Brooklyn Nets add wing depth, finalize Treveon Graham signing

The Brooklyn Nets finalized their agreed-upon deal with unrestricted free agent Treveon Graham, adding wing depth on a two-year guaranteed deal.

The Brooklyn Nets on Monday finalized their two-year deal with unrestricted free agent Treveon Graham, adding more wing depth entering their 2018 training camp.

Graham hit the market as an unrestricted free agent after the Charlotte Hornets opted not to extend a qualifying offer to the two-year veteran.

The team, per its policy, did not announce the terms of the deal, but Jeff Siegel at Early Bird Rights has Graham with a $1.5 million cap allocation for 2018-19 and nearly $1.65 million for 2019-20, with a $1.7 million cap hold as an unrestricted free agent in 2020.

Charlotte Observer beat writer Rick Bonnell said Graham just got caught in a numbers game with the Hornets.

BTW, the Nets got a great guy in @TreBall21 He’s smart and worked so hard to show he’s an NBA player. Far too many small forwards on Hornets roster to have justified a qualifying offer, but he belongs in the league.
— Rick Bonnell (@rick_bonnell) July 20, 2018

Graham traveled the long road to the NBA, going undrafted in 2015 after a solid four-year career at VCU.

Graham got a look with the San Antonio Spurs in Summer League in 2015, getting into 10 games between Salt Lake City and Las Vegas and played briefly with the Utah Jazz in the 2015 preseason before ending up with the G League’s Idaho Stampede in his first pro campaign.

He averaged 15.7 points and 6.1 rebounds as a part-time starter in Idaho, shooting .460/.330/.622 and got Summer League looks in 2016 with both the Orlando Magic and the Jazz before getting a non-guaranteed two-year deal with the Hornets in July 2016.

Graham spent the entire season with Charlotte, but was a frequent visitor to DNP-Coach’s Decision world, racking up 52 DNP-CDs and appearing in only 27 games.

He averaged 2.1 points in 7.0 minutes per game while shooting .475/9-for-15/10-for-15.

Graham emerged as a rotational player in 2017-18, playing in 63 games before being shut down for the final five games of the year while in the NBA’s concussion protocol.

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In 16.7 minutes per game, Graham was more of a defensive presence than an offensive force, averaging 4.3 points and 1.9 rebounds while shooting .434/.412/.695. He took just 3.5 shots per game.

But at 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds and coming from a collegiate program that stressed high-pressure defense, Graham is a load as a defender for wings to work against.

He spent most of his time at the 3, with the bulk of the remainder at the 2. Graham did get roughly 74 minutes as a small-ball 4.

The outside shooting touch is something Graham has added to his game over the last couple of seasons, as he was only an average 3-point shooter in college (35.4 percent for his career) and shot just 33 percent from long-range in the G League.

He’s hit 43.8 percent from behind the arc in his brief NBA career.

The question wil be how Graham fits into a crowded rotation at the 2 and 3. Brooklyn already had Allen Crabbe at the shooting guard and DeMarre Carroll at the small forward, and have a plethora of options at both spots.

D’Angelo Russell and Spencer Dinwiddie are combo guards who can man the 2. Joe Harris swings between the 2 and 3 spots, Caris LeVert is primarily a 3, but can function at either guard spot, and rookies Dzanan Musa and Rodions Kurucs were both normally used at the 3 in Europe.

Australian swingman Mitch Creek, meanwhile, got a camp invitation with an Exhibit 10 attachment, so he’s likely looking at a two-way deal.

But Graham overcame the odds just to become a regular part of an NBA rotation and he’s adept at shooting the 3-pointer from the corner or the wing equally well.

Graham’s defense will be his route to minutes, as this was an area Brooklyn struggled at a season ago.