Spurs Prospect Watch: Devonte’ Graham

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LAWRENCE, KS - NOVEMBER 10: Devonte' Graham #4 of the Kansas Jayhawks reacts after scoring during the game against the Tennessee State Tigers at Allen Fieldhouse on November 10, 2017 in Lawrence, Kansas. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

The Spurs are on pace for over 50 wins yet again this year and got an impressive win over the Detroit Pistons this past week despite being without Kawhi Leonard. That means the Spurs should be in for a low pick in the first round yet again in 2018. That brings us to our weekly prospect watch, which is Kansas point guard Devonte’ Graham.

The 6-foot-2, 185-pound guard has played at both the point and shooting guard, so he has experience offensively and defensively at those positions that should translate to the NBA. He’s already had back-to-back 35-point games this season and is poised for a potential Player of the Year campaign.

Here are his stats as of Dec. 7:

  • 16.6 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 7.6 APG
  • 44.4 FG%, 38.9 3P%
  • 124.9 ORtg, 87.7 DRtg

As you can see, the offense is definitely there for him and his range definitely reaches NBA distance. He can create for himself and he has been doing so for his teammates as evidenced by his near eight assists a game. He’s clearly a good playmaker and can create for himself when needed as well. However, in doing so he sometimes gets a little too careless with the ball as he does average 3.4 turnovers a game.

Graham has shown he can run an offense despite him being the main focus of it. At Kansas, he has no real help on the interior as the Jayhawks have basically been playing with one big man who can only seal guys off in the paint and has no real post moves. He uses a quarter of the team’s possessions when he’s in the game because frankly, he is the best player on the team and it’s not close. Should he join the Spurs, that would obviously not be the case and you could argue he could become much more efficient than he already is since he would be sharing time with a fairly large group of players.

Graham is a solid late first-round pick and he could fall to the early part of the second round, but he definitely won’t fall farther than that. So if the Spurs want to nab him, doing it with their first round pick is their best chance at landing him.

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