NBA Draft Scouting Report: Jevon Carter
As we transition from the college basketball season to NBA Draft season I’ll be breaking down the scouting reports for various players across the country who are expected to be in the NBA Draft. We’ll focus on seniors and those with agents to start, with the hope of hitting all of the college guys in my top-60. If there is someone specific you want on here, please let me know @barstoolreags. All videos are courtesy of Synergy and the stats will come from Synergy and KenPom.
Jevon Carter– West Virginia
6’2”, 205 lbs, 22 years old
Projected: No. 41 (DraftExpress) No. 46 (NBADraft.net)
Background: Jevon Carter was known as arguably the best defender in college basketball the last two seasons. He was an intense ballhawk who did an excellent job of playing both with his hands and with his feet. What I mean by that is he’d beat you up, make it tough for you to even take a couple of dribbles up the court before he would grab you, push you all while still staying in front of you. It led to some foul trouble, but for how physical he was he did an excellent job of being called for under 4 fouls per 40 minutes. The last two years though he became a way more balanced player as he shot over 38% from three both seasons and turned into a confident offensive player as well. He also became the first major conference player to record 1,500 points, 500 rebounds, 500 assists and 300 steals for his career.
Strengths: Look, it’s no surprise you have to start with defense here. That’s what Carter’s calling-card is going to be at the next level. He’s drawn comparisons to Patrick Beverly in that sense and it’s understandable as both guys are in your face defenders who aren’t afraid to get physical. Both became better offensive players as their careers went on, so the comparison is one that everyone will make. So we’ll start on the defensive side of the ball – something that we don’t typically start with in these things.
It’s worth noting that it’s not the easiest to watch West Virginia film and use team defense when watching Carter or any other prospect from Morgantown. The premise of that Press Virginia defense doesn’t carry over to the NBA level. Teams aren’t pressing the entire game, doubling on inbounds and playing that style. Therefore you have to really watch the individual and their footwork, reading of plays, etc from the defensive side in order to get a true grasp on who they are defensively. It’s somewhat similar to how people scout Syracuse players or any team who runs zone the entire time.
Carter was obviously known for creating turnovers. He had a steal rate of 4.8% this past year, which was 6th best in the country. He has excellent footwork on the defensive side and does a great job of staying in a stance. I went back and watch halfcourt possessions to see what he looked like there. West Virginia did switch a lot of guard on guard stuff, but he showed his ability to bother most players there too. Watching this play against Texas Tech has stood out to me. First, watch how he deals with the plethora of screens he’s put through. He switches onto Zhaire Smith for a second before switching back to Keenan Evans. He gets in the right position to avoid being screened on both the baseline and down screen, keeping him in position between Evans and ball. once Evans gets it and has a bit of a size advantage you can see Carter’s quick hands and physicality come into play. He slaps at the ball once it’s shown, jarring it loose. He also uses his lower body to hold ground and give Evans a bit of a bump back as he tries to initiate contact. This is why he’s a top-40 prospect.
I mentioned he did become a more consistent and confident offensive player the last two years. Somewhere he became better in was pick and roll sets where he took the shot as the ball handler. He graded out as good per Synergy this season scoring .808 points per possession on 130 possessions. If you factor him passing out of PnR sets, WVU actually scored a bit better as they scored .91 points per possession in total PnR sets with Carter. Now, one thing to remember is WVU’s offense isn’t necessarily great, or even good. It gets stagnant at times and looks for Carter to bail them out. His offensive numbers are going to be down, especially PPP compared to the crop of point guards he’ll be grouped in with.
I remembered this play against Villanova as one marked down as a ‘pro’ move by Carter. It’s late in the shot clock and Nova switches Paschall on him after the guard on guard screen up top. Carter recognizes the mismatch and sets him up with a couple rhythm dribbles. He gets a step on Paschall, beats the reaching DiVincenzo before avoiding the charge that Brunson is trying to take. It’s great body control to stop on the dime like that and then get a little fade to avoid a) the charge and b) a blocked shot. This is a type of move that he’ll need to continue to hit on a regular basis at the next level.
Weaknesses: I think most would agree there are a few glaring weaknesses when it comes to Carter and his game. First, is actually his age. He’s already 22 and turns 23 in September. Compared to the rest of the point guard class, he’s the old guy and we’ve seen teams talk about drafting younger to help build with a player. Also at 23 you feel like you’ve seen his ceiling and he’s not that much of an unknown. Going with that is his size. He doesn’t have great size to guard multiple positions at the next level and will be used strictly as a point defending other points. Now, that’s not a huge weakness or anything, but with the game going positionless and teams valuing the ability to guard multiple positions, Carter doesn’t necessarily have that. Finally, there still are questions about who he is offensively. I mentioned WVU’s offense got stagnant at times and part of that led to Carter taking bad shots. Was the WVU’s part of Carter settling? He also needs to improve his ball handling for the next level. There are times he gets careless with his dribble and leaves it a bit out there. He’ll have to continue to break guys down and improved ball handling goes right along with that.
Draft Stock/Projection: Carter fits that mold of a change of pace backup guard which teams are starting to value more of. I don’t think he sneaks into the first round, but he’s going to be an early second round pick likely going after Holiday/Simons/Brunson/Melton/Graham. If he shoots the ball well during workouts and continues to defend at an elite level, you may see a team take him a couple spots earlier. He’s someone though that can be a difference maker on the defensive side of the ball from day one. We saw Beverly make his career out of being that guy and Carter comes from the same mindset.
Other scouting reports: