Look at the shots he makes compared to Lonzo only being able to hit spot up shots. Also a nice runner and off the bounce shooting is light years ahead of Ball. And only half the price.
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Look at the shots he makes compared to Lonzo only being able to hit spot up shots. Also a nice runner and off the bounce shooting is light years ahead of Ball. And only half the price.
And a 40 point game from last season
I actually like this move a lot. I was still a fan of keeping Lonzo but he just proved himself out. I think Graham at around $11 million a year in the prime of his career is a damn good move. His game should benefit big time having guys like Ingram and Zion around him. Charlotte has had absolutely nothing since he has been there outside or Heyward and someone like Melo taking away from him but not helping as much as our 2 stars will.
If guys like Kira, Murphy, and Hayes can be key role players and not busts then I believe we have a team that can win it all. We will need some slight improvements from Ingram and Zion but we are not far from having a legit contender. Half our team is just legally able to drink or yet to so we have some serious upside while a lot of the best teams are getting old..
His floor as a scorer looks like it’ll be as good as D’Angelo Russell and Kemba Walker at the least. I think we potentially have our Big 3 with Zion, Ingram, and Graham
In today’s NBA having a big 2 and putting the right pieces around them is all you need. The only team with 3 real stars right now is the Lakers and Nets but those teams lack the quality around those 3 that we can add. I see what you meant though and agree as I think Graham as our 3a/3b is legit. Adding another $10-$15 million player like Brogdon to our back court would be huge. I think we are just 1 key player away from being legit and serious contenders in the next couple years.
Having a couple of our young backcourt guys like Murphy and Kira stepping up the be legit NBA players would be huge. Kira running our bench and Murphy plugging into the 2 spot would be exactly what this team needs. If those 2 guys can step up with what we have then I believe we have everything it takes..
As a fan, selling myself on the acquisition was always inevitable. However, I haven't yet come to terms that with Graham on board, we now have a big 3! :hihi:
But sure, why not?! I love it!!!
Lol it's not a big 3
I don’t think we have a big 3 nor do I think we need it. Yes adding someone like Beal would be absolutely huge but adding the right fits with multiple guys like Graham can be just as valuable. We have the 2 stars that we need and again they are just 21 and 23 years old. Just having them slightly improve and continue to get better playing with each other alone takes us to another level.
I agree. Just having fun.
We have a big 2.25
I guess the difference is Devonte has the 'balls' to just pick up his dribble and shoot a bomb in your face. Lonzo would usually defer in that situation.
Will be interesting to see who gets the rock down the stretch, I get a feeling Ingram will still be the primary ball handler in crunch time, and I'm hopeful he keeps developing and getting better
I really like Devonte game. He will be good for us. Nice pick up!
Looking at these contracts being signed and the age of these players we really got Graham for a steal. He still has upside and you have guys that are no better then him with no upside signing for $18+ million. He’s in his prime years in the last year of his deal while some of these signings no way in their 4th year are worth the $ being signed for.
Graham is a legit threat to score off PnR with his floater or his pull-up. Lonzo was a horrible PnR shooter. IDK what the adv stats say but my eyes said Zo was a liability as a scorer in PnR.
Graham is a 6th man, he isnt a starter. That is the key to this acquisition and its subsequent grade. If the Pels got him to be a starter, its a bad move. If he is a 6th man, similar to a younger Lou Williams, he will provide massive value over the next 4 years. His numbers were unquestionably better when he was a reserve and his best lineups were staggered backup lineups with no center against reserve lineups.
He and Kira could be an awesome change of pace backup guard duo with guys like Murphy surrounding them and defending the best perimeter player on the backup units. He will also get Hayes great looks on the pick and roll.
I will happily give up 12 mil per year and a pick in the late teens/early 20s for a top tier 6th man. For a bad starter? No, thank you
Getting Instant Gritz flashbacks here lol. I like it!
Interesting stat for Graham, he shot 46% from the corner last year compared to 37% above the break, but he only took 52 total corner 3's while shooting 424 3's above the break. I'd expect his number of corner 3s to rise dramatically next to Zion and BI. Should see a career year in 3p% for Graham if that's the case.
Excited to see how he fits in, the guy has a great energy to his game.
No matter 6th man or starter, we have a big 3 in terms of Graham’s prolific scoring, which will be near the production of Zion and Ingram
NAW's splits were just as good as a starter as Graham's were as a reserve. Remember, in 13 games as a starter, NAW averaged 19 ppg 5 reb and 3 assists on 46% shooting and 41% from 3 (7.5 attempts per game). Graham also shot 41% from 3 on 7.5 attempts per game as a reserve
Oh two non-Zion/BI players with high-teen ppg you say? I love it. I’m expecting NAW to take a huge step this season too, but hard to really project how productive over the entire season. I’m expecting Graham for sure since he’s proven to light it up 2 seasons ago before Charlotte added more scorers last year
Easy to forget that JV averaged 17ppg in Memphis last year also. He can score, man.
Oh, THREE non-Zion/BI players with high teen ppg you say??? lol Crazy how talented the team already is when actually looking at the roster, but the forum just wants to panic. I kind of expect JV’s ppg to go down a little to 15-16 ppg because so many players in the backcourt will be eating a lot
I'm not sure if this has been said or not, but Devonte Graham shot 36% at the rim last year. The Pelicans were far and away the best offensive rebounding team in the league last season, and just replaced Steven Adams with the best offensive rebounder in the NBA. As long as Graham is willing to take that shot, the Pels should clean it up a very high percentage of the time.
