Carter's calling on defense takes him to the NBA
SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest in Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
In a league built on spacing and tempo, Memphis doubled down on being different.
The Grizzlies placed value on both grit and defense when making their selections in the NBA Draft and who better to mesh into that system than former West Virginia guard Jevon Carter.
A key ingredient, if you will.
Carter, a two-time national player of the year on that side of the ball, was selected with the No. 32 pick in the draft just two picks into the second round.
The focus of the pick was the fact that the Illinois native would have little adjustment fitting into what the Grizzlies want to do considering that he already came from a winning program that prides itself on toughness, particularly on the defensive side.
“It’s obvious he was the premier defensive guard in the country and obviously the toughest defensive guard as well,” said Chris Wallace, general manager. “We’ve had our eyes on him a long time.”
The landing spot is one that Carter believes is a perfect fit for what he does on the floor and through the course of working out with teams he saw a lot of familiarity playing for the Grizzlies.
“They piggyback off the mentality at West Virginia. Just the defensive style, the grit. How hard coach (Bob) Huggins is and how much they just want to win. The history there, Jerry West, I got the logo at my school. For me I just felt it couldn’t be a more perfect fit for me,” Carter said.
While the majority of players taken in the NBA Draft are known for their offensive prowess, it’s what Carter can do on the other end of the floor that really caught the attention of the Grizzlies. Matched up against some of the premier scoring options in college basketball in the Big 12 Conference, Carter not only held his own but much more often than not won those battles.
It’s a trait that not every player possesses, but one that drew Memphis to Carter. In large part because that carries over in all situations and regardless if shots are falling or not he can have a positive impact on the game with his approach to the defensive side.
“The first thing you see is the tenacity he plays with. Any game you watch when he’s on the floor he stands out and I think that’s impressive. We want to watch the guy who’s stopping that guy,” Memphis head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said.
So when Carter says that he is going to give his all, it isn’t hard to believe.
“Just come in here and be tough, be tough minded,” Carter said.
That’s not to say that Carter doesn’t possess some skill on the offensive end however, as his game continued to develop over his four-year career and he closed it out averaging just under 18 points per game while serving as the leading scorer for two consecutive years with the Mountaineers.
In fact, Carter came into college more known for his abilities on the offensive end but he quickly realized at the college level that scoring the ball wasn’t going to be what kept him on the floor. So he gravitated toward the other end and finding a niche that would make him stand out to Huggins as well as his opponents.
He found that and a lot more.
“I’m just going to go hard on defense and see where it takes me,” he said. “That’s my calling.”
A calling that has brought him all the way to the highest level of basketball. Not too bad for a player that had only one high major offer out of high school.
Enter the contest by clicking on the following link and choosing to subscribe to the channel: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=VideoGlide
