Is Wendell Carter officially a bust?

[Lexluthor]

I am so happy that he is gone. He would always throw his teammates under the bus like he was saying star player

[Bandit King]

Yes

[jake_swivel]

I have rarely seen a player at that level bobble simple passes and rebounds as much as him.

How soon we’ve forgotten Tyson chandler.

[Ice Man]

I have rarely seen a player at that level bobble simple passes and rebounds as much as him.

How soon we’ve forgotten Tyson chandler.

Omer Asik, too. It is a fairly common affliction.

[MrSparkle]

I have rarely seen a player at that level bobble simple passes and rebounds as much as him.

How soon we’ve forgotten Tyson chandler.

Omer Asik, too. It is a fairly common affliction.

It is, especially with younger bigs. Young Noah had his bad moments; especially rookie year. Chandler never developed Wilt's hands, but he did become much more secure with a basketball as he got older.

All in all, I maintain Wendell will have a solid career. Eventually, he'll stop getting emotional and fall into a focused routine; make open shots in his range, and cut down on turnovers. His screening and boxing-out improved a lot this year. If his shooting and and handles get to a reliable point, there were clear signs the first month of the season that he can give serviceable offense on top of strong defense. He'd get overly frustrated by bricks and turnovers. The turnover jitters added by Coby & Pat weren't helping.

He also looked vastly different depending on his weight and conditioning. Besides being drafted too high (more of a 15-20 pick), injuries have been his #1 enemy. So we'll see, but it's very likely WCJ is ORL's $18m starting center in 2023 while Bamba hits the bargain bin.

[Leslie Forman]

He also looked vastly different depending on his weight and conditioning. Besides being drafted too high (more of a 15-20 pick), injuries have been his #1 enemy. So we'll see, but it's very likely WCJ is ORL's $18m starting center in 2023 while Bamba hits the bargain bin.

Ehhhhh IDK about that.

I think he'll more likely bounce around and have a long but unsteady journeyman career. Sort of like the one Noel looks like he's going to have. He's good enough to always stick on a team somewhere, but his skillset (or lack of) is just not in high demand in this league.

Mo Bamba is just Thabeet II, it looks like. I predicted that and I don't like that I'm right because if he had panned out he would have been a fun player to have in this league.

[Dez]

11/6/3/3 in 18 minutes for WCJ against the Clippers.
Go well WCJ.

[Last Guardian]

11/6/3/3 in 18 minutes for WCJ against the Clippers.
Go well WCJ.

Hopefully its the honeymoon phase. He won the game at the end blocking everything in sight. We don't want to win games.

[Ice Man]

11/6/3/3 in 18 minutes for WCJ against the Clippers.
Go well WCJ.

And Otto with 13/7/4 in 20 minutes. If those guys had played like that for us, they wouldn't have been traded. Presumably they won't keep it up.

[Wingy]

11/6/3/3 in 18 minutes for WCJ against the Clippers.
Go well WCJ.

Hopefully its the honeymoon phase. He won the game at the end blocking everything in sight. We don't want to win games.

Could be. He looked much better when he first moved to the bench for us, then became pretty meh again.

I suspect moving to a new team, that shine will last a lot longer.

[DuckIII]

11/6/3/3 in 18 minutes for WCJ against the Clippers.
Go well WCJ.

Hopefully its the honeymoon phase. He won the game at the end blocking everything in sight. We don't want to win games.

Could be. He looked much better when he first moved to the bench for us, then became pretty meh again.

I suspect moving to a new team, that shine will last a lot longer.

Carter is a talented player whose issues were between his ears (plus injuries). The “shine” could last his entire career if he gets his head right.

[Wingy]

Hopefully its the honeymoon phase. He won the game at the end blocking everything in sight. We don't want to win games.

Could be. He looked much better when he first moved to the bench for us, then became pretty meh again.

I suspect moving to a new team, that shine will last a lot longer.

Carter is a talented player whose issues were between his ears (plus injuries). The “shine” could last his entire career if he gets his head right.

Also possible. Might be similar to (what I theorize about) Chandler. He needed the wake up call of a team moving on from him to make it click, and motivate him to take that next step.

[Leslie Forman]

Is Carter actually talented? On-ball skills, off-ball skills, defense…what does he really have in his locker that stands out?

I'm convinced if Bagley wasn't on that same team and Carter had to play a much bigger offensive role, their record and his draft standing would have been considerably worse.

[League Circles]

Is Carter actually talented? On-ball skills, off-ball skills, defense…what does he really have in his locker that stands out?

I'm convinced if Bagley wasn't on that same team and Carter had to play a much bigger offensive role, their record and his draft standing would have been considerably worse.

Carter isn't a standout at any thing, but from a talent/capability standpoint, he has no critical flaws. Well rounded and competent skill wise.

