The Bulls have made a point to talk about the muscling up of Wendell Carter Jr. this offseason.
And frequently.
The second-year big man went from 255 pounds as rookie, to sitting at 270 with the start of training camp, all the while keeping his body fat at 6 percent.
“I just think he’s filling out,’’ coach Jim Boylen said of Carter’s new look. “Did we consciously put pounds on him? He’s just a big dude. He’s proportioned. He’s 6 percent body fat. I mean I never heard of that for a guy like that.
“‘Dream’ was like that.’’
The “Dream’’ Boylen was referring to? Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon, who Boylen was around back in his Houston Rockets days.
Now, if they can get Carter to play like “The Dream.’’ Heck, they’ll take 6 percent of that at this point.
“I didn’t have a chance to coach Hakeem at 19 and 20, but I think [Carter’s] combination of his intelligence, his feet, his instincts, his physical presence I think give him, with experience, the ability to do some of those things. The ability to impact the game at both ends,’’ Boylen said of Carter’s current skillset for an undersized center. “He can catch the ball in the pocket and make a decision. That’s usually not a skill for a young guy. He can rim protect. He can do the straight up at the rim. He’ll adapt and he’ll grow.
“But I think people underestimate how smart he is. I think that’s a really big thing. He knows what we’re doing. He’s an intelligent young guy. And I’ve said this before, he embraces contact and collision. If you can do that, man, you can do anything in this world.’’
Carter may eventually perfect all of those skills, but for now the mission statement is very simple for the 20-year-old – play defense in the middle and stay healthy.
It’s the latter that remains an issue.
Thumb surgery forced Carter to miss the second half of last season, getting in 44 games before going to the shelf. He then had offseason surgery on what is being described as a sports hernia that has plagued him since he was 15.
His first four days of training camp this week? One left ankle sprain and one tailbone contusion that forced him to miss Friday’s practice.
Health isn’t the only hump Carter is working to get over, either.
The Bulls list Carter at 6-foot-10. Maybe with shoes on that have some extra padding. There were a handful of times last season where being undersized in the middle stood out, as true 7-foot centers overwhelmed him physically.
That’s the other hill that Carter has to climb. The team considers him the starting center, but Carter claims to be a power forward.
“I consider myself a forward, but I come here I want to win,’’ Carter said. “You can list me as a center, you can list me at whatever y’all want to. I know my game and I am going to come in and do what I have to do to help the team.’’
The hope is his intelligence and added muscle will be an equalizer against the league’s giants, and once he masters that aspect of the game, the offense will come. All big ifs at this point, and ifs that the Bulls are counting on.
“We don’t really talk about him being a center,’’ Boylen said of Carter. “I talk about him being a dominant player at the defensive end and an evolving player at the offensive end. That’s kind of how we talk about it.
“Remember now, he only played 44 games [in his NBA career]. So he’s still a work in progress.’’
