Wendell Carter, Duke's forgotten superstar, thriving and happy in Marvin Bagley's shadow
Even before he decided to leave high school early, Marvin Bagley III remembers watching Wendell Carter Jr. go head-to-head with Deandre Ayton in a summer-league event, the centerpiece of Duke’s recruiting class at that time against the Arizona center who will likely be the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.
Bagley was considering Duke if he could get his degree. Carter, another highly skilled big man, played essentially the same position. Bagley saw not competition, but cohesion.
“I had a good idea of who I was getting ready to play with,” Bagley said. “It was pretty fun watching that game.”
Eight months later, as Duke prepares to face Rhode Island in the second round of the NCAA tournament Saturday, Bagley is the Blue Devils’ unquestioned superstar, thrown together in this venue with now-eliminated Oklahoma phenom Trae Young. Carter, meanwhile, is the Blue Devils’ forgotten superstar, slightly less productive than Bagley and without the explosive dunks and screaming-kid hype, and yet just as valuable to Duke in almost every way as a scorer, rebounder and passer.
It’s the combination of Bagley and Carter, more than the individual skills of either alone, that has made Bagley so effective and made the Blue Devils so difficult to defend. But that has also left Carter laboring largely in Bagley’s shadow. And he’s fine with that.
“Marvin came in, he’s a phenomenal player, but I don’t think he took anything away from any other players; if anything he just made us a lot better,” Carter said. "We’re all unselfish players, so if someone has 30 one game and someone else has 20, if we win, that’s what we’re really caring about.”
It wasn’t necessarily supposed to be this way. Carter was the centerpiece of a recruiting class that was already the best in the country before Bagley finished high school early and joined Carter and Gary Trent Jr. and Trevon Duval at Duke. That had a ripple-down effect, with another top-50 freshman, Jordan Tucker, squeezed out of the lineup and on his way to Butler at midseason.
In the four games Bagley missed with a knee injury late in the ACC season, the original vision for the team was apparent, shooters lurking on the perimeter with Carter the pivot in the middle. But even as Grayson Allen flourished as the focus of the offense moved from inside to outside, Carter’s numbers were actually down in those four games from his ACC averages. It was proof the interplay between Carter and Bagley unlocks the true potential of both.
Carter’s complete game – he shoots 3-pointers with more accuracy than Bagley, but at a lower rate, and has more assists as Bagley posts bigger scoring and rebounding numbers – opens space for Bagley. And eventually, as teams are forced to focus on Bagley, space opens for Carter, who's as comfortable as Bagley facing the basket on the perimeter.
“Wendell's Marvin’s best friend, because he’s a big guy who can pass, shoot, step away,” Duke assistant coach Nate James said. “At least twice a game, Wendell gets the high-low (pass) to Marvin. And that doesn’t happen if he can’t shoot and the other guys sag off of him.”
The model for Carter’s inside-outside game is Hakeem Olajuwon, who played his best basketball before Carter was born. But Olajuwon was Carter’s father’s favorite player, and that’s not the only impact his parents had on his basketball career. Their focus on academics narrowed Carter’s college choices to Duke and Harvard, not a typical decision.
There is an alternate universe where Wendell Carter Jr. chose Harvard instead of Duke and put up ridiculous David Robinson numbers in the Ivy League, captured the attention of the nation and was talked about in the same breath as super freshmen like Young and Bagley.
“Man, we’d be talking about him every day,” Trent said. “I can’t even imagine the type of player he’d be.”
Carter chuckled at the thought of his potential productivity and the fame that would inevitably have followed, the individual stardom that has largely eluded him at Duke thanks to Bagley’s presence.
“It would have been something crazy, probably, I’m sure,” he said. “But I’m glad to be here, winning.”
Sports columnist Luke DeCock: 919-829-8947, ldecock@newsobserver.com, @LukeDeCock
This story was originally published March 15, 2018 at 6:15 PM with the headline "Wendell Carter, Duke's forgotten superstar, thriving and happy in Marvin Bagley's shadow."