I love watching Carter play defense. He’s so good at keeping his man in front of him, and I’m looking forward to seeing how his offensive skillset looks across a larger sample size this year.
He does seem to have a very good first step with the ball (not a surprise considering his athletic testing at the combine) and that’s huge for his offensive ceiling. His offensive floor is obviously tied to his shot, but he does flash some other offensive tools which are intriguing.
Real bummer that he’s likely buried behind the plethora of guards we have. It’d be great if we could move someone like Monk to open up more minutes for both Carter and Clifford. It’ll be criminal to not give both of those guys consistent minutes this year. We got to see what we have in our young talent. For instance, if Monk is moved for a non-rotational player + incentive or an expiring salary, the minutes rotation looks a lot better (assuming we don’t go out and sign Westbrook which is a big assumption)…
PG - Schroder (28) / Carter (20)
SG - LaVine (20) / Ellis (28)
SF - DeRozan (14) / LaVine (14) / Clifford (20)
PF - Murray (32) / DeRozan (16)
C - Sabonis (34) / Eubanks (14)
LaVine = 34 min
Sabonis = 34 min
Murray = 32 min
DeRozan = 30 min
Schroder = 28 min
Ellis = 28 min
Carter = 20 min
Clifford = 20 min
Eubanks = 14 min
And if we are going to bury our lottery pick from a season ago and have him blocked by guys like Schroder, Monk, etc., then you might as well trade him right now while his value is still somewhat existent.
Perhaps UTA would be interested in doing a Devin Carter for Taylor Hendricks swap? They have a pretty crowded frontcourt, and aren’t overly crowded in the backcourt. Not to mention Carter has 1 more year on his rookie deal than Hendricks which may be valued if they are trying to utilize their cap space over the coming seasons to try and lure a big name.