As his NBA career winds down, Vince Carter isn’t ring-chasing. In fact, he’s doing pretty close to the opposite, joining what should be one of the league’s weakest teams in the 2018-19 NBA season.
Carter on Friday (yesterday) signed with the Atlanta Hawks, who are completely rebuilding their roster from the ground up.
According to ESPN.com, it’s just a one-year deal. Which isn’t surprising, as he could retire any season now.
Carter clearly loves to play basketball. On a roster like Atlanta’s, he has a legit chance to get some pretty decent minutes. Though the best thing for the Hawks to do is focus on developing their young players. But Carter is a great teacher and should make the kids on the squad better, both in practice and actual season games.
Carter played in 58 games (four starts) last season with Sacramento, where he averaged 5.4 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 17.7 minutes (.403 FG%, .345 3FG%, .757 FT%).
In 20 NBA seasons with Toronto, New Jersey, Orlando, Phoenix, Dallas, Memphis and Sacramento, Carter possesses career averages of 17.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.0 steals in 31.4 minutes (.437 FG%, .373 3FG%, .799 FT%), appearing in 1405 regular season games (973 starts). In 88 playoff contests (66 starts), he’s averaged 18.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.1 steals in 34.5 minutes (.416 FG%, .338 3FG%, .796 FT%).
Carter was the 1999 NBA Rookie of the Year, has been named All-NBA twice (second team in 2001 and third team in 2000), is an eight-time All-Star and finished in the Top 10 in scoring six times. He won the NBA’s Slam Dunk contest in 2000, also taking home a gold medal that same year as part of the United States Men’s Basketball team in Sydney, Australia.
