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3 ways Wendell Carter can make the Orlando Magic even more potent

Wendell Carter has been a very good player ever since he got a fresh restart with the Orlando Magic. He has been a great defender who has been able to provide much-needed spacing on offense. At just 24 years old, there are still ways Carter can improve even more.

By Muhammed Jumani

Orlando Magic v Los Angeles Lakers
Orlando Magic v Los Angeles Lakers / Katelyn Mulcahy/GettyImages
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3 Ways Wendell Carter can make the Orlando Magic more potent

Rim Protection and Shot-Blocking

Secondly, Wendell Carter needs to become a better shot blocker.

His rim deterrence rate last season was +0.01 percent which ranked in the 48th percentile in the NBA. His block rates on contests was at 13.11 percent, which ranked in the 50th percentile in the NBA. Blocking shots does not directly correlate to a player being good on defense.

Carter is actually one of the best interior defending bigs in the league.

But not having the shot-blocking presence repeatedly results in players driving over and over again to the rim. Albeit, they may not make as many as they expect due to Carter's great positioning. But, the main point of defending is to limit the amount of paint touches for the other team.

Carter is a very special interior defender.

Last season, opponents shot 7.05 percentage points worse than expected at the rim, which ranked in the 94th percentile in the NBA, per Basketball Index. That stat shows the field goal percentage that opposing players shot at the rim vs what Second Spectrum would expect them to shoot.

This season in five games, players have made just 39.4 percent of their shots against Carter at the rim. That is extremely good.

So in a vacuum, players shot seven percentage points worse than they normally would.

Carter's screener rim defense was a +0.69 last season, which ranked 97th percentile in the league.

All in all, Carter is a great defender. But becoming a better shot blocker would take both his defense and the Magic's defense to a whole another level.

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