Is Devin Carter Ready To Run Point Guard For Sacramento Kings?

Is Devin Carter Ready To Run Point Guard For Sacramento Kings?

that if you want to talk Love Island with me, hit me up individually. I got thoughts. Uh I also have thoughts on King Summer League and James, I’m I’m hoping you do as well. So, let’s start with Devin Carter and TC. I see you on the Oakrove Kia talk line. We’ll get to you for sure. 9169-1320 91691320 if you’d like to join the conversation. We would love to hear from you. Phone lines are open. Let’s start with Devin Carter’s debut. Summer league debut. two of 14, eight points. Kind of a disaster. Yeah. Comes out Saturday, goes 10 of 13 from the floor, scores 30. A little more swagger to his game. Looks a little more interested because he looked very disinterested in the in the summer league opener. his 30point outing the other night just still didn’t move me on how I feel about Devin Carter because I’m not a I don’t think Devin Carter is bad at basketball. I don’t think Devin Carter can credibly do the things the Kings need him to do to find him minutes. And going for 30 in summer league uh doesn’t do anything for me in terms of like Yeah, he made more shots. I expected that. I I I don’t feel like I’m watching Devin Carter and going, “Wow, that is a future point guard.” Well, I I think that’s the problem that if you want him to be a point guard, um you’re wrong. He’s not a point guard. And and I don’t care what he says behind the scenes because I know like when he’s interviewed, yeah, I played point guard my first couple years at Providence, blah blah blah. Like, dude, you don’t play the position like a point guard. and you just don’t you are straight up a combo guard and realistically you’re more like an undersized two. Mhm. Now, the fact that he has a like 6’8 wings at 6’2, that helps. The fact that he’s a great rebounder, that helps. The fact that posted a 42 inch vert at the combine, that helps, right? All of these things help. The fact that he’s an undersized, too. He’s an NBA player. Yeah, I I I think so. Um, but I also like Kyle, there’s this weird thing that’s happened here over the last like week, and that is that the rumor of him getting traded for for in a Kaminga deal. Mhm. All of a sudden, fans are looking at Devin Carter as like a gateway to Kaminga. And so they’re they’re all amped up because they want Carter to succeed. So, the Golden State Warriors will turn around and go, “Oh, okay. We’ll take him. We’ll take that deal.” And I I think it’s really put an unfair amount of like emphasis on who Devin Carter is in this situation. Like, you want him to develop as a point guard. Can he bring the ball up the court? Yeah, he can bring the ball up the court and hand it off to somebody, but he’s just not a creator for others. And you’re I mean Mason Jones, Nate Clifford, uh Maxim Rainol, they are creating for others. Y he’s really not. In fact, he doesn’t want to create for others. He just wants to shoot. And you can understand that. Mhm. But it’s almost like he’s got a little more Cam uh Cam Thomas in him. He wishes than he does. Well, yeah. I mean, Cam Thomas is I know what it’s saying, but that style of play. Yeah, it’s that style of play like the head down, not looking around. Um, Carris Levert. Yeah, Carris Levert gets assist. He gets assist on accident. Mhm. Like because he dribbled the arrow out of the ball and he’s got nowhere to go and somebody has to shoot it and he passes to somebody and they hit a shot and he gets an assist. That’s that’s what it feels like with with Devin and like the process of bringing him along. Again, one of the problems is when you draft older prospects, they are who they are. When you get him, he played four years of college. Like he’s 23 going on 24, whatever he is. Like he’s a mature player. That’s just not his game. Yeah. Where again, Nate Clifford is a little bit older, but he stuck around for an extra year at college and said, “Oh, I’m going to learn how to draw contact. I’m going to learn how to get to the free throw line. I’m going to learn how to create off the dribble. I’m going to learn how to create for myself and for others. And all of a sudden, all of his numbers jump up because he was doing that at a level where you can do that. You like going out at the NBA level and thinking you’re going to send a guy to the G-League for 10 games and he’s going to come back a point guard. That’s just not the way it works. Yeah. And he has to be willing. He has to be 100% willing to be that player. Yeah. That’s not who Devin Carter is yet. It might be in two years, but right now that’s not who he is. I think there’s a pretty significant difference between And this is where I think the because I I’m gonna say this. I’m just going to say this once to show. Almost everything here exists in a gray area. It is not Devin Carter is a point guard or Devin Carter stinks. Those are not that’s not the conversation exactly. There is a huge gray area between those two things. And I and I think this is where saying he’s not a point guard doesn’t mean that he is incapable of creating for others. He can. We’ve seen him drive and pass. We’ve seen him bring the ball up the floor. Like those are typically point guard things. But there’s a difference between, oh, he worked on creating a little bit versus he worked on being a point guard. Yeah. like a credible bring the ball up, get the offense uh where it needs to be, get the offense orchestrated and move the ball. Ball gets to you, you’re moving it because you’re the the centerpiece of the offense. That’s just not going to be him. And that’s not a knock. That’s not that’s the thing is that’s not insulting Devin Carter. No, it is understanding the type of player he is. And when you look at him, you go, “Okay, let’s just let’s just go from scratch. We’re building a team.” You’re watching Devin Carter. you go, okay, that’s a that’s a two with like good defensive upside, good uh upside as a rebounder, and he can create a little bit is how you’re going to define that. Yes. But then you drop him onto a team with Malik Monk, with Zack Lavine, with Keon Ellis, and you start going, “Huh, like there’s not really with Demar Rozan, you’re