Jevon Carter was supposed to just be a defensive specialist, but four games into the season, the Phoenix Suns’ backup point guard has shown he is a lot more.
Coming into this season, the Phoenix Suns expected Jevon Carter to be a situational defensive player; a guy that could give them some point guard depth and fill the void of Ricky Rubio‘s backup until the heir-apparent, Ty Jerome, got up to speed.
Jevon Carter doesn’t care about anyone’s expectations of him.
The man who Monty Williams says eats rocks, led the team in heart and fortitude in a game against the Utah Jazz that started off as ugly as Dario Saric‘s facial hair.
In the first half, the Suns and Jazz alike may as well have been shooting actual rocks (not eating them). The Suns stumbled into half at just 29% from the field only to be slightly bested by Utah’s 32%.
The Jazz had a huge free throw advantage over the Suns, as well as rebounds (they could have used Deandre Ayton to match up against Rudy Gobert), and yet the Suns found themselves leading or in contention most of the game.
One of the main reasons for that was Jevon Carter, who has taken his increased minutes and proven himself worthy of them.
He is one of those guys who you love to have on your team and hate when your team has to play against him. He has absolutely no fear whatsoever on defense, and apparently no fear he is ever going to get tired.
He stays up in the jersey of the opposing team’s point guard everywhere on the court to the point the in-bounder usually has to pass it to someone else, potentially disrupting whatever offense they may have considered running otherwise.
But again, his defensive ferociousness everyone knew about. The criticism against him thus far in his career has been his shooting, but early on he has shot 50% from behind the arc. Because of that he is much more confident when he goes up, even in big moments.
As the West Virginians say, he ain’t scared.
This tenacious mentality compelled him to knock down the game-tying 3-pointer in the closing minute of the game as the shot clock expired.
Munch on them stones.
Kelly Oubre Jr. is the energy-leader for the Phoenix Suns, but just like your life-of-the-party friend, sometimes someone else in the posse needs to be the fire-starter.
For the Phoenix Suns, that guy is Jevon Carter.
At one point before he checked into the game, he stood at the press box, turned to the crowd, and revved every single fan into a frenzy.
If Carter was the General and the fans were his troops, he could have led those 10,000 warriors into battle and beaten any army in the world.
Teacher : What do you want to be when you grow up?
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) October 29, 2019
Us : @nextlevel_03 pic.twitter.com/VbzUKCTZFi
You usually see this kind of thing in football, where the defense is amping up both the crowd and themselves to make a big stop on third down. Rarely, if ever, do you see basketball players, especially in the NBA when everyone wants to protect their own personal brand, fire up arena like this.
But Jevon Carter did it because he doesn’t care about looking cool. He cares about winning, and the way he wins is coming after you over and over again. The man does not let up.
His mini-pep rally worked, by the way.
The crowd got into this game all night, often chanting, “Defense” at a hear-it-through-your-TV volume.
Even though the Phoenix Suns fell a little short against the Jazz in a strange game with a stranger ending, Jevon Carter proved he will propel this to many victories with this style of play alone.
Add on the fact the West Virginia star always wears mismatched shoes, and it further accentuates the point Mountaineer fans have long known:
Jevon Carter just ain’t scared.