Throughout the current season, Devin Carter has struggled to get minutes on the Sacramento Kings. It was good to see him on the court against the Grizzlies last night, turning in a solid performance. Well, except from the three-point line where he went zero for six. That wasn't what he was looking for.
Carter is in the midst of his second year with the Kings. They drafted him in 2024, but he spent a good chunk of his first season either injured or playing in the G League. When he finally got called up, he got caught up in the turmoil of the respective departures of Mike Brown and De'Aaron Fox.
This season has presented new challenge for him. Carter is a young guard on a team with way too many guards. That creates logjams at the one and the two, with Devin often being the odd man out and spending a lot of time on the bench. The success of this season's rookies hasn't helped.
But in last night's narrow loss to the Grizzlies, Carter got on the court for nearly 24 minutes. That's actually the longest time he's spent playing in any single game this season. He honestly did well...as long as you ignore his performance from the three-point line.
Devin, get better at threes or stop shooting so many
Carter finished the game with a respectable 10 points, six rebounds, five assists, one steal, and one block. He was a noticeable presence on both offense and defense, which is good for the coaches to see. A second-year player like him should be a factor on the team and in the rebuild.
The problem was his field goal percentage. He went five for 12 from the field, which puts him at 41.7%. That's not great. Even worse, he shot zero for six from three. The math is easier to do on that one as he dropped 0.0% from the arc. That's horrifying, to say the least.
If you remove threes from his stats, he actually went five for six from the field. That's a far superior shot percentage at 83.3%. In the modern NBA, there's a constant pressure to shoot threes. Once you've missed a few in a game, it's probably time to let it go for the evening.
This is especially true for someone like Carter who is fighting not just for minutes but to stay rostered in the NBA. Devin has two years left on his contract, both of which are team options. If the Kings don't keep him, there's no guarantees that another team will pick him up. Every game makes an impression.