Bulls guard Alex Caruso keeps stacking up postseason hardware

The tweet said it all.

After watching the NBA roll out its All-Defensive first and second teams a few seconds apart Tuesday, Bulls guard Alex Caruso — who earned second-team honors — tweeted, ‘‘So all the guards.. got it,’’ with a laughing-until-crying emoji.

Sarcasm at its best, but he wasn’t wrong.

In what proved to be a big-man award in 2024, the first team was made up of the Heat’s Bam Adebayo, the Lakers’ Anthony Davis, the Timberwolves’ Rudy Gobert, the Pelicans’ Herb Jones and the Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama, who became the first rookie in NBA history to receive the first-team honor.

Caruso was joined on the second team by the Magic’s Jalen Suggs, the Celtics’ Derrick White, the Timberwolves’ Jaden McDaniels and the Celtics’ Jrue Holiday, with all but McDaniels being guards.

Not that Caruso was complaining, especially considering he is becoming a mainstay in that award category after being an All-Defensive first-team pick last season.

‘‘He’s so good defensively and does it every game,’’ Bulls big man Nikola Vucevic said of Caruso in March. ‘‘You don’t take it for granted, but when it happens, you’re kind of like: ‘That’s normal. That’s Alex. That’s what he does.’ The plays he makes are so important. It’s a huge bonus for us to have that on the defensive end.’’

It’s a point coach Billy Donovan won’t argue.

‘‘He’s incredible,’’ Donovan said of Caruso’s defense. ‘‘I think you need a full complement of players that can play to their own identity, and what he does is so unique. There’s no one on our team that does that, and there’s probably not that many players in the league that do what he does.

‘‘The thing I admire and respect about him is he loves that. A lot of guys don’t enjoy that. They don’t enjoy the things he does. He understands the things he does. I give him a lot of credit. When smart guys get to the league, they figure out how they can impact winning and the team, and he’s really done that.’’

Caruso averaged a career-high 3.7 deflections — tops in the league — to go with 1.7 steals and one block per game. He finished the season as the only NBA player with at least 100 steals and 70 blocks.

And it’s not just his numbers, it’s his communication on defense, too. And what he does is also contagious.

‘‘The heart, the resilience, the passion, the will — AC is amazing, man,’’ forward DeMar DeRozan said of Caruso in March. ‘‘He’s definitely one of a kind. For a guy that’s been banged up for the year, every time he steps out on the court, he leaves it all out there, puts his heart and soul into the game. It’s amazing to have a teammate like that.

‘‘It’s a sign of his greatness.’’

The All-Defensive second-team honor was the second piece of hardware Caruso captured this offseason. He also was named the 2023-24 Hustle Award winner.

Caruso is the ninth player in Bulls history to earn two or more All-Defensive nods, joining Michael Jordan (nine), Scottie Pippen (eight), Norm Van Lier (seven), Jerry Sloan (six), Bob Love (three), Joakim Noah (three), Jimmy Butler (three) and Horace Grant (two).