going, huh, there’s not really like a like a big role for him.” Yeah. like where do the Devin Carter minutes come from if this is who he is as a player and it is and that’s I think the question I think that’s what people are butting up against and that’s not that’s not a Devin Carter is bad that is a Devin Carter is not going to see minutes ahead of Malik Monk as long as he’s on the team he’s not going to see minutes ahead of Demar De Rozan or Zack Lavine or or Keon Ellis so that’s that’s the question now for me is like okay he’s here I don’t know where he’s playing a ton of minutes this year if everybody Everybody’s healthy. Well, that and I’m going to add the extra layer. The extra layer is that as of right now, the Kings have Dennis Shrutder and they have Malik Monk at the the back as their two point guards, right? Rarely does a team go into a season with only two point guards. They always want a third. And people remember last season was Jordan Mlofflin. Well, the Kings don’t really like they have to decide if they’re going to bring in a third point guard or not right now. Like realistically, what they would love to have done was to move Malik Monk in a trade that would have yielded a a forward and then backfill that position with Russell Westbrook. Sure. And then you have two guys who are going to play a ton of minutes. But here’s the problem that Devin Carter is running into right now. Number one, he doesn’t look like a point guard at all. And number two, the Kings have two point guards right now. And those two guys, what if one of them gets hurt? you don’t feel the confidence that you can just run Devin Carter out there as your backup point guard, as your third string point guard or as your backup in an emergency situation. And so that’s where he’s going to lose uh even whatever foothold he has for potential minutes. He’s already the fifth guard, but if you have to bring in a sixth guard to play that backup point guard position, that is devastating for his potential to ever get on the court. Yeah. So, at this point, is it Keon Ellis? Is he going to be that third point guard? Is it, you know, are you going to trust a guy like Zack Lavine and say, “Okay, now you’re the third point guard.” Like, that’s where you’re at if he can’t do it at all. And so far, even like Nick Clifford, I I’ve got more confidence in Nick Clifford right now. I was just going to say that like bringing the ball up and and getting initiated into the offense and start to move the offense than I do Devin Carter. And like look, for a guy who barely played last year, you put up an 18 a 17.9% usage rate. That’s not who you’re going to be allowed to be, you know? And that’s, you know, we run into he’s not the only one that we see this issue with. Totally. It’s the same thing with Jonathan Kaminga in Golden State%. Like he wants a whole bunch of usage rate percent and that’s not who you’re going to allow to be be allowed to be at the NBA level. Yep. So unless you reinvent yourself or find yourself in a position where they don’t have any of these other players that make sense in a in a rotation, then you’re going to have a tough time getting getting minutes. And again, I think a lot of Kings fans are so amped up about the potential of getting Jonathan Kaminga that they are waiting for Devin Carter to show up and average 30 a game in summer league and for the Golden State Warriors to go, “Oh my gosh, look how good he is.” That’s not how it works either. Yeah. Because nobody values summer league all that much. What you’re valuing in the summer league is whether a player looks like he belongs or looks like he does not belong. And so far, Nick Clifford checked in. He belongs. Yep. Uh, Maxim Reno, he belongs. Isaiah Crawford looks like he belongs in my book. I’m watching Mason Jones. Okay, you see how all these other players get it and then you’re waiting for, you know, again, for Devin Carter, the light bulb to go on and it’s not about the 30 points. It’s not about the shooting numbers. Nope. It’s about looking like you, the light bulb is on and then you’re checking in in summer league. I am not moved by Devin Carter scoring points in summer league. Yes, I know he can do that. My question is not can Devin Carter put the ball in the hoop against guys who may or may not be NBA players. We saw him go down to the G- League a couple times and tear it up. Mhm. Not I’m good. Good. Two thumbs up on Devin Carter being able to put the ball in the hoop. Can you do all the other things that the Kings currently require from that position? Mhm. And so far through two summer league games he hasn’t. It’s good that he went for 30. You’d rather that game going for eight on two of 14. Yep. Thousand%. Yeah. It It’s like it he has to somebody has to define success for him and then he needs to go seek that success. Yes. And that is such a complicated thing. Mhm. Like hey, I need you to be this guy. Can you go show me that you can be that guy? Because again, Mason Jones, Mason Jones should be out there trying to score 25 and earning an NBA contract. He’s out there finding Devin Carter because he’s hot. Finding Nick Clifford because he’s hot. Mhm. He’s moving the ball to the right guy and making the right decisions and showing you that, hey, look, I have the potential to be something more. And to me, that that’s a good sign for him. And when it comes to Devin, you’re you’re still waiting for that moment where it’s like, “Hey man, you’re not going to be a star at the NBA level.” Yep. I steal this line from Austin Rivers all the time because he says it all the time and I’m going to believe him. Learn your role. Change your life. Yep. Embrace that role, man. Uh, real quick before we get to the Grokia talk line with TC who wants to talk about Don Carter, you want to take a stab at what Jonathan Kaminga’s usage rate was in 1100 minutes last year? 24 and a half. Oh, you got to go up, buddy. Oh no. Steph Curry led the team and and this is a Braxton Key was second, but he played 11 minutes. So of guys who played more than a thousand minutes, Steph Curry 29.8. Uhhuh. Jonathan Kaminga 24 27.4. That’s a really really I mean that’s outrageous.

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