Jarrett Culver is one of the brightest young prospects in the NBA today. The lanky two guard is an athletic and effortless scorer and with a nearly 6-foot-10 wingspan, the former Texas Tech guard has the potential to be a future star in the NBA.
But, it wasn't always like this for Jarrett Culver. The Lubbock, Texas native was a skinny kid out of Coronado High School who not many expected to be a future top ten pick in the NBA.
With Lubbock being a relatively small college town, Culver, although talented, was heavily under-recruited. Despite averaging nearly 30 points per game and leading the team in both rebounds and assists, Culver was ranked as the No. 312 player in the class of 2017.
The 6-foot-5 guard had several small school offers from team like Louisiana Tech, Oral Roberts and Sam Houston State but also held offers from the bigger schools in the area such as UT, TCU and Baylor.
In the end, Culver decided to play for head coach Chris Beard and his hometown Texas Tech Red Raiders. Despite coming in as an unheralded three-star prospect, Culver was able to make an immediate impact as a true freshman for a Red Raiders team that went 27-10. Culver ended the season averaging 11.2 points and 4.8 rebounds per game which were the third and second-best marks on the team respectively.
With fellow stars Zhaire Smith and Keenan Evans gone, Culver decided to come back for his sophomore year. The sophomore instantly took over as the team's best player as Culver helped turned the Red Raiders into a title contender.
TTU did indeed contend for a title going 31-7 and reaching the championship game with Culver's 18.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.5 steals per game leading the way.
Culver proved he could be a dominant two way player with a 29-point, eight-rebound game in the first round of the NCAA tournament and then another 22 points in the Sweet 16 proving that.
Unfortunately, Culver and the Red Raiders fell to Virginia in the title game but regardless, Culver had gone from three-star recruit to surefire NBA lottery pick in only two years.
Culver would end up being picked by the Minnesota Timberwolves at No. 6 in the 2019 NBA Draft where he would hope to be the third piece next to star big man Karl Anthony-Towns and Andrew Wiggins.
Culver came into the NBA with high expectations. So far, the rookie has been fairly disappointing. In 17 games (in which he has started seven), Culver is averaging 8.8 points and 3.1 rebounds per game and is shooting a paltry 36.7 percent from the field, 27.7 percent from deep and 42.1 percent from the free-throw line.
So while he has struggled so far, especially on offense, Culver's defense is still a bright spot with the rookie both getting steals and blocking shots at a high rate — especially for a 6-foot-5 rookie.
The NBA season is still young and initial struggles for rookie guards are well-documented. Many young players take a while to adjust to the speed, spacing and size of the NBA game and Culver still has a ton of potential.
In fact, Culver has scored in double figures in six of the Timberwolves last seven games. With the reemergence of Andrew Wiggins and the continued growth of KAT, the Timberwolves could be a team to look out for if Jarrett Culver begins to reach his full potential.
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