How Devin Carter’s Injury Impacts the Sacramento Kings

How Devin Carter’s Injury Impacts the Sacramento Kings

got some bad news on the Kings front yesterday Devin Carter rookie first round pick underwent shoulder surgery he will be re-evaluated in six months and that’s the key wording there is the dreaded re-evaluation it’s not yeah he’s going to return in six months the NBA is also the only League that does this when a player in the NFL gets hurt say high ankle sprin team just come out and says yep 68 weeks or whatever whatever the amount of weeks is 6 68 weeks and then I’ll be back not like yeah four weeks we’ll reevaluate and see how he’s doing and in that re-evaluation in that update they go yeah okay three more weeks we’ll reevaluate him again that’s frustrating I don’t like it yeah yeah this is gonna be a tough one I mean like I heard on draft night 8 months uh like well the day before the draft 8 months um I Heard a couple of days after draft KN six to eight months uh was the recovery time from the type of surgery um but then you know when he came in uh for his rookie interviews and stuff um you know like at that point Monty McNair couldn’t even like confirm whether he was going to play in the California classic or not and that’s clearly not the case so um yeah I’m just I I want to know the Dynamics of how this all worked out um I do know like look I know he’s a little bit older Prospect at 22 and so you would hope that he’d be able to step on the court and play right away but this is also a pick for like today tomorrow three years from now and that’s something that Monty brought up as well you don’t draft for today you draft for the future and uh and I I totally agree with that like it’s a bummer that he’s not gonna play but at the same time um you know red shirting as a as a rookie is not a horrible thing and getting to understand the travel and the the rigors of an NBA season and and what it takes to learn and all that stuff watch From the Bench all of that it does have value and uh so hopefully there there comes a point where he does get back on the court but I would be surprised if it’s not um you know something you know wasn’t wasn’t the whole thing during the draft about how they needed to find somebody who could help this year if they were going to use the pick oh yeah like we we 8 anybody who was younger than 20 years old because oh that player can’t help this year no it’s very true and so now you’ve got a a rookie who’s going to be re-evaluated in six months so let’s get optimistic with it and let’s say that he is ready to play in January I don’t think that’s going to be the case but let’s say he’s ready to play by January so now you have this rookie who’s coming into a situation where that you’re post Christmas it is go time it is trade deadline coming up rotations have for the most part been established at this point um and now you not only have to figure out where this guy fits into your rotation but also he’s starting at square one of learning how to be an NBA player on on the court like you said there’s value in the off court stuff he’s going to be in filing room he’s going to be watching practice uh he may get to travel some and be on the road and do all that that’s all that’s all great but on the court I just don’t know how if you have even in again even in the most optimistic sense where he is back on the court in January that it’s really hard to be optimistic that he’s going to have much of a role if any outside of oh uh we got a couple of guys in foul trouble go give us three minutes oh yeah I would say his impact on the court is going to be absolutely nil this season um and to be honest with you once he does get healthy if he if he’s let’s say he’s healthy by February like I’m going to want him just send him to the G League let him get legs underneath him um because we always talk about this that’s a point in the season that January is where the Kings always have like their longest road trip of the season right it’s always in January it’s that it’s the month where you don’t have practice like there’s no way to get him on the court and have him take physical contact and like sort of clear the basic steps that the Kings have you know you get you’re cleared uh they let you play some three on three uh with some of the coaching staff the three on three becomes full court three on three um and and the next thing you know it’s like five on five no contact and then five on five with contact like they they have a very strict like way that they build you back up to play a and so it’s difficult to see that happening uh when we’re talking about not only you know January February and like the Sprint but also the trade deadline and also Allstar week and all that stuff so it’s tough to to figure where he’s going to be able to play before maybe March you know and and if he can pick up some minutes here and there just to get his feet wet just to give you an extra body um maybe that does help but uh I wouldn’t expect any major contribution from him in year one because of this here’s why here’s why this is this is a little bit disappointing to me and and please I want to make sure I’m being