Cameron Carr drops ‘smarter’ approach to Lakers rookie season

LOS ANGELES – After a little wheeling a dealing  the Los Angeles Lakers came away with Cameron Carr, selecting the Baylor wing with the No. 24 overall pick in the NBA Draft. The Lakers moved up one spot via trade with the New York Knicks to draft Carr, and general consensus among social media is the team got a potential steal.

Cameron Carr was a projected to go fairly early in the NBA Draft, possibly even a lottery selection, but he ended up slipping out of the top-20 and that’s when the Lakers made their move to grab him. The 21-year-old figures to fit quite well alongside the team’s ball-handlers in Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves and perhaps LeBron James.

He was one of the most athletic prospects in the draft and he knows that in the NBA, everyone is just as athletic as he is. Using his skill-set effectively and adjusting to the league is going to take a smarter approach in terms of his athleticism.

“Everybody’s athletic now. Everybody’s long and athletic in the NBA so it’s just about learning when my time and opportunity is to use those abilities. Like I said, just learning every single day,” Carr said during his intro press conference. “Typical freshmen when you walk in, or a rookie same thing, when you go onto campus the vet looks at them like, ‘oh I’m gonna get you with shot fakes,’ and do a bunch of stuff.

“So just trying to learn where I can be a smarter defender and more impactful.”

One of the big reasons why Carr projects to be a perfect fit with the Lakers is his off-ball movement. To play alongside Doncic in particular, being able to cut and move in the halfcourt and sprint out in transition is crucial. So is being able to knock down catch-and-shoot 3-pointers.

Carr is a very good lob threat as a guard and his shooting prowess was evident during his college career. This past season, he shot 37.4 percent from 3-point range. The year before, he was at 40 percent. He’ll see his fair share of open shots with the Lakers, and he’ll get his opportunities around the rim as well.

“Anytime I can just make their job easy and cut, I’m gonna do that. I think that makes their job easy,” Carr said. “I think the chemistry that we build over time will only get stronger and hopefully I can make their job just a little easier. They just throw it by the basket and I’ll go dunk it for them.”

At Baylor, Carr was used to having the ball in his hands quite often as a primary scoring threat. However, he knows in the NBA it’s not going to be quite the same. He’ll have to impact the game without initiating offense.

It can be an adjustment for many players who are used to being the head of the snake. But for Carr, he’s tailor made to playing the role that is asked of him.

“First things first is play defense. I feel like I got to show that I’m the best defender here and that’s what I’m here to do,” Carr said. “I just got to cut and dump the ball in and run in transition. But first things first is establishing a defensive consistency and showing that I can be a dominant or plus on the defensive end. Someone that they would like to guard the best player.”

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