While I was browsing through De’Andre Hunter’s basketball-reference profile, searching desperately for any scrap of statistical insight that I could puff out into a full-length video description, my eye happened to fall on his minutes per game this season: 31.2. Since he played 38 minutes tonight, maybe his average will go up to around 32 MPG per game. When I saw that stat, my eyes lit up and I thought to myself “I could write at least two, maybe three paragraph about that stat! All my work is practically done for me!” Then I high-fived my cat Japurri, who is well-trained to receive high-fives and can even offer high-fives if he senses that the occasion is right.
Hunter currently has the highest MPG per game out of all 2019 draftees. Darius Garland, RJ Barrett, and P.J. Washington are the other three over thirty MPG per game. Hunter’s minutes are also higher than some players perceived to be franchise cornerstones, like Kevin Love, Evan Fournier, Chris Paul, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Joel Embiid (some of those guys are more cornerstone-esque than others, but my point still stands).
Does that mean that Hunter is necessarily deserving of all those minutes? Not at all. But the Hawks are prioritizing his development and they don’t feel like giving his minutes to some old man who has no future with the team (Allen Crabbe waves hello from his couch after the Timberwolves waived him).