Anthony Carter – Creating Anger or Value?

June 29, 2009
by Jeremy

There are two people who are part of the Denver Nuggets that some fans just love to hate. One is George Karl. Even if Karl were to lead the Nuggets to the next five championships would have some fans complaining about him and proclaiming that Denver made it that far despite him. The other is Anthony Carter.

The strange thing is Carter is the kind of player every team needs. Someone who is completely unselfish and does his best trying to do what the coach asks of him. So why are so many of us, myself included, so hard on him?

Maybe a more important question is what should we expect from a backup point guard? What does that job description look like? I believe a backup point guard needs to be able to run the offense, take care of the ball, play defense and hit open shots.

Did Anthony Carter run the offense? He absolutely did. He was the point guard in charge of pushing the pace and he did a good job of it. When the second unit was running Carter could compile assists as quickly as anyone. He may not have been a coach on the floor like Chauncey Billups is, but he was not afraid to run something and get his teammates organized.

Did AC take care of the ball? That is not an easy question to answer. If you look at his overall performance, I think you have to say that he took care of the ball almost as well as any of his reserve counterparts did. One of my main criticisms of Carter’s play during the season was that he did not take care of the ball. Carter definitely had some poor outings. He had a seven turnover game and a six turnover game. That is not acceptable. In the month of February he averaged 2.5 turnovers a game in less than 25 minutes a night. That was not acceptable either. However, he realized it was a problem and over the last three months of the season was able to turn things around. In the month of March he only turned the ball over 1.3 times a game and in the playoffs, when possessions are most precious, he was even better as he dropped his turnovers down to an amazing 0.7 per game.

Carter posted an assist to turnover ratio of 2.3. To put that in perspective Chauncey had a turnover to assist ratio of 2.8 last season. The only back up point guards in the NBA who had a better assist to turnover ratio were Ramon Sessions (3.0), Keyon Dooling (2.6), J.J. Barea (2.6), Delonte West (2.5) and Sergio Rodiguez (2.4). Carter had a better assist to turnover ratio than Kirk Hinrich (2.26), T.J. Ford (2.2), Bobby Jackson (2.2), Jordan Farmar (1.8) and Ronnie Price (1.8).

Ultimately, as a backup point guard, Carter does take care of the ball. Does he make some absolutely terrible looking turnovers? Sure, he does, but also keep in mind his job is to push the pace and apply pressure on the defense. Turnovers come with the territory.

Carter is also a good defensive guard. Look no further than the job he did on Dwyane Wade in Miami this season. It did not matter who George Karl asked him to cover, Carter would go after him as well as he could (it was not Carter’s fault he was sent out there to cover Kobe Bryant). Carter also did a very good job in the playoffs on Jason Terry. On the other hand, I believe we did see some slippage from Carter on defense last season. There were some nights where he was wildly ineffective. Needless to say I am concerned about what will happen now that he is 34.

Even the most ardent Carter supporter cannot argue against the verdict in the final category. Carter is not a good shooter. Carter made only 23.9% of his three point attempts in the regular season and that fell even further in the playoffs where he made only two of his 12 three point heaves for a startlingly bad 16.7%. His effective field goal percentage on jump shots was 40.8%. For comparison Nene’s shot 43.8% on jumpers.

So I ask again, why do so many Nuggets fans love to hate Anthony Carter? Maybe it is because he reminds us all a little too much of ourselves. We watch the NBA to see world class athletes do things that we could never dream of doing. When we see Carter, he rarely does anything fancy and he always seems to be a heartbeat away from getting embarrassed. Maybe watching him play is a little too personal for many of us.

Not only does Carter get the job done, but his real value is that he is a real value. It is amazing that Carter does what he does for the league minimum. That makes Carter almost invaluable for a team that has very little wiggle room when it comes to finances.