[MissileMike]

Is Carter actually talented? On-ball skills, off-ball skills, defense…what does he really have in his locker that stands out?

I'm convinced if Bagley wasn't on that same team and Carter had to play a much bigger offensive role, their record and his draft standing would have been considerably worse.

Carter isn't a standout at any thing, but from a talent/capability standpoint, he has no critical flaws. Well rounded and competent skill wise.

See, to me, he has a huge flaw.... Terrible hands.

[Leslie Forman]

Is Carter actually talented? On-ball skills, off-ball skills, defense…what does he really have in his locker that stands out?

I'm convinced if Bagley wasn't on that same team and Carter had to play a much bigger offensive role, their record and his draft standing would have been considerably worse.

Carter isn't a standout at any thing, but from a talent/capability standpoint, he has no critical flaws. Well rounded and competent skill wise.

But he isn't. This is what people said he was coming out of the draft, and he has kept proving them wrong.

Horford is "well-rounded." He is (or was, I should say) competent or better at just about everything. You don't want him to necessarily be the guy dribbling or shooting, but if he is, you're okay with it. If Wendell does it, well that possession really went wrong somewhere, didn't it?

Wendell is below average to downright poor at just about everything you can think of offensively. I'm not sure he's even "average" at anything. Even his good passing, supposedly his big strength coming into the league, has been invisible.

He stinks in the low post, he stinks at shooting, he stinks at dribbling. And then defensively, well he stinks in space. He stinks against anyone who is moderately athletic and weighs more than 220 pounds down low. He is competent at…not screwing up too egregiously?

He's like the center version of Tony Snell or Keith Bogans.

[Michael Jackson]

Is Carter actually talented? On-ball skills, off-ball skills, defense…what does he really have in his locker that stands out?

I'm convinced if Bagley wasn't on that same team and Carter had to play a much bigger offensive role, their record and his draft standing would have been considerably worse.

Carter isn't a standout at any thing, but from a talent/capability standpoint, he has no critical flaws. Well rounded and competent skill wise.

But he isn't. This is what people said he was coming out of the draft, and he has kept proving them wrong.

Horford is "well-rounded." He is (or was, I should say) competent or better at just about everything. You don't want him to necessarily be the guy dribbling or shooting, but if he is, you're okay with it. If Wendell does it, well that possession really went wrong somewhere, didn't it?

Wendell is below average to downright poor at just about everything you can think of offensively. I'm not sure he's even "average" at anything. Even his good passing, supposedly his big strength coming into the league, has been invisible.

He stinks in the low post, he stinks at shooting, he stinks at dribbling. And then defensively, well he stinks in space. He stinks against anyone who is moderately athletic and weighs more than 220 pounds down low. He is competent at…not screwing up too egregiously?

He's like the center version of Tony Snell or Keith Bogans.

I'mn 100% on board with your WCJ outlook. I never liked the guy personally. I don't see his upside especially after he has had a decent enough NBA run. If he is more than Nerlen at his peak I would be shocked, in fact your comparison to NN might be too high because he can actually change a run off the bench with defense for a small few minutes. I can't see WCJ ever changing a game. Maybe I'm wrong. YEs dude is in his head, but he is in his head because he gets to see up close and personal how much better the competition is than him. Maybe he finds a way to accept that and work his game around his limitations, but it just keeps seems to be declining and it is far more than just injuries. He is running with Big boys that he can't run with.

[kodo]

Wendell was drafted, IMO, purely to cover for Lauri's weaknesses. Much like how Krause said if he couldn't draft both Curry & Chandler, because they both had such holes in their games he wouldn't draft either individually. It didn't work then, doesn't work now.

Lauri had talent on offense, long range shooting, perimeter defense (for a 7 footer). Not a great rebounder, post defender, passer. Wendell's strengths were post defense, rebounding, and more likely to pass than shoot.

Paxson actually said directly they drafted Doug on need (we needed a shooter to space for Rose, the current team was full of defenders) and they couldn't wait to develop a young kid. So they drafted an old shooter who had the best chance of ever playing for Thibs. They consciously didn't draft BPA. And I don't think they drafted BPA here either.

That was the problem with the old FO & the rebuild. They were never really in the mindset of tank. Our first rebuild pick, and they were already just filling in checkboxes to win games now instead of looking at upside. This org, top to bottom, was never 100% committed to a true tank rebuild. That's why I doubt it would work any better in the future than it did in 2018.

[Ice Man]

WCJ with 21/12 off the bench tonight. He's liking Orlando so far, and no doubt vice versa.

[weneeda2guard]

I see Orlando won the last 2 but they were gifted with playing the clippers who didn't play 5 of their 6 top players and the pelicans who didn't play zion, ingram or ball.

Yea I'm hating a lil bit

We need a win smh