Someone tell me how Devonte’ Graham got so good, because it doesn’t make any sense. I need someone to make sense of this for me. I saw a lot of him last year. Maybe not as much as Hornets fans, but maybe more than any non-Hornets fan besides Zach Lowe (who, unlike me, doesn’t have a job that requires him to do anything but watch basketball). And I didn’t see ANYTHING that indicated that he would be a 20 ppg (he’s sitting at EXACTLY 20.0000 after tonight) scorer. Not this year, not next year, not any year.
There has to be a reason. Players don’t just randomly become good for no reason. And please don’t tell me that the reason he’s so good this year is “hard work”. Yeah, like he’s the only NBA player who works hard during the offseason. Give me a break. I don’t even care if it’s steroids. As long as it’s something I can take and apply to my own life to give me a leg up on the competition (Dawkins, I’m frickin’ coming for you).
Whatever the reason, the reality is that Graham is legitimately an All-Star kind of player right now. A guy averaging 20 and 7 with just an absolute ton of three-pointers, even if he’s playing for a losing team (only a losing team because everyone aside from him is complete garbo) is hard to snub. And if the All-Star voters want a narrative (besides the one where he went from one of the worst players in the league to THIS), I’ve got a narrative for them to ponder: he just scored frickin’ FORTY points tonight. Take that for data!
It was just a matter of time, honestly. I’m not even surprised. The way he’s been shooting the three, there was no way he wasn’t going to get 40 at some point. Even 50, would I even be surprised? Probably not. That’s how good he’s playing right now. He’s like Damian Lillard 0.7, and I’m not even exaggerating. Maybe bump him up to Lillard 0.8 after tonight.