By SEAN BOCK
Duke freshman forward Wendell Carter will enter his name in the NBA Draft, the school announced on Monday.
“I want to thank Duke University, my coaches, and teammates for helping me so much, not only on the court but off it as well,” said Carter in a statement. We’re all brothers, we all have each other’s’ backs. I’m really going to miss being around my friends, but I’m really going to cherish the moments we had together. I’m very excited and very happy to say I was part of something special here at Duke.”
Carter averaged 13.5 points and 9.1 rebounds this season and was a second-team All-ACC team selection.
“It was such an honor to coach Wendell,” said head coach Mike Krzyzewski. “He and his family were a true joy to have in our program and they’ll always be in our program. He had a sensational freshman year – a double-double guy – and he has so much more potential. He’s going to keep getting better because he’s talented and he has the best attitude. He really represented himself, his family and Duke in a first-class manner, and whoever gets him is going to be very lucky.”
Wendell Carter scored 1.456 PPP on put backs on OREBS this season, which was in the 94th %tile this season according to @SynergySST. He also shot 41.3% from 3, albeit on just 1.8 3FGA per game
He is the 6th ranked prospect in our current top 100 > https://t.co/zeZqnR3IRm pic.twitter.com/chyinGiUzP
— DraftExpressContent (@DXContent) April 16, 2018
Carter is the fourth freshman this season, and the program’s 16th freshman overall, to declare for the NBA Draft. He joins a group that includes Corey Maggette (1999), Luol Deng (2004), Kyrie Irving (2011), Austin Rivers (2012), Jabari Parker (2014), Tyus Jones (2015), Jahlil Okafor (2015), Justise Winslow (2015), Brandon Ingram (2016), Jayson Tatum (2017), Harry Giles (2017), Frank Jackson (2017), and teammates Marvin Bagley III (2018), Trevon Duval (2018) and Gary Trent, Jr. (2018).
In the latest ESPN NBA Mock Draft, Carter is the No. 7 pick to the Sacramento Kings.
Photo: ACC Sports
