2025 Prospect Spotlight: Carter Bryant

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Carter Bryant | Freshman | Arizona
Wing
6' 8"
220 Pounds

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Playing winning basketball as a freshman in a minimal role can be extremely difficult, but that is exactly what Carter Bryant has done for Arizona all season. Bryant’s role and involvement have fluctuated all season, but that’s never deterred him from doing the little things that make everyone else around him better.

When Bryant was on the floor for Arizona, they had an offensive rating of 128.4 (5th) and a defensive rating of 94.1 (15th). Without Bryant on the floor, those ratings were 122.1 (18th) and 97.3 (35th) respectively. Those aren’t detrimental drop-offs, but the difference is staggering when you consider that Bryant only started five out of 36 games and ranks seventh on the team in minutes per game.

So how did a freshman who had a minute share of just 47.5 (Flagg was 71.3 for reference) and averaged 6.5 points make such an impact on winning?

The obvious place to start is on the defensive end. When we look at this freshman class, there aren’t many prospects who have the same combination of footwork, awareness, strength, and explosiveness that Bryant has. Bryant is an incredibly unselfish defender as he constantly has his head on a swivel; he is a highly effective weak-side rim protector, and he doesn’t hesitate to scramble on defense. Bryant’s reliability and consistency as a help defender are extremely rare for his age and a driving reason behind why he posted a block rate of 6.0 and a steal rate of 2.7.

Along with his impressive off-ball defense, Bryant has also proven that he’s one of the most effective and versatile on-ball defenders in this draft class. From a fundamental standpoint, Bryant is about as polished as you could expect a freshman to be. He moves his feet incredibly well, sits down in a stance, and can defend nearly any position on the court. He’ll occasionally get a little too handsy or beat by the extremely quick guards, but he is almost never out of the play. By constantly sliding his feet and staying on balance, Bryant is a nightmare to try and beat to the rim. He rarely allows ball handlers to turn the corner because of his footwork, and his strength allows him to wall up drives and switch on bigger opponents. Additionally, his balance, footwork, and explosiveness make him elite at contesting jumpers. Bryant is disciplined with his block attempts, is quick off the ground, and has great instincts.



The reason that Bryant doesn’t consistently get mentioned with the top wings in this class is because of his offense. By no means is he bad at that end of the court, but he does have an incredibly simple role.

Per Synergy, the three most common play types for Bryant are spot up at 36.1%, transition at 17%, and cuts at 14.9%. That’s 68% of his possessions as being just a play finisher while only 9.8% consist of him operating the pick-and-roll along with zero isolation possessions. This usage distribution is only an issue if you’re trying to find a wing creator. If you’re scouting Bryant for what he is while also developing ancillary traits to explore his upside, though, you’re going to be really happy with the efficient off-ball scorer that he is.

Bryant’s most common play type is spotting up, where he scored 1.043 points per possession (PPP) (71st percentile). Additionally, 82.2% of his shots came shooting off the catch. In these situations, Bryant scored 1.09 PPP (66th percentile). What’s more encouraging is that Bryant didn’t exclusively rely on wide-open looks. In fact, 75.7% of his shots off the catch came when guarded (97th percentile), and he ranked in the 61st percentile in PPP. When unguarded, Bryant ranked in the 77th percentile in shooting off the catch. What that tells us is that Bryant is confident shooting off the catch, isn’t deterred by a defender’s presence, and was thrown a lot of last-second grenades. All of these factors suggest positive growth for him as a shooter going forward.

As a scorer, though, Bryant isn’t exclusively limited to being a standstill shooter. We saw him knock down plenty of relocation threes, but he’s also a very good mover without the ball. His timely cuts, activity, and athleticism make him a great outlet for ball handlers. It also allows him to get easy hoops at the rim on cuts and offensive rebounds. This season, Bryant ranked in the 97th percentile in at-rim scoring and shot 78.9% at the rim in the halfcourt. The volume wasn’t astronomical, given his role, but his size, strength, and explosiveness make him a big-time threat.

Through no fault of his own, Carter Bryant has pretty consistently been the forgotten name when the 2025 NBA Draft gets discussed. All he’s done throughout the season is play winning basketball. On offense, he’s a highly efficient play-finisher with tantalizing passing upside. On defense, he does just about everything at a high level. Bryant may not have the upside that guys in the Top 5 have, but that’s why he doesn’t get mentioned in that range. What he does have, though, is an incredible baseline as a 3-and-D wing who looks like he could play a decade-plus in the league.

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Carter Bryant | Wing | Arizona

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Height: 6' 8"
Weight: 225
Age: 19
Freshman

Comparisons:

• Jeff Green - I imagine fanbases will be tantalized by Bryant's flashes of greatness in a similar fashion, though he's likely just a high-end role player.
  
• Trevor Ariza - Ariza played his role well for almost two decades, but he had to improve his shooting when he was young much like Bryant does now.

STRENGTHS
Cutting: Bryant is an excellent mover without the ball. He looks for cutting opportunities and finishes with power on lobs. Typically, he’ll do anything the team needs whether it’s setting a screen, staying active in the dunker spot, or crashing the boards.

Spot-up shooting: Bryant is a solid 3-point shooter off the catch with fluid mechanics and a high release. His results were average from 3 in college, and his free throw success rate was below 70%. But he made 68-of-77 attempts from the line (88.3%) as a high school senior, and his mechanics bode well for his long-term potential.

Defensive upside: With his size, strength, and quickness, he projects as a player who could switch across multiple positions. He must learn fundamentals and avoid mistakes, but long term he has all the tools.

CONCERNS
Shot creation: Lacks the advanced handle to generate his own looks, and he’s even limited doing the basic stuff like attacking closeouts. He loses control of the ball too often and makes sloppy passes. In the half court, he got to the rim only once on self-created chances and got blocked.

Shooting dynamism: He is a solid shooter from a standstill, but doesn’t hit 3s off of movement or off the dribble yet.

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Baby Kawhi?

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[Jamaaliver]

Carter Bryant is an elite athlete. A great defender.

A big ball of clay just waiting *to be molded. Could legit be the next Kawhi if developed properly...

[King Ken]

Carter Bryant is an elite athlete. A great defender.

A big ball of clay just waiting ot be molded. Could legit be the next Kawhi if developed properly...

There is a pretty big gap as prospects.
https://tankathon.com/players/compare?players=carter-bryant--kawhi-leonard

[Jamaaliver]

Carter Bryant is an elite athlete. A great defender.

A big ball of clay just waiting ot be molded. Could legit be the next Kawhi if developed properly...

There is a pretty big gap as prospects.

https://tankathon.com/players/compare?players=carter-bryant--kawhi-leonard

I am no Carter Bryant expert. But there are some clear similarities.

I will say that the production won't be the same because their roles were very different:

• Carter Bryant was a Freshman...coming off the bench...for a top-20 team...in a major conference...built around upper classmen.
• Kawhi was a two year starter for a mid-major playing against sub-par competition.
• Kawhi was not seen as an elite prospect as a result -- which is why he was still available outside the lottery in that draft class.

But their physical profiles and strengths are indeed similar...even if the production isn't.

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[King Ken]

I think its more likely he will be Patrick Williams than Kawhi Leonard

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I think its more likely he will be Patrick Williams than Kawhi Leonard

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Spoiler:

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Great stuff here...

[HMFFL]

Future Backcourt:
Dyson Daniels 6'7"
Carter Bryant 6'8"

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