The Milwaukee Bucks needed to sign someone before the end of the week to reach the required minimum of 14 players on the active roster. They lost out on the Goran Dragic buyout sweepstakes and, since it was clear they wanted to add another guard, are reportedly going to sign Jevon Carter (once he clears waivers and all that fun stuff).
Carter is the second former Brooklyn Nets player to sign with the Bucks after being waived due to another transaction (DeAndre’ Bembry), but Carter’s impact will likely be less than what Bembry will bring.
What is a fair expectation for Jevon Carter with the Milwaukee Bucks?
Fun fact about me: I’m a big West Virginia University fan! So, seeing as Carter is a WVU alum, this signing is personally quite exciting just for the fact that I get to watch him play for my favorite NBA team! That’s fun!
Aside from that and in regards to his actual on-court impact and what he’ll bring: defense and energy.
Carter’s calling card since college has been his aggressive on-ball defense skills that were sharpened while being the face of the Press Virginia era of WVU hoops. He won the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year award in back-to-back seasons and was an absolute menace when he was a Mountaineer.
Carter isn’t as much of a menace in the NBA as he was in college, but that is still his best attribute. He’s a bit undersized at 6’1″ and 200 pounds, but he doesn’t let that affect how he defends. He’s been an aggressive and tenacious defender that will go at whoever is in front of him.
This season, Carter is holding opposing guards to a 42 percent effective field goal rate, 10 percent below league average in 2021-22. Pretty good!
One downside to his aggressive and physical style of defense is that he fouls quite a bit. Mike Budenholzer coached teams are notorious for not fouling, so we’ll see how that goes in his limited minutes.
Carter’s minutes will depend on a few things. The main one is the health of the rest of the Bucks’ guards. Grayson Allen should be back after missing the final game before the break with a hip injury. George Hill is the big wild card with his neck injury that has caused him to miss the last nine games. At full strength, Carter is nothing more than a deep bench option.
In the short term, Carter could see 10 to 12 minutes as a reserve. He’s played both the point and shooting guard positions in his four-year career. A combo I’d be interested in seeing mixed in is Carter and Jrue Holiday.
How much he plays will also depend on his shooting. He developed into a solid shooter in his time with West Virginia and found a rhythm in his second and third seasons with the Phoenix Suns. In 118 games with the Suns, Carter shot nearly 40 percent from 3 on 2.5 attempts and was very effective on catch-and-shoot attempts.
His shooting cratered with the Nets this season for whatever reason. He shot 33 percent from 3 and 34 percent on 2s, not ideal! In a bit of a change, Carter shot much better on pull-up 3s (39.5 percent, 38 attempts) than catch-and-shoot (30.2 percent, 86 attempts), per NBA.com/stats.
Some of that could be due to some bad shooting luck as he shot under 28 percent on “open” 3s (closest defender between four to six feet away) but shot over 37 percent on “wide open” 3s (closest defender over six feet away).
No matter how much he plays, when Carter is out there, he’ll get open looks playing off of Holiday, Khris Middleton, and Giannis Antetokounmpo. It’ll be up to him to make them and earn more playing time.
This won’t be some earth-shattering move that will put the Bucks over the top as clear favorites, but it’s a nice depth add that can fill a role as long as he can hit shots.
Still going to be really cool (for me) to see him play for the Bucks, though.