poised to compete long term still apply, despite failing to return to the Finals.