When Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. ended his seventh year in the NBA, the 6-foot-10 big had two goals in mind.
“Become that knockdown shooter I was a year or two ago, and be in the best shape of my life,” he said in early May after Orlando‘s season came to a close in the first round of the playoffs for a second year in a row.
Carter wasn’t happy with how he performed during the 2024-25 campaign and the numbers backed up his frustration.
He averaged a career-low 9.1 points, marking the first time he didn’t reach double-figure scoring, and shot 23.4% from 3-point range.
More than a quarter of the way through his eighth year in the league, however, Carter has backed up what he said over the summer by improving from beyond the arc and remaining healthy for coach Jamahl Mosley.
Entering Saturday’s game at Utah, he had only missed one game (Nov. 23 at Boston due to a left ankle sprain) and was averaging 12.3 points per night while shooting a career-high 44.2% from 3-point range.
“Wendell’s just been extremely aggressive the whole season,” Magic forward Paolo Banchero said after Orlando fell at Denver on Thursday night. “That’s just who we want him to be — just aggressive, shooting the 3, getting to the rim, rebounding on the boards and defending.”
Prior to Saturday, Orlando was 6-2 when Carter scored at least 15 points this season. In comparison, the Magic went 4-6 when he reached that scoring mark in just 10 games across 68 appearances a season ago.
Carter had also shot 50% from beyond the arc in 14 of his 26 games played, which was something he only did 17 times in 68 games played last season.
Diving deeper into his numbers, the Magic center had found his favorite spot on the floor to take a long-range shot: The left corner. Carter had shot 56.3% from that location of the perimeter per league-tracking data, which was up from 27% in the same spot last season.
Surveying big men across the NBA, Carter has been one of best shooting-wise so far this season.
Among centers who had played at least 25 minutes per game in at least 25 games entering Saturday, Carter’s effective field-goal percentage — a formula that adjusts for 3-pointers being worth more than made 2-pointers — of 62.2% was fourth-best behind only Charlotte rookie Ryan Kalkbrenner, four-time All-NBA big Rudy Gobert and three-time MVP Nikola Jokic, according to NBA.com.
Regardless of position, Carter’s effective field-goal percentage sat seventh, per the league.
Taking a look at 3-point percentage specifically, Carter’s 44.2% shooting rate from distance was fifth-best among all players who had averaged at least 25 minutes a night in at least 25 games played, according to NBA.com.
Orlando hopes he can keep it up when the group continues its four-game West Coast road trip Monday at Golden State, a team that had limited opponents to the fifth-lowest 3-point percentage in the league (34.2%) on a nightly basis.
“He’s just been great all season,” Banchero said about Carter.
Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com
Up next …
Magic at Warriors
When: 10 p.m., Monday, Chase Center
TV: FanDuel Sports Network Florida