Charlotte Hornets: Devonte’ Graham’s PG skills a great development
Charlotte Hornets guard Devonte’ Graham has proved he can score the ball, but his improved vision and playmaking has been just as impressive during his breakout season.
While his miraculous shooting improvement has been an incredible story to watch, Devonte’ Graham has also improved in other key areas during his second season with the Charlotte Hornets. His point guard skills are much sharper, which has also played apart in his potential Most Improved campaign.
Graham is averaging 7.9 assists for the Hornets this year, and has hit the double-digit mark with dimes in five of his last six games and has 11 total on the season. He’s making better reads and seems to have a jaw-dropping pass at least once per game nowadays.
During his time in college at Kansas, Graham played off-ball a ton up until his senior season. He’s familiar with both guard positions, but still, I’m impressed with how comfortable he is after looking lost at times last season.
More from Swarm and Sting
- Hornets: Where does Brandon Miller’s ceiling rank among other rookies?
- Charlotte Hornets grade out mostly average in position-by-position ranking
- Hornets News: P.J. Washington makes bold statement on Brandon Miller
- Grade the mock trade: Hornets snag Tyler Herro, flip Gordon Hayward
- Will the Charlotte Hornets be in the 2024 NBA Draft Lottery?
This season, he’s spending 100 percent of his minutes at the point guard spot, but still, he’s sharing playmaking duties with Terry Rozier. Regardless, Graham is the one with the ball in his hands the most, and his decision making through some shooting struggles has also impressed me.
I’ve talked about Graham’s struggles recently, and what stood out to me wasn’t his shooting percentages. Yeah, he couldn’t throw a rock in the ocean during the month of December (33 percent overall), but he found a way to impact the game, and that was with his playmaking.
Some players will simply fold if their shot isn’t falling, but Graham has the competitive nature to keep going, keep shooting and do other things when he’s struggling offensively.
Luckily for the Charlotte Hornets, Graham found some rhythm in Saturday’s overtime contest in Dallas, finishing with 27 points and 13 assists on 8-17 shooting. He’s playing huge minutes every night and could go for a line like this at any given moment.
He’s not a perfect point guard, but he seems to be ahead of the pack right now among some of his peers. He’ll have to focus on limiting his turnovers (3.0 per game) and play a little bit more under control.
We’ll see if he can put together a streak of shining performances with the tough Pacers in town tonight.
Next. Trade target Dewayne Dedmon a different mold at center. dark
Like I said, by no means is Devonte’ Graham a perfect point guard. He still has a lot of things to learn, but his lightning quick development into a potential NBA All-Star has got to have Charlotte Hornets fans excited for the future. He’s only going to get better if he continues to put in the work.