Taken with the 19th overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, Kevin Huerter was one of a trio of rookies selected by the Atlanta Hawks in the first round. The other two rookies for Atlanta, Trae Young, and Omari Spellman were more known commodities entering the NBA. Spellman was a key cog on a Villanova team that had won two of the past three NCAA championships. Young–acquired in a draft-night trade–took the world by storm in college and was immediately being billed as the face of the franchise.

Huerter had a solid two-season stint with the Maryland Terrapins, but he was an afterthought coming into his first season. An injury suffered during pre-draft workouts kept Huerter sidelined for summer league and the beginning of training camp.

To begin the year, Huerter was one of the last players off the bench for Lloyd Pierce, but that quickly changed, and Huerter has now started in 27 of the 43 games he’s played so far. Huerter’s rise from the end of the bench to surefire starter happened quickly. Pierce’s newfound trust in Huerter is exemplified in the fact that the rookie already has three games where he’s played 39-plus minutes (for comparison, Young’s highest minutes total in a game is 37).

Billed as a knockdown shooter, a lot of the analysis of his game in the lead up to the draft focused on his ability to stretch the floor from the perimeter. That skill has translated to the NBA as Huerter is connecting on 39.2 percent of his three-point attempts this year.

However, against the Philadelphia 76ers Huerter displayed a full array of skills on the offensive end on his way to scoring a career-high 29 points in Atlanta’s 123-121 upset.

At Maryland, Huerter showed signs of being able to make plays off of the dribble and operated as a secondary ballhandler for the Terrapins at times. In his first year with the Hawks, he’s taken hat skill set to another level. With opposing teams so keyed in on slowing Young down, Huerter has been able to take advantage of rotating defenses and attack off-the-dribble.

In this game, Huerter did the majority of his damage with the ball in his hands. It got to a point where the Sixers opted to put Jimmy Butler and Ben Simmons on the rookie in hopes of slowing him down. Neither could keep Huerter from putting the ball in the bucket after he got going.

Huerter finished with 29 points on 11/17 shooting from the field, including a scorching five three-pointers. As the season continues it will be worthwhile to track how well Huerter can create offensively. If he can become a player who is capable of beating defenders in isolation the Hawks offense can give teams real headaches going forward.

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