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Player Wendell Carter Jr.

rome8180 said:
You don't think NBA scouts might dig a little deeper on a guy scoring 18-20 ppg and rebounding at 25%?

I mean, scouts are humans and subject to confirmation bias and hot takes too. Look at how everyone was worried about Tatum's defense while any Duke fan knew that was actually a strength of his game. And look at how stupid that write-up about Carter after the PK80 was. Granted, it may be the media buzz that's more responsible for this, but a lot of those quotes were attributed to actual scouts.
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'everyone' is what, media assholes like Jay Williams or realGM posters looking for a easy to latch onto narrative? I also don't trust 'anonymous executive' takes reported by the media, as those are wrapped too tightly around agendas.

I remember danny Ainge after the draft, saying they had Tatum as the #1 on their big board pretty confidently going back months. While assholes on reddit who don't watch more than 4 or 5 college games a year had him behind Jackson and Fox.

These NBA franchises are all billion dollar businesses now. Not that they don't make mistakes, but I think for a prospect of Carter's stature they will do their due diligence that extends well beyond college tape, and when evaluating college tape, will take into account the potentially limiting aspect of Bagley's coexistence. I mean if we can surmise that is an issue, that's not going to slip the mind of any halfway decent professional scout,I would imagine. I don't know for sure but I think for a prospect as rated as highly as WC they literally watch every single possession of their college career. Perhaps if he were more of a late 1st or 2nd rounder, they don't put in that kind of effort, but when you have a guy almost certainly no worse than top 15 on your big board, I would think they would merit that kind of attention.

I would think the only exception is meddling dipshit owners who influence their employees to target certain players, like Jordan, or Gilbert, or that nutjob who owns the Kings. Not a competent team though.

This is obviously just my opinion, and maybe i'm off the mark assuming competency, even from franchises that valuable. Certainly I believe this board is far and away ahead of the "intuition" of pretty much every college basketball media outlet/writer, and most NBA writers/outlets, with anything related to Duke basketball
 
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Carter is definitely going top 10. I think he has an extremely high floor. Trae Young, Doncic, Bagley, Porter Jr, Ayton, are all locks to go ahead of him, and then you have Knox, Sexton, and Jackson (MSU) which will probably depend on teams needs.

Carter is going to be a beast and he's going to bring in so much value as like the #8 pick in the draft. I think of all the names I just listed his "bust" percentages are the least.
 
Man, reading all those names make this seems like a historically good draft, at least in the lottery range.
 
It's tough to imagine Carter not blowing teams away in workouts and interviews, and he'll probably do quite well in athletic testing and metrics, other than only being 6'9"-6'10" ish.

Regardless of where he's slotted in mocks now, I'd be surprised if he does not go Top 7.
 
I would put Carter in the top 7 as well. I don't think Young is a lock to go in the top 5 or ahead of Carter. It that ends up being a big mistake for the franchises that pass on him, it's not an unrealistic mistake to be made. He's 6-2 with a 6-2 wingspan, without crazy athleticism, and that's going to scare people, like with Curry. There's some sound reasoning behind that, as Young's size and lack of explosiveness keeps him from being a decent finisher now and may keep him from being a decent defender in the NBA. Young is shooting a very poor 51% at the rim.

Range may be everything, but Young's range isn't totally clear. Young's season to this point may have relied on a bit of luck from 3, especially from beyond 25 feet. His good-but-not-great FT% of 82% isn't currently in line with being a historically great 3pt shooter. Curry shot 86%, 89%, 88% FT in his three college seasons. Lillard, shot 84%, 85%, 86%, 89% FT in college. The difference as freshmen compared with Young isn't huge and may not even be significant, but how Young finishes the season from the line will be scrutinized to get a better sense of how great he can be as a 3pt shooter.

Young will be picked apart by scouts by draft day. Most of the mainstream sports media don't even know who Carter is and will probably go through a honeymoon phase with him soon, where everyone talks about how underrated he is. There will be at least one clickbait headline by an ESPN writer that asks something like, "Is Wendell Carter Duke's Best Player?" Skip Bayless will probably start shouting about this as we get closer to March. Hopefully Carter doesn't get so much underrated talk that he becomes overrated and then still has time to get picked apart before the draft.
 
Top 7 would make me happy. There would be a good chance of Boston drafting him at that point. Granted, with the way the Lakers are playing that pick could realistically be #2 or #3, and there would probably be better value players available.
 
I see Wendell having a similar career to David West. He has more potential as a shotblocker and rebounder and predictably has better perimeter skills as a result of his era, but he projects as a high floor prospect who could be a quality starter for a decade plus with a couple all-star appearances sprinkled in.

As a side note, David West is posting a career-high PER and WS/48 at age 37. Carter seems like a guy who will have great longevity provided he stays healthy.
 
Favorite player on this team right now. Might be our second-best OAD ever (minimum 12 games played), right behind his frontcourt mate.
 
The fact that 75% of his blocked shots go to him or his teammates is jizztastic
 
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