Wendell Carter Showed Off The Rim Protection That Might Make Him A Force With The Bulls

LAS VEGAS – The big men at the top of the 2018 NBA Draft generally had one thing in common: All of them possess copious amounts of upside, even if they’re a bit rough around the edges. The exception to this was Wendell Carter, the former Duke Blue Devil who everyone seems to agree was as safe of a prospect as you’d find in this draft class.

For the Chicago Bulls — a team that has a reputation for preferring older college basketball players to high-risk, high-reward guys (save for their selection of Lauri Markkanen last year) — a basketball old soul like Carter made a ton of sense. His ceiling might not be as high as that of Deandre Ayton or Jaren Jackson Jr., but his floor is high and he possesses all the intangible things that you want a potential star big man to have.

Carter’s first chance to show off what he can do on the floor at the NBA Summer League came on Saturday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the big man lived up to expectations. Going up against a Cedi Osman-less Cavs side, the Bulls came out on top, 86-81. Carter had a big game, going for 16 points, nine rebounds, and five blocks.

Naturally, all eyes go to that last number. Duke’s defense was much-maligned last season, so much so that Mike Krzyzewski felt the need to play zone. But in the midst of all of that, Carter was an outstanding rim protector, registering a block percentage of 7.6 percent (good for 64th in the nation). Watch as Ante Zizic attempted to get to the rim against the Bulls’ big man, only for Carter to do the basketball version of a snake unhinging its jaw and consuming something whole.

This is an insane play — Carter was patient enough to wait for the right moment to go up and snatch this ball from Zizic, timed his jump perfectly, and made the play. Beyond this, watch as Cleveland’s guards tested Carter, both at the rim and off the bounce, only to be denied by Chicago’s young star.

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Both of these are impressive in their own unique ways: The former because Carter stayed with a guard from the perimeter all the way to the rim before sending his shot into the stands, the latter because Carter knew exactly when to leave his man so he could protect the rim. These are skills that some veteran big men don’t have, but Carter can already bust them out of his bag of tricks despite still being a teenager.

On top of this eyebrow-raising performance at the rim, Carter had an efficient night on the offensive end of the floor. His 16 points came on 6-for-12 shooting, including two makes on three attempts from three. There are only so many ways I can say “he’s good!” before it stops resonating, so let’s just hear what Marvin Bagley has to say about his former teammate.

Carter’s performance could pretty easily get lost amid the main Bulls storyline this week — Zach LaVine getting paid $80 million by Sacramento, which Chicago matched to bring him back to the Windy City — and there’s no guarantee that he continues to turn heads over the rest of Summer League. But still, first impressions are important, and Carter made as strong of a first impression as you can get out of a rookie.