Recent RotoWire Articles Featuring Jarrett Culver
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Culver, the sixth overall pick in 2019, has struggled in his first two seasons in the NBA. In his 97 appearances with Minnesota (42 starts), he averaged 7.8 points on 41/29/50 shooting, 3.3 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 20.7 minutes. By almost every measure, he's been a poor offensive player, though he's at least shown some ability to draw fouls when driving to the basket. His primary skills have been his defense and rebounding (at least relative to his position), with Culver averaging 1.9 offensive rebounds, 1.3 steals and 0.8 blocks per 36 minutes for his career. Ultimately, the Wolves were comfortable shipping him to Memphis in the offseason for Patrick Beverley. The 22-year-old wing now gets a chance to take control of his career in a new environment. However, Memphis has good depth on the wing, and Culver's opportunities may hinge primarily on how well, or poorly, Ziaire Williams plays as a rookie. Culver can essentially be ignored in redraft formats, and while dynasty managers have plenty of reason to cut bait, this could also be an easy buy-low opportunity.
The 2019 No. 6 overall pick got plenty of opportunities to learn and grow for the 19-45 Timberwolves, starting 35 times in 63 games while playing an average of 23.9 minutes. It's fair to say that he didn't experience much immediate success, scoring a modest 9.2 points per game. Among the rest of the top-10 picks, only one other player (Jaxson Hayes) averaged fewer than 10 points per game. He didn't make up for his lack of scoring with any particularly notable contributions elsewhere in the box score, averaging a modest 3.4 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 0.9 steals. It's the extent of his scoring struggles that's the most concerning for his future, however. He shot a poor 29.9 percent from downtown and an awful 46.2 from the stripe, with the latter number clearly indicating his shooting stroke wasn't in a good place. Culver possesses the athleticism to be at least a solid 3-and-D wing option, but his ability to knock down shots is nowhere near that level at this point.
The Texas Tech product and No. 6 overall pick in the 2019 Draft led the Red Raiders to the National Championship game as a sophomore last season, averaging 18.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.5 steals in 38 contests. His numbers were good enough to secure an All-American Second Team selection, not to mention winning Big 12 Player of the Year. He has clear upside as a scorer, but he wasn't especially efficient last season, hitting 46.1 percent of his 14.5 field goals per game, 30.4 percent of his 4.2 threes and 70.7 percent of his 5.5 free throws. His initial pathway to significant minutes in the NBA may be his defensive presence. At 6-foot-5 and 195 pounds, Culver may be able to guard both backcourt positions and small forward. There's a decent chance he'll start the 2019-20 season as the Wolves' starting small forward, though he'll be competing with the likes of Josh Okogie and Jake Layman. Robert Covington and Andrew Wiggins are both options on the wing as well if coach Ryan Saunders wants to go big.