Charlotte Hornets point guard Devonte' Graham seems destined to move into a starting role soon and fantasy investors that have already gotten ahead of this news will look rather smart for adding him. Graham, a second-year talent originally chosen in the second round from Kansas, leads the team in scoring at 17.9 points per game and plays the same average minutes that far richer offseason acquisition Terry Rozier does, but this is hardly a Lou Williams-type situation with the valuable sixth man scoring and providing little else. Graham averages 7.6 assists per game. He runs the offense nicely when on the floor and has improved defensively of late.
Some in fantasy might be unwilling to add Graham, who is on the most-added list but remains available in more than 40% of ESPN standard leagues, because of the Rozier factor. The Hornets took Rozier in the Kemba Walker trade with the Boston Celtics, perhaps not by choice but necessity, and bestowed upon him a monster contract for nearly $20 million per season. He has to play and perhaps emerges into a star at some point, though that seems unlikely. Graham, however, is playing better. I have doubts that either can make four out of every 10 of their field-goal attempts, which is a valid concern, but Graham is the superior distributor laden with upside.
Charlotte's problem here is that both players stand just a shade above 6 feet tall, hardly ideal for defending bigger guards and part of the reason the team permits more than 113 points per game, bottom 10 in the league, but they seem to coexist well enough on offense. I guess that is all we care about in fantasy. Get the minutes and give us the numbers. Graham is so fun to watch and I admit some of my bias is because I feel like I saw enough of Rozier in Boston to know what he could and could not do well.
We like to presume a veteran player moving to a rebuilding club will act like the current D'Angelo Russell of Golden State and dominate statistically. I mean, who else here can score, right? Stop. Rozier is not going to dominate statistically and I felt like I ranked him accordingly. It is his fifth season and we still await one in which he hits 40% from the field or makes wise decisions on a consistent basis. Who cares which player has the NBA experience or makes the most money? Perhaps it matters little who starts if the minutes are the same. I get that. Then again, what if Graham deserves more minutes. Statistically, he is outperforming Jrue Holiday, De'Aaron Fox and Chris Paul.
Graham is a very aggressive 3-point shooter and thus his overall field goal percentage suffers, but as long as he keeps feeding forwards Miles Bridges and PJ Washington -- another surprise -- and Cody Zeller, I can handle the rough shooting. I love rostering guards with 20-and-10 possibility. Graham is scoring and he has 10 assists in each of his past two games. Ignore the low steals number for the season; he has eight of them in the past four games. He gets to the foul line far more than Rozier, too. Graham is this team's closer, and perhaps a top-10 point guard in fantasy. Go get him!
Here are some other random thoughts on this fine Tuesday:
Charlotte's Zeller has been around a while and been the fantasy free agent we add when a big man has to miss a few weeks with injury. You get your 10 points, 6 boards and then move on with no complaint. The current version of Zeller is far better, with 12.9 points, 9.8 boards and myriad 3-point attempts. In short, Zeller is doing what I thought Atlanta Hawks center Alex Len would do. I moved on from the disappointing Len twice already in one league. Yep, I re-added him after the John Collins suspension. Not wise. Zeller is oddly on the most-dropped list, too, but that is a mistake.
Is anyone not dealing with an injury these days? Celtics forward Gordon Hayward was playing so, so well, and now he is out six weeks. Jaylen Brown scored 55 points the past two games. There is the fill-in option you must add in fantasy, though Marcus Smart does more things. At this point, we have to realize he will never be a good shooter, if the career 37% field goal mark is not enough proof.
I do not think I am so surprised that Toronto Raptors guard Fred VanVleet is recording top-10 point guard numbers because we knew he would get the minutes and there was upside in assists and steals. He and Graham are the Nos. 10 and 12 point guards on the season Player Rater. Sure, VanVleet is the veteran and on a superior team, so he is safer, and his field goal percentage can only rise. I think. Toronto was playing VanVleet and Kyle Lowry together, and they are no taller than Graham and Rozier. It can work with athletic, defensive-minded forwards.
Lowry, Hayward, Fox, Khris Middleton, Collins, Deandre Ayton and Stephen Curry all need to continue to remain on rosters in fantasy. Sure, some of you might have no choice if you roster two or more of them, but their numbers warrant waiting. Fox and Middleton are the latest to go down. I think Sacramento goes with Cory Joseph and perhaps he can be like Ish Smith for a few weeks, getting four or five assists per. Oh, and if you see young King Marvin Bagley III sitting on your free agency, he likely returns from his injury within a fortnight. That is a double-double guy there.
Hawks star Trae Young missed 21 field goal attempts on Sunday night, costing one of my teams that percentage category all by himself. What is the old saying, live by the sword, die by the sword? Young also came within two boards of a triple-double. Portland's guards really do not defend so well, but Kent Bazemore does and Young was erratic against him. Young is in such great command of this offense and I think he can shoot his current 44% for months with better decision making.
More Hawks: DeAndre' Bembry should be averaging 12 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists -- even with Young -- per game, but he is so passive at creating his own shot. He barely shoots. Bembry scored with relative ease while at St. Joseph's but has not developed, and what is with the 40.9% free throw shooting? The 18-point, 10-rebound, 8-assist game against Miami whetted our appetite, but Bembry has not attempted more than six shots in a game since. He shot six times in 40 minutes on Sunday at Portland. Tough to do.
Speaking of yuck, I am running out of patience with Oklahoma City Thunder center Steven Adams, who has missed half of the past six games with a knee contusion and has been underwhelming. Adams averaged 13.9 points per game the past two seasons. We love the boards and field goal shooting, but with Russell Westbrook bolting, most figured he would score more. He would rebound more. Well, the boards are up slightly but solely on the defensive end. Minutes are way down and he has made 26% of his free throws. OK, so we can live with it since he rarely shoots them, but c'mon. I still think a 16-and-12 option remains here and I cannot cut him for Zeller. I will be more patient.