3 reasons the Milwaukee Bucks should bring Jevon Carter back

Why the Milwaukee Bucks should bring Jevon Carter back – #2: He is a great fit in the rotation

Yes, the Bucks needed someone to play minutes behind Holiday late in the regular season but if Carter wasn’t a fit or didn’t play well, head coach Mike Budenholzer didn’t have to play him. He had no loyalty to Carter as someone who was signed as a buyout market addition but Carter forced Budenholzer’s hand.

Overall, Carter averaged 5.6 points on 68 percent true shooting with 2.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 0.5 steals in just under 18 minutes across 20 games in the regular season with Milwaukee. Defensively, Carter held opposing guards to under 44 percent shooting from the field and forced 19 turnovers. He also shot nearly 56 percent from 3 on 43 attempts with the Bucks, a mark that even the most optimistic Carter fans (me) didn’t see coming.

The combination of defense and shooting made him a valuable member of the rotation late in the season and gave the Bucks a big boost in their first-round series against the Chicago Bulls as well where he played over 20 minutes per game in the final three games of that series.

More importantly for a backup guard with the Bucks, he was able to fit alongside Holiday and allowed Budenholzer to play them together. Two-man combinations with Carter and Holiday had a plus-7.3 net rating in 103 minutes in the regular season. That jumped to a plus-26.2 net rating across 58 playoff minutes as well.

It’s a small sample, yes, but it proved that Carter could play with Holiday and form a dominant defensive backcourt duo. If Carter is re-signed, he wouldn’t be relegated to a deep-bench third-guard role behind Holiday and Hill because he can play with one of those two at the same time.