Bears News: Season in Review: Wendell Carter Jr. |
If you’re an avid gambler, one of the phrases has always been lucky seven. For the Bulls, that phrase fits them perfectly as they have found a ton of luck drafting in the No. 7 spot in the draft having selected there the past two seasons, three if you count the Lauri Markkanen deal. Perhaps the most promising of those three selections happens to be their 2018 pick, although he hasn’t shown everything he can quite yet.
That pick was former Duke F Wendell Carter Jr. as the now second going on third-year player has a ton of hype and high ceiling associated with his name. Let’s be real. Up until recently, drafted Duke players for some reason didn’t amount to the most success on the NBA level. Since the one and done rule was implemented, that trend is changing as Duke has built their rosters with one and done players who leave after one season and have had solid careers thus far. Carter Jr. is another one of those players after being ranked the No. 4 overall recruit and No.1 at the PF position following his high school career. As a senior, the 6-9 270 forward put up monster numbers in which he averaged 22.7 PPG to go with 15.5 RPG and an incredible 5.8 BPG all against high school opponents. Once he got to Duke, those numbers went down as expected at the collegiate level, but they were nowhere near bad numbers. In his one season at Duke, Carter was second on the team in scoring that season, averaging 13.5 PPG to go with 9.1 RPG. Knowing that he was still growing into his body and still developing his game when he fell to the Bulls at No. 7, it was an easy decision as the Bulls simply couldn’t pass him up. Since coming to Chicago, Carter has yet to live up to expectations but injuries his first few seasons have not helped his case. As a rookie, Carter held his own in his 44 games before missing the rest of the season with an injury as he put up 10.3 PPG to go with 7.0 RPG proving he has the potential to be a double-double threat every night. Looking for a much better season in year two, Carter got off to a solid start but never was able to put that together long term. Mix that with an ankle injury that kept him out a month, and you have a guy who showed improvement but still hasn’t reached his potential quite yet. This season, Carter saw just 43 games of action, giving him only 77 over his first two seasons in the league. That is not even a full NBA season of games yet, so the Bulls are certainly not concerned with his development at this point. Carter was more aggressive this season and saw his scoring increase to 11.3 but was around 13PPG earlier in the season. What they did like was his constant ability to get rebounds averaging 9.4 RPG despite being undersized and quite frankly being used at the wrong position. I have said this since the day the Bulls drafted him, at 6-9 he has no business playing center at all and needs to be moved to the PF position. With guys like Markkanen and Luke Kornet on the roster, both who are 6-11 and taller, they need to be at the center position to allow Carter to reach his full potential. He has done a great job holding his own against guys bigger than him. I would be very curious to see what he would do against guys his size or slightly smaller. Hopefully, Chicago will come to realize that soon enough.
Season grade: C+: It pains me to see Carter hurt so much because I loved him in college and was hoping he was going to fall to the Bulls. Once that moment came, and Chicago snatched him up, I was so excited because I knew how good of a player they were getting. The thing I did not see, however, was him playing at the center position, considering he hasn’t done that since high school and never did that at Duke.
He is not center size and should never be at that position long term unless they go with a smaller lineup where his weight comes in handy in the paint. This is part of the reason I think his injuries have mounted early in his career as he has gotten banged around more so that if you would let him play his natural position. He can step out of the paint and hit face-up jumpers and is athletic enough to make things happen on both ends of the floor. Hopefully, year three is when he unleashes his full potential.
