CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Devonte Graham was a revelation for the Charlotte Hornets last season.
The point guard from Raleigh finished fifth in the NBA in Most Improved Player voting, averaged a team-high 18.2 points and 7.5 assists per game and played so well that he ended up pushing Terry Rozier over to shooting guard.
This season Graham's scoring average will likely go down, as will his playing time, as will the attention he draws.
And that's the way it has to be, if the Hornets are going to be a better team. It certainly was the way it was in the season opener, at Cleveland, although the results were decidedly mixed.
In the Hornets' 121-114 loss, Graham had 10 points and 10 assists. He shot only 4-for-13, though, in 37 minutes.
Along with his team, Graham will try to do better as the Hornets (0-1) come back to Charlotte for 7 p.m. home games against Oklahoma City Saturday and Brooklyn Sunday.
Graham said he gets that his role needs to change this season, and he certainly seems like he does.
Said Hornets coach James Borrego on the eve of the season of Graham: "Last year he carried the weight on his shoulders for a tremendous amount ... This year is going to look different for him. For us to be the best team, I want multiple guys making plays. Multiple ball handlers. Not just living with the ball in his hands or Terry (Rozier's) hands. We want to spread the wealth out ... So, Devonte's usage will go down, and that's OK."
In the Hornets' first game, Rozier had a career night with 42 points and 10 3-pointers. New addition Gordon Hayward also played well, with 28 points and seven assists. Graham had a good night feeding those two the ball but struggled with his own scoring.
Graham understands that a team that has two guards trying to start the offense almost every single time, as the Hornets did last year, wasn't ideal. He even pronounced it a "relief" to not have the ball in his hands quite so much, noting that he played off the ball as the shooting guard for his first three collegiate seasons alongside point guard Frank Mason III at Kansas.
"Now the defense is not (defending) just me or Terry coming off a ball screen," Graham said in our recent Zoom interview. "I feel like we've got the pieces now that can push us over and sneak us into the playoffs. So if that's me averaging 18 points again or if that's me averaging 12 (points) and 10 (assists), I'm going to try to do that."
It was much more the latter in the first game, but that's a very sample size.
Still, the Hornets now have three natural point guards in Graham, Rozier and rookie LaMelo Ball. Putting all three on the court at the same time would be very difficult because of defense and rebounding problems, which evidenced themselves again in the season opener.
Part of this year will be used to evaluate where Ball, the No. 3 overall pick, fits in with Charlotte. He was held scoreless in his first NBA game, going 0 for 5 from the field with the same number of assists as turnovers (three).
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Graham's path to Hornets starter was unusual and is knitted with numerous in-state threads. He grew up in Raleigh. As a senior in 2013, he starred on a Broughton High team that reached the NCHSAA 4A state championship game, where it lost to Olympic. Before his senior year, Graham had committed to Appalachian State and coach Jason Capel. But after a tremendous final season in high school, he wanted to get out of that commitment and redo his recruitment.
"I was a mid-major or a D2 (recruit) going into my senior year when I committed to App State," Graham said. "Then I went on to play my senior year and I was just killing it. So I wanted to reopen my recruitment and that's when all that craziness happened and they wouldn't let me out (of my commitment)."
To avoid going to App State, Graham took a post-graduate year at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire, where he played for a stellar team that included future NBA star Donovan Mitchell and won a prep national championship.
"Brewster was like a way for me to get out of (the commitment), without having to sit out a year or actually go to App State," Graham said.
Things worked out for Graham eventually.
Capel got fired, and Graham got out of his commitment and ended up at Kansas. He had a starry career there, but his size (6-foot-1) wasn't ideal for an NBA point guard.
Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak wrangled his way into getting Graham with the second round of the 2018 NBA draft at No. 34 overall, undoubtedly Kupchak's best draft value ever during his Charlotte tenure.
At a $1.67 million salary this season, by NBA standards Graham is woefully underpaid for a starting point guard. He will be a restricted free agent in the summer of 2021.
Before all that, though, Graham has to figure out what this season will look like for him, and his team. He hopes the Hornets' opening game wasn't it.