With the presence of Ty Lawson next season Carter’s place on the Nuggets roster could be in jeopardy. I thought there was a very telling quote, which I cannot seem to find, where Chauncey said that with Lawson on board maybe he can play fewer minutes. That was a pretty big condemnation of Carter. Even though Carter played well over 20 minutes a game Chauncey had to be on the floor for over 35 minutes a night. I think both Chauncey and the Nuggets would love to get that average down to the low 30s next season and Anthony Carter is not the player who can accomplish that.

However, the primary area of concern with Lawson is his defense. If he cannot get the job done on the defensive end the Nuggets are going to have to have another option. Even coming off a season where he was the starting point guard for a 50 win team after the 2007-08 season Carter’s only good option was to sign a one year deal with Denver. I doubt Carter is going to have any better option than Denver again this offseason. If the Nuggets want Carter, they can have him and they will be able to bring him on board for a minimum salary one year contract.

Until we see what Ty Lawson can do, I think it is a no brainer that the Nuggets bring Carter back for next season and there are few players that bring as much value as Carter.

Posted on June 29, 2009 at 8:19 pm | filed in Analysis | 4 Comments
  • b.archy6

    I hate AC as much as any Nuggets fan, and so with great agony I say that I agree with Jeremy and we have to bring him back. Some nights he is the worst player on the floor (either team), but despite his many deficiencies, he has two things going for him: 1. GK has some strange man-love for him and 2. He’s cheap. I say bring him back because we need the insurance, but for the love of the basketball gods, please do not play him over 8-12 minutes per game! 22mpg is so utterly ridiculous for a 1 who can’t shoot, turns the ball over like crazy, and clearly looked down upon by the rest of the team, not to mention the rest of the league. LA (as well as pretty much every other well coached team) continually left him alone on the offensive end of the floor, and I’m sure he made them pay a few times but none come to memory right now. As a cheap 3rd point, I like AC in about 10 minutes per, but that has to be the maximum.

  • runningdonut

    First let me say it is with great sadness that I agree with your conclusion Jeremy, but I do find some of your arguments one-sided and not terrible convincing. Just to play a little devil’s advocate with you…

    When a player gets minutes and is trusted with the ball in his hands much of that time, stats are going to be produced. There are tons of terrible guards on terrible teams putting up decent numbers while contributing very little to overall team success. Conversely, there are players with very mediocre stats despite being a critically important part of the teams ability to win – like Derek Fisher. I think most of us can agree AC is not Derek Fisher, but my main point here is to take conclusions based on individual stats with a grain of salt.

    That being said, AC had an abysmal PER of 10.8, well below the league average and second worst on the team behind Dahntay. His eFG% and win-shares statistics were easily the worst of any rotation player. AC does deserve credit for having a good assist/TO ratio, but so did the other Karl-era Nuggets PGs (Miller and Blake). His Turnover % was naturally the worst on the team, 26.9% compared to Dahntay’s second worst 14.5%. Chauncey was a 13%

    Overall in the playoffs I wasn;t impressed with AC’s defense. You didn’t mention giving up a very big 3 to Jason Terry at a critical moment. In the Lakers series, the most important in franchise history, his minutes were cut shorter and shorter by necessity so the team could compete. The 2 WCF games we won, AC played 6 minutes in both.

  • runningdonut

    Not to be a jerk but my point is this. There are many of you out there like me who when watching the Nugs, are just praying for dear life that the Nuggets hold on when AC comes in and it just doesn’t get too much worse before he is subbed out. Is there a better option for a minimum salary PG who contributes? Probably not, and the financial situation makes it very logical to bring him back on. Let’s all just accept that and hope for the best next year. And I am glad Jeremy gave AC credit he rarely gets and does deserve, but just don’t go overboard with it. I’m really a nice guy but this is what talking about Anthony Carter does to me

  • BeefySwats

    Just a quick shot – one of two players whom denver fans love to hate?

    Linas Kleiza, anyone?

    On that note, has anyone heard anything about HIS future with Denver?


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