A professional third-year basketball player from Duke is showing assertive behavior this season.
Not like a complete basketball duke. Not in your two or more campaigns with the Chicago Bulls. No, despite the general ranking in 7th in the 247 Sports Composed of 2017 as a recruit and then reaching seventh place in the 2018 NBA Draft, Wendell Carter Jr. has never been the center of a team since graduating from Pace Academy in Atlanta.
What Carter has been, however, is Mr. Consistency – at least when healthy.
Although the great 1.80m and 270lbs man lost 59 games in his first two seasons in the league due to several injuries to his thumb, ankle and tailbone, he started every game he played as a college and professional. In addition, between his time in Durham and Chicago, Carter always averaged 10-14 points and 7-10 rebounds.
But on Friday night, although in a 117-115 defeat on the road to the Los Angeles Lakers (7-3), the 21-year-old showed his desire to reach new heights. Symbolically speaking, Carter instinctively did this pick-and-roll and then emphatically plunged into the future Hall of Fame striker LeBron James early in the second half to give the Bulls (4-6) an advantage.
In the next Chicago ball possession (as seen in the highlight clip a minute ago), after a James turn, Carter gently knocked over a base jumper.
And after the game, with the season’s record of 23 points to go along with seven rebounds while kicking 9 to 15 from the field and 5 to 6 from the foul line, Carter told the media in six words what he thought about his viral slam and overall performance:
“This is definitely who I am.”
Kudos to former Duke basketball player at Chicago centerpiece
Once again, Wendell Carter Jr.’s statistics for 2020-21 are not much different from the past two seasons and his one year at Duke. That said, apart from his first two dull outs, he averages 14.3 points and 8.6 boards while shooting 57.9 percent of the field. Now star guard Zach LaVine, who averages 26.0 points, the best of his career, sees a difference in his teammate’s role as a legitimate weapon:
“We just said to him, ‘Man, you have to be aggressive. Sometimes, you think a lot out there. ‘He was great [on Friday], mainly in the second semester. When they were folding me, I would say to him: ‘I will look for him’. And he was making the right moves. He was scoring. He was finding snipers open. Wendell is a very smart player. And if he doesn’t think much, I think it’s great. “
Carter will be at the Staples Center again at 4 pm Sunday, when the Bulls will face the Los Angeles Clippers (6-4) and Duke’s basketball teammate Luke Kennard.
Stay tuned in Ball Durham to find out more about Wendell Carter Jr. as well as other Duke basketball news and views.