Let's start with a pronunciation lesson. Devonte' Graham: The apostrophe at the end of his name means it ends with an "a" sound. When you need a peak moment like when he scored a career-high 40 points against the Nets, search online. You can also call him by the abbreviation of "Tae" like his teammate Miles Bridges, or you can just write or pronounce his full name. Because when he keeps having breakout performances, you have no choice but to spell his name right. And Graham seems not to let everyone forget his existence.
Where did Graham come from? Aside from college basketball fans who remember him at Kansas, NBA fans view Graham like a meteorite that suddenly appeared and bombarded the earth. On a team that seems to have no chance to write a script, he has become the biggest surprise story in the league at the beginning of the season. After losing Kemba Walker, the Hornets entered the season with a boring, untalented roster that no one expected to attract any attention. The Hornets are considered to be not only one of the bottom teams, but also the most dull and ugly team in the game. But 30 games later, it's obvious that everyone was wrong.
Further reading:The secret of Devonte Graham’s data surge｜Kemba Walker and the Avengers
In his rookie season, Graham served as a substitute behind Kemba (Translation: and Tony Parker) and did not get many opportunities to enter the rotation. In 46 games, he averaged 4.7 points in 14.7 minutes per game. His production has been so sparse that no one, including the team's front office, could have anticipated his level jump this year. This year, Graham has attracted the attention of the league by averaging 20 points and 7.6 assists per game. He also has an effective field goal percentage (eFG) of 53.81 TP3T, which is the highest among all guards who average more than 25 minutes per game and have a usage rate of more than 201 TP3T. Top ten results. What makes this stat even more poetic is that, yes, this is exactly what Walker hit in Boston.
of course! Now we can give a positive comment to the Hornets management, thinking that they have known Graham's ability for a long time, so they decided not to offer Walker a contract close to the super maximum salary. But this is absolutely not true. When Charlotte was sure to lose Walker, the alternative mechanism they launched was to offer Terry Rozier a three-year, $58 million contract. Of course, suddenly having a developing, younger version of Walker will make letting go of Walker seem less painful (perhaps the team prefers that the younger version of Walker is the player with an annual salary of 20 million). Is a Walker-like All-Star something Graham can reach? At least he's better than Walker was at 24 years old. What Hornets fans can see is that on the same night when Walker led Boston to score 44 points (7 three-pointers), Graham also hit a career high and also scored more than 40 points in a single game (also scored 7 three-pointers). three points).
As you can see from the video above, 14 of Graham's 40 points came in the crucial fourth quarter, when he turned on the gun mode and burned the net before the game ended. He also seems to have a knack for being more effective in dramatic situations, and last month he scored the game-winning three-pointer in another New York venue. If there is any difference between this and Kemba's key shot in Madison Square Garden when he was still at UConn at the time, the only difference is that Graham's buzzer-beater was a catch-and-shoot jumper, and he didn't need to spend 10 seconds. Dribble to create opportunities.
Graham is not just a poor man's Walker, but a modern version of a young Walker. What Kemba is doing this season - taking 9.1 3-point attempts per game with 411 TP3T - Graham is already doing. At the age of 24, Walker averaged only 4.5 three-pointers per game and took a lot of mid-range jumpers. Now the 24-year-old Graham is averaging 431 TP3T and taking 8.9 three-pointers per game. He's on pace to surpass 300 three-pointers in a single season, a record only four players have achieved in history (James Harden once, Steph Curry twice).
These statistics are a brief overview of the NBA's evolution, and Graham's personal explosion coincided with the trend of entering the league. The league is pursuing this kind of guard who has a little doubt about his small size, but has excellent ball-handling ability and killer three-point shooting ability. In fact, in college, Graham had a three-point shooting percentage of more than 40%. However, entering the draft as a senior also caused his glory to be overshadowed by young and high-potential players.
However, the Hornets, especially coach James Borrego, gave him a chance to play, and even eventually allowed him to hold the ball more than the high-priced free agent they signed. This kind of space to play gave Graham a budding opportunity, and also allowed the Hornets to At 11 wins and 16 losses, they are only 1.5 games away from the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, a (medium) position that the Hornets are very accustomed to. Statistics show that they only lost one of the six games when Graham scored more than 29 points.
The stories he writes about little people are not fiction, he even lived them once in high school and into college. So maybe when some of the Hornets' top draft picks (uh, Malik Monk) don't turn out as expected, Graham's story of strong dominance is less surprising.
For the Hornets, this team that seemed to be in purgatory even with Walker finally has a future worth being excited about. From a team building perspective, no matter what level of player Graham will eventually become, the Hornets do not want to lose Graham again because they failed to create a stable core and they ended up repeating the same story. But regardless of whether the Hornets can seize the opportunity again, one thing is for sure that Graham will not be ignored again.
Graham’s highlights:2019-20 Key Little Player─Dominate Brooklyn! Devonte' Graham's 40-point masterpiece