very clear here I don’t think this derails the king’s chances to do whatever they were going to do this season it’s not that it is not that dramatic but it is a little dis appointing for me because when they drafted Devin Carter and I did some reading and did some watching and I went man he might just be better he might give them more than Davon Mitchell did right like out of the gate they might have just improved their roster right now and might not saying he would have been better than Davon but I I thought there was a a definite chance that by December or January you could have a version of of Devin Carter that was contributing in in more ways or in in more productive ways than than Davon was and you went man they their guard rotation is even better and TCG in the in the YouTube chat in the chatty house said uh they won’t need him unless there are a few injuries and that’s a bummer to me I I don’t I don’t disagree but that’s a bummer to me because I thought he was gonna have an impact this year and now like you said it seems like even if he is healthy by by some point in January early February he’s probably going down to Stockon and he’s probably getting his his SE legs there and that’s that’s kind of a that’s just little disappointing to me because I was I was really excited for what he could he could bring in year one even if it wasn’t you know approaching his ceiling I thought I could be a really effective player for them on on both ends as a playmaker I thought so too I thought like 18 16 18 minutes maybe 20 minutes per game in like a perfect setting but I also know that the car the the King’s Guard depth is is pretty solid still they did bring in Jordan mlin who can easily handle like 11 to 12 minutes T night maybe a little bit more um you’re going to have other guys that again I think this might open a door for a guy like Mason Jones to be on the court a little bit more than you expected as a two-way player had a good yeah yeah and you know again he’s done a bunch of work on his body and and maybe he is more you know at like 25 26 maybe he’s more NBA uh ready to to step on the court and help you right now if you’re going to be a team that thinks that they can win 50 or more um you know maybe he is somebody that can help you uh even if it is as on a limited basis so um yeah I mean this is about opportunity it’s about Keon Ellis all of a sudden getting an opportunity to prove that he’s your guy right uh it might open the door for Kevin herder to maybe hey he could open the season as a starting shooting guard that was my next question that was that was my next question because I’ve been operating under the assumption this entire offseason that Kevin herder is out the door but in some deal in some trade and it’s not because he’s bad in fact I I think part of the reason I was so uh confident that he was going to get moved is because I think he has a lot of value as an NBA player it’s just when you start to to piece things together for the Kings I don’t I don’t know that I I he could fit anybody any team will take a six foot seven uh shooter who’s going to who’s going to give you 40 plus percent from Beyond The Arc but I also don’t know that that’s a role that he wants to take on because I think he knows he has more to offer than that so it was just kind of I don’t I don’t quite see how he fits into this picture but now with Devin Carter down it it does open that door for for Kevin hder to potentially play whether it’s at the two or or at the three and it makes me come back to what we were talking about at the top of the show with the Kings being a little bit a little bit quiet since since making the dear rzan trade is it because they got word of what Devin Carter was going to need surgery wise and all of a sudden Kevin herder becomes a little bit less indispensable disp dispens yeah I would definitely think that that’s a possibility that that you know that Kevin herder actually he does make sense he makes sense playing alongside uh d rozan as far as a spacer and you know I think the one thing that we know about Kevin herder is that when he’s right he can really shoot the ball um we also we don’t know where he’s at with his rehab uh you know he had a torn labor him as well um and and it’s funny because we didn’t hear six months from when the Kevin herder injury happened we heard four to five months um so it just makes me think that maybe there was a little bit more to uh the Devin Carter surgery than than what we thought um but like look the league is about opportunity and who takes advantage of it and uh for me again one of the the key guys that’s going to get an opportunity here is going to be Keon Ellis but then who else wants to stand up and raise her hand and say hey I’m willing to to take on a bigger role and I’m capable of taking on a bigger role and whether that again is Kevin or it’s uh Mason Jones or you know name that player that that maybe not even be on the roster yet uh you know I think there there will be a little bit of a scramble here to uh to sort of tore up the rest of the rotation yeah can’t wait to see how that all shakes

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