Offseason Report Card: Bulls get an A, three Bs and a C for summer moves

3. Signed Jevon Carter

Signed free agent guard Jevon Carter to a 3-year, $19.5 million contract.

There is a class of NBA point guards that fits best when playing with another on-ball creator. While someone like Ja Morant or Russell Westbrook is going to provide diminishing returns when the ball is not in their hands, other guards are the size of a point guard but thrive offensively when the ball is in another player’s hands.

Jevon Carter fits that role to a T, as a career 39.7 percent 3-point shooter who hit 42.1 percent of his 3-pointers last season. He can handle and pass but not in adverse situations, and he isn’t going to do much of anything when creating a shot for himself. Allow him to cut or shoot off the catch and he becomes a weapon.

Defensively Carter is also a weapon, the kind of on-ball pest who can pick up opposing guards full-court but also has the strength not to be completely overwhelmed in a switch situation. Add all of that up, and he’s well worth the $6.5 million per season he will earn on this contract.

The issue with the deal from Chicago’s point of view is that Carter is somewhat duplicative of the guard room they have already built. Perhaps they’ve fully given up on Lonzo Ball returning, which is fair, but they also have Alex Caruso and Ayo Dosunmo, both of which are positive backcourt defenders who aren’t dynamic with the ball in their hands. The Bulls apparently have a type, and at some point, they’ll have too much of the same archetype to play them all.

Grade: B