The "Zach is bad on defense" meme was true at the start (and definitely in college) but has faded with time-- and then at the Olympics he was absolutely on one defensively. I expect him to ride that wave, and further improvement should be expected in general given his last season or two. I wasn't saying I necessarily expect him to be All-Defense this season-- I just think he's got a really high ceiling if he continues to grow. He was the best perimeter defender for Team USA at the Olympics this summer. That says a lot about where he can go this year imo.

>Caruso was a solid defender on the Lakers I wouldn't call him
>a "stopper" lol

When you're looking at guard on-ball defenders in the NBA, he's absolutely one of the best. As I said, if he's guarding guards of a reasonable size, I expect him to be one of the best 1v1 defenders in the NBA this year. You can't put him on Giannis or Durant or anything, but if you think an on-ball defender of Caruso's caliber won't have impact on the Bulls... I just flat disagree, lol.

>that's the the thing, a lot of teams in the league play "small
>ball" more than half the team and don't play a big man on the
>floor, Vuc will be exposed

I'm not sure this is true in the regular season. You see a lot of teams play with a center on the floor regular season. Where Vuc will be of significantly decreased value is 4th quarter in playoff games, where, yes, switchability is everything. But that shouldn't be the Bulls' first concern right now. Their first concern should be win enough games to talk about the playoffs-- and continue to bring Patrick Williams along. Because if Williams comes along as he should, then they'll just bench Vuc during any small ball run in the playoff and play Williams at the 5.