2) Players that must go for rebuild to advance: Wendell Carter Jr.
Now we get to the real meat of this list, where the Bulls need to make some pretty major roster adjustment within the next year. Third-year former Duke Blue Devils center and the 21-year-old Georgia native Wendell Carter Jr. saw his role decline greatly since the conclusion of the All-Star Break. WCJ came off the bench in a game he played in for the first time in his career within the last 10 days.
And Donovan kept WCJ in a role coming off the bench in each of the last three games. It seems like it is a better role for this Bulls team to thrive in general to have WCJ coming off the bench instead of in the starting frontcourt alongside either fourth-year power forward Lauri Markkanen or veteran forward Thaddeus Young.
This was not the most consistent season so far for WCJ. He’s spent some of the season dealing with injury issues, and trying to figure out his game the rest of the way. And his career averages do not vary much at all from the stat line he’s posted this season. He’s averaged 11.6 points per game this season (compared to 11.0 for his career), 8.0 rebounds (8.1 for career), and 2.2 assists (1.7 for career).
It’s clear that Donovan is trying to work on extending WCJ’s game and get him more involved in the pick-and-roll and screening game from the top of the key. But that might not be enough for WCJ to find himself a permanent role with this Bulls core. He’s getting dominated in the paint often, and making it tough for the Bulls to contend in the frontcourt on both ends of the floor.