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

Passing

Speaking of passing, Red Pepper looks to be everything that the Atlanta Hawks could’ve hoped for in that capacity, just like his backcourt mate Trae Young. While Huerter has been unable to put up the gaudy assist numbers that Young has so far in his young career, again, most of that can be chalked up to his insanely low usage rate.

When Huerter has the ball, his 13.8 percent assist rate ranks as 5th on the team among qualified players. Digging even deeper into the numbers, Cleaning the Glass shows that Huerter’s assists per usage rate is .98 – an amazing number that puts Huerter in the 94th percentile of players at his position.

Huerter is clearly a good passer, and he is able to use his good height (6-foot-7) to see over the defense and survey where his teammates are, often hitting them with difficulty passes they were not expecting. His 1.96 assist-to-turnover ratio is highest among all rookies that have played at least 450 minutes, besting teammate Trae Young’s 1.87 and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 1.56 for the Clippers.