Carter had some eye-popping attributes that I do not expect Carey will be able to replicate. Carter measured out with a 7'4" wingspan at the NBA Draft Combine, which is excellent length and showed that he can play the 5 in the NBA. He also had something close to a 40" vertical, which is nuts. And his body fat percentage was close to 8% or less. He was cut by the end of the season.
Carey is about the same height as Carter but has not measured as long. He has a 7' wingspan but is 6'10" or 6'11". The NBA people would not call that "plus length." It's decent, but it's not elite and it makes you wonder if Carey can even defend other NBA centers. Nikola Jokic, for example, was 6'11" in socks at the combine with a 7'3" wingspan while Joel Embiid was 7'1" with almost a 7'6" wingspan. So Carter slots in between those two and is similar to Al Horford in size and length. It makes him a good candidate to play the modern NBA 5 position since he can just as easily switch on most other NBA forwards on defense.
There are not many NBA centers that are 6'11" with "just" a 7' wingspan. And Carey has been measured at close to 260 pounds. He's a big dude. He has a big frame. His dad was huge as an all-pro NFL offensive tackle. That makes scouts wonder if Carey will be able to shed the pounds and keep them off, playing closer to 250 pounds in a few years when he is getting closer to 30 years old. He'll need to be show that he has the defensive awareness and timing to compensate for his relative lack of length or be quick enough on his feet to defend stretch 4s and even some wings in order to play the PF spot.
I am cautiously optimistic of Carey's defensive abilities as a center in college. He went up against one of the top centers in the class of 2020, N'Faly Dante, on an ESPN2 game a few weeks ago and was clearly outperforming Dante. Dante is a big kid with elite size and length. And Carey handled him on both ends of the floor. I don't thin Carey is going to come in and be a dominant player from day 1, but there is real potential there. A lot more will be asked of Carey in college. I'm excited to see if he can live up to the challenge.
Q "Why do you like Duke, you didn't even go there." A "Because my art school didn't have a basketball team."
Another way to increase armspan and standing reach.
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Duke has extended an offer to recent Wake Forest de-commit Charles Coleman, a 3-star prospect from the Dexter School of Boston, MA. Coleman is a 7-footer and weighs in at a solid 220 pounds.
With the prospect of losing all of its frontcourt players after this next season, it makes a lot of sense to bring in a young center.
I like Coleman’s game from the videos online. Maybe he mishandled a bunch of passes too but he makes a lot of tough catches look easy. He’s a long, tall, plodding traditional center but seems to have good post fundamentals although very right hand dominant. His game reminds me of a taller Landon Lucas who was high on Duke but fell out of the top 100. Lucas ended up starting as an upper-class-man at Kansas.
His 3-point set shot looks legit too. Not a lot of follow through but he shoots the same way every time at least.
let's get Coleman and one more big for depth purposes beyond 19/20.
Clearly he is from a different line of the Coleman gene pool from Gary Coleman...
This seems like a great move - we need a big man for the following season and I really wouldn't want to go into the next recruiting cycle desperate. A year practicing with Carey, Marques and Javin would be great for him. I assume he has his eyes wide open that barring something really unfortunate, he will likely not really play this year (is he a redshirt candidate?), and we will likely be recruiting over him by signing higher ranked big guys in the future, but will have a chance to contribute later in his career if he works hard.
Video of him looks thicker than 220. Or at least not a string bean. But he's not likely to be a contributor at Duke next year. Kind of lumbers around out there. The "Vrankovic replacement" sounds about right. That being said, I'm all for adding a guy who can at least help with frontcourt continuity from 2020 to 2021. Even if he's not playing, having a kid who can help teach the freshmen the defense will be useful.
Moving the conversation to a more appropriate thread...
Or not if he's a turnover machine, or not if his bball iq is low and he can't execute the schemes properly, etc... Yes, it's not literally impossible for Charles Coleman to never crack the rotation at Duke.
But I'll bet on the 7-footer who can shoot threes to eventually make it. Let's see if we can sign him first so this conversation isn't moot.
Incidentally, I'm not seeing a huge lack of footspeed for his size. I like this prospect.