For most of his high school career, Devonte’ Graham wasn’t recruited by prominent Division I schools, but he ended up starting for the storied University of Kansas program, emerging as one of the NCAA’s best players. Despite being named Big 12 Player of the Year in 2018, Graham wasn’t selected until the second round of that year’s NBA draft (No. 34 overall). An afterthought as a Charlotte rookie who spent a chunk of his first pro season in the G League, Graham seemingly came out of nowhere to become the Hornets’ leading scorer in 2019-20, quadrupling his scoring average from 4.7 to 18.2 points per game.
Graham can’t explain it, but the 6-foot-1, 195-pound guard’s career has followed a common theme: The North Carolina native is Initially underestimated, but ultimately proves his value in resounding fashion.
“I don’t know what it is or why,” Graham said, laughing after being asked about his underdog background. “But I kind of like it. I like not being the guy people think they need to worry about, and then next thing you, boom, I’m a guy that’s killing and making a name for himself. That’s all I’ve tried to do, no matter where I’ve played. No matter what age it was, I was always kind of under the radar. But it doesn’t bother me. I just come in and do my job.”
Charlotte entered each of the past two NBA seasons placed near the bottom of 30-team preseason power rankings, but the Hornets proved to be far more competitive than expected, partly behind Graham’s scoring punch and three-point accuracy (37.4 percent on 397 makes since 2019-20). Graham became known in the Queen City for timely buckets, a factor in the Hornets being an above-average clutch team, going 18-13 in 2020-21 (New Orleans is just 30-50 in clutch games over the past two campaigns, via NBA.com).
“We wanted to focus on opening up the floor from a shooting perspective, so a Devonte’ Graham comes into the equation,” Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin said. “Helping us close games better is something we see Devonte’ doing.”
Off the court, the Pelicans have already seen Graham make an impact, when the 26-year-old recently contributed to Hurricane Ida relief. He’s looking forward to playing Wednesday in the Smoothie King Center vs. Orlando for the first time as a member of the home team.
“I’m a big people person,” Graham said of his decision to help efforts in the region. “Even though I haven’t been (in New Orleans) and I haven’t played a game here yet, everything I learned and was taught growing up was, ‘It’s not about you.’ So coming to a city that I want to embrace me and support me, you’ve got to be supportive of the people here and the city. That was a big thing for me, just trying to show some love and help some people out in whatever way I could.”