2016 NBA Draft Prospects: Breaking Down Future of Maryland’s Robert Carter Jr.

Any team looking to draft a professional bucket-getter at power forward should consider Maryland’s Robert Carter Jr.

Carter didn’t put up eye-popping numbers this past year at Maryland, but he might just be the best combination of outside shooting and back-to-the-basket scoring from the power forward spot in this draft.

Carter’s scoring prowess was on display last month at the NBA Draft Combine. He scored 35 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in 45 minutes over two games in Chicago, displaying range on his jumper (two three-pointers) and the ability to score on the blocks.

It would have been easier to evaluate Carter’s scoring potential had he stuck around for his senior season at Maryland and had the chance to eat up more possessions. But as a fourth-year junior—he played two seasons at Georgia Tech before transferring to Maryland—and in a draft class that is considered weaker than what’s expected of next year’s crop, it’s understandable that he chose to enter the draft.

 

Relevant Stats

Carter was an efficient scorer inside the arc, making 62.9 percent of his twos during the 2015-16 season, and he would have demanded more touches on most rosters.

The Terrapins, however, had one of the most talented starting fives in college basketball, and all five starters were scoring threats. Maryland has three players likely to land in this draft (Carter, Diamond Stone and Jake Layman), and it could have been four had Melo Trimble opted to go pro.

Carter benefited from transferring and sitting out a year at Maryland. He was a better version of himself in College Park. The one area of his game where he did perform better at Georgia Tech was on the defensive boards. He had the seventh-best defensive rebounding rate in the country as a sophomore, grabbing 28.3 percent of available defensive boards, per KenPom.com. That number dropped to 21.4 percent last season.

 

Strengths

The team that drafts Carter is going to enjoy a smorgasbord of options when incorporating the big fella in its pick-and-roll packages. 

Carter thrived as a screener paired with Trimble this past year. He had the potential to be even more dangerous if he had consistently knocked down three-pointers. He has the form on his jumper to get there, and he also has a good sense of when to roll or pop out for a three.

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The more refined part of Carter’s game is his ability to score from the blocks or the mid-post. The luxury the Terps had with Carter is that they didn’t have to run sets to get him the ball in one-on-one situations on the blocks. 

He was comfortable catching the ball on the perimeter and then backing his man down off the dribble, as he did in the clip below against Michigan State’s Deyonta Davis, a projected lottery pick:

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