NEWSLETTER
Wendell Carter Jr. may not be the superstar the Bulls need, but he has the talent necessary to be a consistent difference-maker.
I know health has rarely been on his side through his two seasons of NBA action (and I know you’re frustrated about it), but when it has been, he’s looked like one of the best young big men in the league. At the beginning of the 2019-20 season, despite a role that included minimal offensive touches, Carter Jr. averaged a double-double. In fact, over his first 37 games of the season before suffering an ankle injury, the 21-year-old had 17 double-doubles to his name.
A bit undersized at only six-foot-nine, Carter Jr. is easily the Bulls best rebounder and rim-protector. His seven-foot-five wingspan is enough to give most NBA centers problems, as we’ve seen him go head-to-head with guys like Andre Drummond, Rudy Gobert, and Nikola Jokic in games past. Offensively, he has the tools to be a versatile scoring threat. Not only does he have great mobility for a guy his size, but his jump shot has shown signs of life numerous times. A capable 3-point shooter, sound ball-handler, and decent passer, Carter Jr. had been chained by the Bulls former coaching staff. To put it another way, he was an unconventional center being forced to play a conventional game.
Well, as the third-year player said himself over Instagram a couple of weeks back, those days are behind us.
https://twitter.com/BN_Bulls/status/1292679038977347585?s=20
My fellow Carter Jr. truthers and I want to see the Bulls unleash the beast, but instead of going down that rabbit hole again, I’ll simply encourage you to read our post from June about why he deserves the ball WAY more.
The point of this post is to share that Carter Jr. does, in fact, sound prepared to help boost the No. 29th-ranked offense in the NBA next season. In an interview on the Sports Radio Business Podcast, Carter Jr. said he’s been at the Advocate Center daily, and his offseason workouts have centered around improving his offensive game.
“Toward the end of the summer, I try to work on those things that weren’t as good, as polished as I’d like them to be to help my team win. For example, last year I wasn’t able to really do too much because I had surgery, but going into my offseason I was planning on just kind of working on my perimeter shooting, and my aggressiveness on the offensive end, which is dribbling to passing to doing everything with confidence, so that was something I was planning on working on last year, and I’ll of course work on this year.”
Excellent. [evil laugh] EXCCCCEEEELLLLEEEENNNNTTTT.
While I blame injuries and poor coaching for most of Carter Jr.’s shortcomings on offense, a lack of assertiveness didn’t help the cause. Last season, we watched as Carter Jr. passed-up a handful of open mid-range looks and rarely showed any creativity on the offensive end. Those days should be numbered.
Meanwhile, in his interview, Carter Jr. also opened up about Arturas Karnisvoas and Marc Eversley – the franchise’s new front office leaders.
“Not, unfortunately, but strangely, I’ve already been through it. I’ve already been through the coaching change once before, I definitely think I’ll tackle that situation well. Having a new front office is definitely new for more. I’ve definitely built that relationship with both Arturas and Marc, I like both of them a lot. I can relate to both of them in their own ways, so I feel like that’s a good thing.”
I never necessarily questioned Carter Jr.’s worth ethic, but I’m sure it’s easier to get better when you’re more comfortable with the infrastructure around you.
Arguably the most fun quote of the interview, though, came when Carter Jr. was asked about his viewing experience of The Last Dance. If anything, the docuseries only added to his hunger for winning basketball games – but not for him, for the city of Chicago.
“What this city can do for a team that is winning, in the playoffs, in the championship every year. It definitely gave me goosebumps just knowing that we have those kinds of fans behind us because I’ve already seen that we have good fans even with a losing record. They there every game, they’re on social media rooting for us no matter what the circumstances are. It’s just a matter of us winning, it’s going to turn this city into what it was in The Last Dance.”
Sounds good to me, Wendell.
