Just How Special is Devon

As it turns out, he is pretty dadgum special. I have attached a link to the composite of the 1st 45 games of every player since 1994. You can see that Devon Dotson compares quite favorably to this group. If you stick to Point GUards only, he is really unquestionably the king of the court. He leads this illustrious group in almost every category. He dwarfs them all in minutes (Aaron Miles 2nd but 200+ below). He leads all in points but Mario and Sherron were ever so slightly better per 40 minutes but played far fewer minutes. Really the only category he is not head and shoulders above in is A/TO ratio where he is actually slightly below the average of the 12 PG's. When we expand it to all players, he still measure up very well. He has played more minutes than any player since 1994 in his 1st 45 games. One particular aspect of Devon's game that is starkly apparent is his frequency in getting to the FT line and making his FT's. Of the 75 players I compared him to in this list, only Wiggins (6.1), Embiid (6.1), Dedric (5.7), Perry Ellis (5.0), Jerrod Haase (4.7 and Wayne Simien (4.7 have made more FT's per 40 minutes in their 1st 45 games than Devon (4.6). Too bad Devon is not going to be around 4 years. He would break some records and end up as one of the all-time greats.

1st 45 Game Stats

The biggest difference IMHO is that we were absolutely relying on him from day 1.

Frank Mason averaged 16 minutes per game as a freshman and then went up to 33. He got some "shelter" behind Naadir Tharpe and Wayne Selden.

Ditto with Devonte who got to play in Mason's shadow as a freshman (18 minutes as a freshman).

Dotson got thrown directly into the deep end, and (as your data shows) responded phenomenally. Last year he averaged 32 minutes a game (Devonte and Frank were in that range in year 2) and this year he's at 35!

So in a way, comparing him after 45 games is a little "apples to oranges" with many of these guys who weren't asked to put the team on their shoulders in year 1. At the same time, the fact that he's been able to do it so well is extremely impressive. The only down side is that the chances of him saying 4 years are greatly reduced. But that's just me being selfish.

I will happily admit that I was wrong about Devonte.

I didn't see NBA talent during his KU days, and certainly not the talent he's displaying now.

So happy for him.