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Dec 6, 2025; Miami, Florida, USA; Sacramento Kings guard Devin Carter (22) warms up against the Miami Heat before the game at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Rhona Wise-Imagn Images Rhona Wise-Imagn Images

The Most Alarming Stat From Devin Carter’s 2nd Season

Originally posted on Sacramento Kings on SI
By Will Zimmerle | Last updated Dec 16, 2025 12:48 PM ET

The Sacramento Kings' season has quickly shifted focus from trying to be a surprise team in the tough Western Conference to guessing who will still be on the team as they become sellers at the trade deadline.

With that, more eyes are on the young players as they get time to develop, but there's one player who still appears to be on the outside looking in: Devin Carter.

Carter is averaging 3.6 points, 1.4 rebounds, and 1.4 assists on 32.3% shooting from the field and 29.4% from three across nine games this year. Those are rough numbers with extremely low efficiency, but the number that stands out even more is his minutes.

He's averaging 9.6 minutes per game, but that doesn't tell the whole story as it doesn't calculate his DNPs into the equation. He's played just 86 total minutes this season so far over the Kings first 26 games

When taking the DNPs into consideration, he's averaged just 3.3 minutes across the 26 games this season. That's not exactly the number you'd like to see from a second-year lottery pick.

One of These Is Not Like the Other

The minutes look even worse when comparing them to his fellow draftees from last year.

Will Zimmerle

Outside of injured Nikola Topić, you have to drop to the 22nd pick DaRon Holmes to find another sophomore player who has played less than Carter. And it's not even close, as most players are deep in the hundreds of minutes this year.

This isn't to say that Carter should be labeled as a bust, but it's just alarming to see such a difference between him and his peers. Part of it is the fact that the Kings have so many guards on their roster, but even with injuries to Dennis Schröder and Zach LaVine, Carter still hasn't been able to find a stable spot in the rotation.

Even when he does get in the game and play well, which was the case when he scored 15 points in 21 minutes in the blowout loss to the Denver Nuggets, the consistency in minutes isn't there. He got a DNP in the follow up game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday.

Kings Using G League to Get Carter Minutes

The Kings are doing their best to get Carter some minutes and have been sending him to the G League for short stints to get some run.

From Kings:

OFFICIAL: @SacramentoKings assign Devin Carter to the @StocktonKings
— James Ham (@James_HamNBA) December 15, 2025

But this isn't a long-term solution, and even in those games, Carter has struggled with his efficiency from the field.

With the trade deadline approaching, there is likely going to be a move or two that shakes up the Kings' rotation. It could be that we have to wait to see what Carter's minutes and play looks like after more moves are made, or it's possible the Kings have already made up their mind and Carter will be one of the players on the move.

He was included in rumors over the offseason, which, along with the minutes, isn't a great sign for his standing in the organization. He's still young, but at this point, it looks like a huge miss on the part of former GM Monte McNair that Scott Perry has to figure out how to fix one way or another.

This article first appeared on Sacramento Kings on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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