Atlanta Hawks Kevin Huerter: Despite Low Usage, Red Pepper is Killing It

Shooting

The main reason that Atlanta Hawks General Manager Travis Schlenk drafted Kevin Huerter was because of the Maryland product’s much-ballyhooed three-point stroke. In two seasons at Maryland, Huerter was a 39.4 percent three-point shooter on 5.4 attempts per game. In his sophomore season that saw him play 34 minutes a night in 32 games, he shot a sterling 41.7 percent from deep.

While it took a while for Huerter’s outside shot to adjust to the speed and distance of the NBA, his deep tries have come around, and Red Pepper’s three-point prowess is almost up to his college levels.

Huerter is second on the Atlanta Hawks in three-point percentage with 38.8 percent, behind only Jeremy Lin’s scorching-hot 41.3 percent clip. Hilariously (in an apocalyptic way), Huerter has hit only 7 fewer triples (26) than his prolific point guard teammate Trae Young (33) – though it has taken Young (gulp) 71 more attempts to get there.

In terms of his fellow rookies, Huerter is 4th among all rookies in three-point makes (26) as well as three-point percentage (38.8 percent). However, Red Pepper is only 6th in three-point attempts among rookies at 67 – behind high-usage players like Young and Doncic or spot-up artists like Landry Shamet of the 76ers, Gary Clark of the Rockets or Mikal Bridges of the Suns.

One reason Huerter’s attempts are so low is because of his almost excessively low usage rate.