Chicago Bulls: Wendell Carter Jr. needs more touches

It is important for the Chicago Bulls and head coach Jim Boylen to let this team run with their best weapons on offense, including center Wendell Carter Jr.

The Chicago Bulls can’t seem to find their footing from two poor starts over the course of the past two seasons. Last season, it was the 5-19 start through the first 24 games that caused former Bulls head coach Fred Hoiberg to get fired in December. Current head coach Jim Boylen isn’t off to a much better start with an improved roster this season, sitting with a record of 3-7 through the first 10 games.

However, there is a major positive that emerged on this roster throughout the first 10 games of the 2019-20 regular season. Second-year former Duke Blue Devils center Wendell Carter Jr. is putting together a very solid start to his sophomore campaign as potentially the Bulls best player thus far.

He’s making those necessary strides required to get on the path to stardom, which the Bulls might not get out of their other two former seventh overall draft picks since 2017. Third-year power forward Lauri Markkanen and rookie point guard Coby White are off to pretty bad starts. But White should get a pass for now since he’s a very raw product and going through his rookie season.

Through 10 games this season, Carter Jr. is averaging 12.8 points per game, 9.5 rebounds, and 0.8 assists. He’s shooting over 58 percent from the field and averaging around 1.2 blocks per game.

But the main problem with the production coming from Carter Jr. so far is the lack of assists. He is averaging more turnovers per games than he is assists. But that’s mainly due to the lack of opportunity he’s getting on the offensive end. He has a usage rate around 18 percent and just a 4.8 percent assist rate.

Most of the looks on offense are either going to a volume scoring guard, like White or Zach LaVine, or going around the outside. Boylen loves the multi-ball handler system with this rotation, which could work, but not in the fashion he’s using it in now.

There’s just no way that the Bulls should be taking the ball away from a player like Carter Jr. that is seeing an uptick in his points and offensive efficiency like he is so far this season. He’s getting to the free-throw line more often and shooting better from the field in general. His free-throw attempts are up from 2.5 per game as a rookie to 4.1 per game this season.

However, a good portion of the problem may be that Carter Jr. is taking a passive approach to this situation. Carter Jr. seems to be listening to whatever logic Boylen is throwing at him, which hasn’t worked out too well this season. And the slow start from Markkanen could be hampering Carter Jr.’s production.

The lack of floor spacing provided by the sub-28 percent three-point shooting of Markkanen thus far has to be hurting the rest of the Bulls starting five, not just Carter Jr. If he keeps playing the way he has so far this season, he’s going to have to be more aggressive about getting the ball in his hands consistently on offense.

Carter Jr. is excelling this season with his shooting from 10-16 feet. He shot around 37.7 percent from that distance last season, and he’s up to 50 percent this season. The shooting numbers from 16-feet and beyond are also up from 35.9 percent to 50 percent this season. Give him more looks from deep, it just makes sense for a Bulls offense that looks very limited right now.

There’s also one key number for Carter Jr. that surfaced in two sets of back-to-back games this season. He’s insanely good when he has at least one day of rest between games. Back-to-back games don’t treat him all that well either.

Granted, who really does better when they have no days of rest.

Moreover, Carter Jr. has a true shooting percentage that hovers around 67 percent when he’s on at least one day of rest and his offensive rating sits around 135. In his two games playing on no days of rest, he has an offensive rating of 72 and a real plus/minus of -3.8.

That could be a key for Boylen and the Bulls to watch in back-to-back games moving forward in terms of load management for Carter Jr.

Up next for the 3-7 Bulls is a Nov. 12 home showdown against the two-win New York Knicks at the United Center. The Bulls need this win, or else they will start slipping into the territory they found themselves in last season with that 5-19 start that got Hoiberg fired.

Carter Jr. is going to be a major key to success for the Bulls moving forward. His upward trajectory looks special this season, and he’s making more significant strides than any other piece of this young core in the third year of the rebuild.