2018 NBA Draft big board: End of January
By Max Holm
29. Jevon Carter – West Virginia
Jevon Carter debuts in the top-30, despite not as much national recognition. ESPN has Carter 37th, The Athletic‘s Sam Vecenie has him 36th and nbadraft.net doesn’t have him in their 60-player mock draft. But this bull dog point guard is the best defender in the country, averaging 6.5 assists per game and is hitting nearly 39 percent of his 3s for the second straight year.
Carter brings up an important draft question that comes up every year. Do you take a near 23-year-old in the first round when he doesn’t have a particularly high ceiling? Year after year NBA teams swing for the fences late in the first round and have nothing to show for it. The team that drafts Carter, even in the second round, will be far happier than many teams picking in the first. Remember this. It’s hard to move him much higher because of age, but he’s an NBA player no doubt.