Chicago Bulls: 3 big questions following 2019 NBA All-Star break

3. Have the Bulls seen enough from Wendell Carter Jr. to label him as the center of the future?

While Carter didn’t come with the same level of fanfare as say, Marvin Bagley III, there have been nights where he has played extremely well. In a early January road game against the Portland Trail Blazers, Carter poured in 22 points on 7-of-9 shooting and collected six boards.

Carter had his highest scoring game of the season against the Detroit Pistons on Nov. 30. In that contest, he scored 28 points, pulled down seven boards and turned away three shots. It is also worth mentioning that Carter recorded four double-doubles in a seven-game stretch from late October to early November.

However, there were other instances in which Carter was outplayed by his counterparts. For example, in two games against the San Antonio Spurs, Carter recorded 16 points and eight rebounds. The opposing team’s big man, LaMarcus Aldridge, tallied 49 points and 20 rebounds.

In Chicago’s only meeting against the Utah Jazz, Carter came away with seven points (3-for-9 shooting) and nine rebounds while finishing with a rating of -16. Meanwhile, Rudy Gobert finished with an impressive stat line of 15 points, 16 rebounds, eight assists and a rating of +19.

Another outing where Carter seemed to be a bit overwhelmed was a road contest against the Orlando Magic on Jan. 2. Carter didn’t have much of an impact in this one, as he was held scoreless, shooting 0-for-5 from the floor and grabbed just one rebound.

On the other side of the coin, Nikola Vucevic posted a stat line that included 22 points, 12 rebounds, three blocks, three assists and a pair of steals. To be fair, no one in the NBA plays well every night and this especially holds true for rookies.

The question is, have the Bulls seen enough to label WCJ as the center of the future? Considering this will be Robin Lopez‘s last season in the Windy City and Cristiano Felicio hasn’t come anywhere close to living up to his four-year deal, it would appear that Carter has all but locked up the starting center spot, even if an injury limited him to just 44 appearances in his rookie season.

It will be interesting to see if he will be able to bounce back in Year 2.