He has that kemba/dame shade on offense... we look better offensively this year plus the addition of D'antoni will unlock more from this team..we also look worse defensively than last year.
I don't actually think we look worse on defense than last year.
The view that we do primarily stems, from what I can gather, from the idea that Bledsoe is better defensively than Graham and that Lonzo is a huge defensive loss.
Neither of those things are actually true. Bledsoe can be better than Graham, sure, but he didn't actually produce any of that defense for the Pelicans. If we were swapping peak Bledsoe for Graham, sure that would be a defensive downgrade, but we aren't. We're swapping the version of Bledsoe we got for Graham, who will almost certainly be better. Can't really be much worse.
And Lonzo, while good on defense - particularly off the ball - was never able to elevate team defense to another level like a Draymond Green type can. Of course, it's unfair to expect him to because Draymond is one of the best defenders of all time, but what I mean is that as pretty as his individual numbers were on defense it never translated to a strong team defense. Besides, his actual defensive impact metrics aren't that shiny - he was 77th percentile in D-EPM, which is obviously good but hardly world-destroying to lose.
We were a historically poor defensive team last season. This season, we project to be just kind of bad. That's not a step down, it's a step up.
I’m not for Graham starting necessarily but would like him to finish… because he’s clutch.
At first blush it seems to me that if we are going to maximize our first unit's production, we need our two best snipers around Zion/BI/Jonas, whoever those two may be. This will create the greatest synergy, especially if no one is as much as a defensive liability as JJ was.
If Graham is far and away our best sniper, seems like it would be hard to not try to put him with the first unit to make life easier on Zion and BI. If we have a few guys that are really drilling catch and shoot threes, or at least in the same ballpark as Graham, then it gives us more options as to who would work best as 6th man.
Yeah. I'm interested to see how far NAWs 3pt% will improve with him finally getting a real offseason.
Even though bledsoe checked out on us he is still stronger than most guards and can deal with the 2 guard spot... graham even though he has a nice wingspan is too light for most matchups... if im the opponent i would easily target him with switches forcing us to send help everytime. Naw isn't that strong as well and so is bi...there's a lot to exploit with our current lineup..although i do agree that val is better than adams defensively... herb jones is someone im high on defensively for this team, hopefully he can be our thybulle on that end.
Being physically strong doesn't mean anything if you can't be bothered to move your feet, or put your body into someone, or keep focused for more than 5 seconds.
Like I said, in a world where Bledsoe is engaged, he's a better defender than Graham. Because yes, he's stronger, and his wingspan is longer, etc. But he was not engaged for us. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. Bledsoe spent most games for us being an absolute turnstile, letting anyone get away with anything without providing any resistance. Therefore Graham will very probably be better for us because even though his defensive ceiling is not as high as Bledsoe's, he's more likely to actually engage.
Look at it this way. Again, stats don't capture everything and defense is difficult to measure etc etc, but I think this shows what I mean.
Bledsoe, Defensive EPM 2020-21: -1.8, 10th percentile, 452nd in the NBA.
Graham, Defensive EPM 2020-21: +0.2, 67th percentile, 168th in the NBA.
When Bledsoe plays like he did for us last year, Graham is more than capable of outperforming him on defense.
We'll see, and hoping that would be the case...just don't see it with this current roster on that end... zion and bi could also improve on defense next year so there's hope for that... offensively is where i see us excel with shooters,scorers providing the space needed finally
By the end of last season, Zion was fine on defense. You'll find people who want to trash him and stuff but he was pretty clearly okay. Not good but he wasn't even the worst defender in our starting lineup, let alone on the team :hihi: I think if he can continue where he was towards the end of last year, he'll be fine.
Graham will be better for us than Bledsoe was. JV will be better than Adams was. Lonzo is a loss, but it's fair to expect either Kira or NAW to have made some improvement, and then guys like Naji and Murphy offer solid potential options on the wing or even smallball backup 4s (that's more Naji than Murphy, but still). I feel like we can be a top 20 defense this year, maybe somewhere between 14th and 18th. That's still not great but compared to last year it might as well be the 04 Pistons.
We traded a 1st round pick for a a guy drafted in the 2nd round pick 34..but people say there is little value in 2nd round when we give them away for cash considerations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah2hZB8FgcM
Just a few more highlights
The argument would be that a player needs playing time and resources to develop. Who would you have drafted with our traded picks in this past draft that you think would get playing time with us this season? In Charlotte a couple of years ago, they had that space. We currently do not.
This only shows highlights and positives.
But say what you want about the team adding "moar shooting". It seems they certainly added better overall basketball players. Which is more important.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO-F...el=AndrewSmith
No, but having guys with talent on the bench is excellent when some star wants out and the other team wants promising guys in return. Like a Jared Butler for instance. BJ Boston too.
Even if we couldn't really squeeze them in, they hold a lot of value as a trade lure
So many guys we could have taken in the second round this year would have been better than Didi will ever be
Using Google it seems like only 1/4 second round players play for at least 3 seasons. On average only 2 players out of the entire 2nd round become "quality players" with a positive win share. As mentioned above there is also the opportunity cost - you could draft half the second round to get good odds to find a rotational player but how will you play them to get them experience ? As often seems to be the case , when a second round pick earns a good contract it seldom seems to be on the same team that drafted them. I am interested to know from those who know far more than I where the line is between drafting in the second round and getting a useable to good player and keeping them to recoup the developmental costs. I wonder how often second round picks turn one team essentially into other team's farm team.
Temple is not just a second round pick, he is one of the figurative gems of the second round that has been given the court time to mature into a good player.