Devonte’ Graham is ready for his newest challenge
By Chris Stone
Devonte’ Graham was never supposed to be in this position — one of two starting point guards on a Kansas team that finished 33-5 and ended its year in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament last season.
The 21-year old rising junior out of Raleigh, North Carolina originally committed to Appalachian State, but after deciding he no longer wanted to attend the university, Graham landed at Brewster Academy for a year of prep school where his stock continued to rise as his battle to be released from his letter of intent heated up.
Ranked as the 68th best recruit in the class of 2014 according to the Recruiting Services Consensus Index, Graham would eventually be freed before choosing the Jayhawks over North Carolina State and Virginia, a decision that came less than 24 hours after former Kansas point guard Naadir Tharpe announced his intentions to leave the program.
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As a sophomore, he used 16.9 percent of the team’s offensive possessions and his per 40 minute numbers (13.9 points, 4.5 assists, and 4.1 rebounds) were solid, but not reflective of a dominant on-court presence. Dig a bit deeper, though, and Graham’s all-around performance becomes much more impressive. The 21-year old posted the highest effective field goal percentage (61.9) in Big 12 play last season and his Box Plus-Minus rating (9.9) suggests that he was one of the league’s top players. Only one guard in the conference — National Player of the Year winner and sixth overall pick in the 2016 draft, Buddy Hield — can boast of a better 2015-16 season based on the metric.
It’s fitting, then, that Graham’s breakout performance came against Hield in the Jayhawks’ 76-72 victory over Oklahoma in Norman to help clear the path to a 12th straight conference championship for Kansas. The then-sophomore dropped 27 points on the Sooners, including a clutch three-pointer as the ballhandler in a pick-and-roll with just over three minutes remaining to tie the contest at 69:
He finished 8-of-13 from the field and also embraced guarding the nation’s best scorer for the majority of the game. “I definitely took it as a challenge,” Graham told the media after the win. While Hield finished with 24 points, the Kansas guard held him to 5-of-15 shooting from the field and helped force him into four turnovers.
Graham’s scoring outburst against the Sooners is reflective of the confidence he has offensively (watch him hold the follow through in the above clip). The oft-smiling guard has made an impressive 43.8 percent of his three-pointers as a college player. He has a nice catch-and-shoot stroke, despite leaning back a bit on his release and is comfortable pulling up from behind the arc off the dribble. Graham has also flashed a solid mid-range game off when working in the pick-and-roll, often using his craftiness with the ball to get to his sweet spots, including the elbow:
While it would be a misnomer to call him a “pass-first” point guard, facilitating is certainly part of Graham’s arsenal. In two collegiate seasons, he has a 20.2 percent assist rate with a turnover rate in the mid-teens. Graham shows solid court vision operating in the pick-and-roll and is excellent finding teammates in transition where his quickness shines as he explodes up the floor.
Defensively, the 6-2 point guard is a pest in the most respectable meaning of the word. His defense starts with a willingness to get inside the jersey of opposing ballhandlers, crowding their space and forcing them into difficult decisions. While his size will likely be a slight limitation on his defensive versatility at the next level, Graham’s defensive fervor should help mold him into a plus defender at the point guard spot. His biggest value on that end of the floor is his ability to use his quick hands and instincts to swipe away loose balls or jump into passing lanes. Graham has averaged 1.8 steals per 40 minutes during his college career; not a spectacular number, but a solid one.
Kansas will likely enter the 2016-17 season ranked as one of the top five teams in the country Their backcourt duo of Graham and Frank Mason will be a big reason to believe in the Jayhawks as national title contenders. The Raleigh native, though, has now played his way into a position where he can start to think beyond the college game. Graham has the potential to be a two-way point guard in the NBA — capable of running an offense on one end of the floor while pressuring the ball on the other. Given that the 21-year old already has a year of prep school under his belt, it seems likely that this will be his last season in Lawrence. Now, it’s just a matter of embracing his next challenge.