(670 The Score) New Bulls guard Jevon Carter plans on bringing more than just his quality 3-point shooting and defensive tenacity to Chicago.
He's going to bring his voice too.
"I will be a vocal leader for this team, yeah," Carter said as the Bulls held media day Monday. "I'm going to voice my opinion."
As evidence of that point, Carter wasn't afraid to pinpoint what he saw as a key weakness for the Bulls last season, when he was a member of the Bucks.
"Just reluctant to shoot," said Carter, who signed a three-year, $20-million deal with the Bulls in July. "I feel like they think about it too much instead of just taking what's there."
The Bulls ranked dead last in the NBA in 3-point attempts per game last season, and changing their shooting profile has been a recent talking point for executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas. Their hope is Carter can be part of that solution after he shot 42.3% from 3-point range on 4.2 attempts per game for Milwaukee last season.
What Carter's exact role will be remains unclear. He'll compete against Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu for the starting point guard position in training camp, and that competition will likely last weeks with the starting spot subject to change during the regular season as well, coach Billy Donovan said.
Judging off recent performance, it seems most likely that the job will be earned by Carter or White and not Dosunmu, who struggled in shooting 31.2% on 3-pointers last season. Whatever Carter's role is when a game tips off, he doesn't believe his job changes much.
"I just come in and do me," Carter said. "Coaches got to coach. My job is to come in here and be the best I can be and his job is to coach and put us in the best position to go out there and win, and we do our job, we should have the best chance to win.
"I just feel like what I bring to the table is going to really help this team and whatever else I can do off the court, on the court, I just want to win. So whatever they need me to do, I'm ready to do it."
A Proviso East product, Carter expressed some emotion on a couple occasions Monday when asked what it meant to get the chance to play for his hometown team.
"Putting on this uniform is very special," Carter said. "It's something I've always dreamed about as a little kid growing up. So to be able to come up here and sit here in front of you guys with this jersey on is just … it's definitely exciting. I can't wait to get out there and play."
Cody Westerlund is an editor for 670TheScore.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.
