preface

In the eyes of many people, the rookies in 2019 are definitely the most talented and powerful rookies in recent years, and it is true at present. Cain and Morant have fully fulfilled their talents. If there is no big problem, they must be the face of the future of the NBA. Barrett, Garland, Hiro and others are also the future of their respective teams. In addition, Kobe White, Cameron Johnson, PJ Washington and others with excellent strength, they really live up to the hopes of the outside world. You should know that this season is just their fourth season in the NBA. With the maturity of personal ability, the future NBA is in their hands. However, there are always exceptions. As the No. 6 among the rookies, Jarrett Culver, regarded as the enhanced version of Jimmy Butler, has not played as expected, but he may even be eliminated by the NBA after the end of this season at the age of 23. So why on earth did Culver face such a dilemma? Now, let’s take a look at the basketball story belonging to Calver.

The king of the university is regarded as the next Butler.

As early as in high school, Calver has shown his great talent in basketball. In his third year of senior high school, he can get 20 points per game, and when he graduated from senior high school, he can score more than 30 points per game. Under such a wonderful performance, many NCAA teams are attracted by Calver, hoping to get this talented swingman. However, in the end, Culver chose the unknown Texas Institute of Technology, and he also officially started his pretty good NCAA career. With a height of 1.98m, an arm span of 2.07m, and a vertical jump of 1.14m, these figures alone are sufficient to illustrate the potential of Calver. Therefore, he received the attention of the team in his freshman season. In his freshman season, Calver averaged 11.2 points and 4.8 rebounds per game, breaking the scoring record of rookies in the Texas Tech division. After the season ended, he chose to continue playing NCAA for another year.

In his sophomore year, Calver, who has been familiar with college basketball, started his wonderful NCAA journey. After becoming the core of the team, he raised his data to 18.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.4 steals, showing a very comprehensive performance. In the crazy March, Calver led Texas Institute of Technology to defeat the University of North Kentucky, the University of Buffalo, the University of Gonzaga and the University of Michigan, which belong to No. 1 seed and No. 2 seed respectively. Although they lost to Virginia University in the NCAA final, they could not continue to write miracles. But with such a magical performance, Culver was selected into the first team of the 12th division and the second team of the United States, and won the best player award of the 12th division. After the season ended, he naturally chose to enter the NBA.

It ranked sixth, but its performance was disappointing.

At the 2019 draft conference, “Duke’s Three Little Players”, led by Cain Williamson and RJ Barrett, captured a lot of attention, but Calver also received a lot of attention. After all, he showed amazing talent and strength at both ends of attack and defense. Finally, the Timberwolves selected Calver with the sixth highest ranking, hoping that he could become the third scorer of the team after Downes and Wiggins, so as to help the team return to the playoffs. However, what was unexpected was that Culver’s performance was very bad. He only got 20+in 4 games in the whole season, and his performance in the rest of the games could not impress the Timberwolves. Throughout the season, he averaged only 9.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game. His shooting and three-point shooting rate were only 40.4% and 29.9%, respectively. This performance made the Timberwolves look forward to him less and less.

What’s more unexpected is that the rookie season is actually the best season for Calver. In his second grade, his playing time dropped sharply to 14.7 minutes, and the average field data shrunk significantly. He can only get 5.3 points and 3.1 rebounds per field, and his efficiency still remains unchanged. To make matters worse, Calver also suffered from an ankle injury and had to undergo surgery. At the same time, the team sent him to the Grizzlies in the summer of 2021 in exchange for veteran Beverly.

The performance is getting worse and worse, and there is no ball to play in the future.

After being sent to the Grizzlies, Morant, Bain, Dillon Brooks and others have occupied most of the playing time in the team, which further compressed the living space of Calver. He only got 37 playing opportunities in the whole season, and the time was only 9.1 minutes, which naturally made Calver have no room for growth. In addition, he was once relegated to the Development League by the Grizzlies. After the season ended, the Grizzlies gave up the team option in his contract, which brought the former super rookie to the bottom. In the free market, Calver is only 23 years old, but almost nobody cares. Only the Hawks have offered a two-way contract, giving Calver a chance.

However, so far this season, Culver has not had too many chances to play. So far, he has averaged only 4.4 points and 3.8 rebounds per game, and his shooting efficiency is still very poor. So far this season, he has no bright spot except for his contribution of 9 points, 12 rebounds and 2 steals in the game with the Magic, and his contribution of 10 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals in the game with the Nuggets. If the current performance continues, the Hawks probably won’t renew his contract, and Calver is likely to have no ball to play.