LAS VEGAS — Cameron Carr was riding the pine.
A gifted scorer, Baylor coach Scott Drew knew what the lanky then-19-year-old prospect offered in terms of how he could impact his team on Day 1, through his knowledge recruiting Carr during his high school career. But Carr didn’t have a choice.
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Carr had to watch Baylor’s games from the bench. Due to NCAA eligibility rules – forced by a midseason transfer from Tennessee, where Carr spent his freshman season and the beginning of his sophomore year – the 6-foot-5 wing couldn’t compete, becoming a glorified scout team member, a role team managers or walk-on players often herald on Division I rosters.
Carr didn’t dwell. As if toeing a line, a phrase he’d heard from Drew time after time – Baylor’s coach used the phrase when describing Carr’s development under his tutelage in a phone interview with the Southern California News Group last month – Carr looked back at the experience as a precursor of what was to come: a breakout season at Baylor that led to the Lakers selecting him in the first round of last month’s NBA draft.
“Iron sharpens iron,” Carr told SCNG last week in Las Vegas after an NBA Summer League practice on a hardwood court outfitted in a hotel ballroom.
Cliche, maybe. But Carr was often placed head to head against one of the NBA’s rookie breakout stars from a year ago. When Carr entered the fold at Baylor in January 2025 – a year before he would lead the Bears’ offense himself – it was VJ Edgecombe’s turn at the top of the opposing scouting report, leading the squad.
Edgecombe, the No. 3 overall selection in the 2025 NBA Draft, finished third in Rookie of the Year award voting last season after averaging 16 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game in 75 starts for the Philadelphia 76ers. At Baylor’s practices, it was Carr’s job to replicate opposing team’s stars against Edgecombe, sharpening the star guard’s gameplan.
“The sitting-out year has been a huge blessing for a lot of players because it allows them to get stronger and develop their craft and not be judged nightly, and not have the pressure to perform,” Drew said last month. “And they can just spend time in the lab and improve. And then, the great thing from that is when they actually come on the court, then people are like, ‘Boy, you’ve gotten better. You’ve gotten bigger, you’ve gotten stronger.’”
Carr was one of those players, taking a big leap from a bench role at Tennessee during his first season-plus in college basketball (averaging 2.3 points per game in 5.7 minutes over 18 games) to a starring role at Baylor, tallying career-highs across the board last season: 18.9 points (on 49.4% shooting from the field and a 37.4% clip from 3-point range), 5.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists. At nearly 13 shot attempts per game, Carr was Baylor’s top offensive threat.
Going up against Edgecombe on a daily basis – as many in the gym came to watch his teammate compete in practice – Carr gained an edge from the by-proxy spotlight, he said.
“I feel like just to be an everyday guy and just any time that I get to step on the court and just compete with high-level dudes, I mean, that’s what people are there to watch,” Carr told SCNG. “That was always fun to be a part of and know that man, they’re coming to the gym to watch (Edgecombe) in the gym, and that makes me feel good knowing that I’m one of the best players, and people are here to watch me.”
Exiting his half a year in the background of Baylor’s team preparation, Carr made his mark that summer. Baylor represented the United States at the 2025 World University Games, helping lead the U.S. to a silver medal finish in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany.
Drew said Carr’s rise from scout team unknown to the player leading Baylor’s offense, first in Germany, provides the now-21-year-old guard with a different perspective on the court.
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“The smart take from the strong,” Drew said of Carr learning from Edgecombe. “You’re always going to see his work ethic, see how he did things, his approach. And Cam was able to learn from that, and take from that as well.”
Carr is no stranger to rotational minutes – a role he had at Tennessee. Drew said he understands the grind of staying ready on the bench, and starting, like he ultimately did in 34 games with Baylor during his redshirt sophomore campaign.
“He went from somebody at the beginning of the year that maybe people didn’t know about, to being at the front of the scouting report,” Drew said. “That’s something that he wasn’t on at Tennessee. The adjustment from a great summer and then great start to the year, to all of a sudden things became a lot harder for him from the standpoint – he was the most targeted man defensively.
“(Opposing teams could say), ‘Don’t leave him alone, make sure you know where he is at all times, a lot of help in the gaps,’” Drew continued. “He was able to let his game mature from another standpoint of being the marked man out there.”
On the Lakers’ summer league team, Carr has been the marked man. In six games beginning with the California Classic in San Francisco through the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, Carr has averaged 17.5 points, shooting 44.4% from the field and 32.5% from 3-point range. The Lakers (6-1 overall) are 4-0 in Las Vegas, headed to Saturday’s semifinals.
On a widely reconstructed Lakers roster next season, Carr could earn ample minutes as a rookie – similarly to how Dalton Knecht did during his rookie campaign (averaging 19.2 minutes in 78 regular-season games) under Coach JJ Redick.
“He’s a real shot-maker, he plays with a lot of confidence, and I really like his willingness to work on some of the deficiencies,” Lakers summer league coach Ty Abbott said last week. “He’s very aware. And he asks questions about those things and tries to apply it in the next practice, next game. You want to see that from a guy that’s young, hungry and understands this is going to be a development process. But it’s not to say that he doesn’t have exciting tools already.”
Second-year Lakers wing Adou Thiero sees a lot to like about his new teammate.
“He wants to win. He’s a competitor,” Thiero said. “I’m the same way. I feel like we’ve just been pushing each other.”
Carr understands what has been asked of him so far in the very early stages of his NBA career.
But when it comes to how he approaches every minute on the court, his mindset is the same as when he was in practice going head to head against Edgecombe.
“Anytime I get an opportunity to just put on a show for them, make them get their money’s worth,” Carr told SCNG, “I’m gonna do so.”
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