Maybe I\u2019m just biased as a result of spending several years with the Grit \u2018N\u2019 Grind Grizzlies, but my travel-heavy Tour de NBA the last few weeks has left me pondering a question: Is the league undervaluing grit? Are we, as a league, so focused on the upside plays, the possibility that dart throws on guys with length and athleticism \u201cfiguring it out\u201d will hit the bull\u2019s eye one day, that we\u2019re missing the hustlers getting results right in front of our eyes?<\/p>\n
Call them gamers or grinders or whatever term you want to use for hard-playing, unheralded guys with a little bit of extra edge to them, but they certainly seem to be having a moment. Almost all of these guys were massively undervalued coming out of college, too.<\/p>\n
Dillon Brooks is the most obvious example, inexplicably available to us in Memphis with the 45th pick in 2017. In his seventh season as a full-time starter, Brooks has been a culture-changer on the resurgent Phoenix Suns. (Not like we were towering geniuses, either \u2014 we took Ivan Rabb over him at pick 35!) The Detroit Pistons, meanwhile, have basically built an entire roster of high-effort guys and parlayed that into a spot at the top of the East standings.<\/p>\n
As I traveled the last few weeks, I have noticed a common theme, and started talking to a few of the players who best fit this profile as I went. While much of the league siestas during a light NBA Cup week schedule, I thought it was a good time to share what I found.<\/p>\n
Jamal Shead, point guard, Toronto<\/p>\n
Before a recent game in Atlanta, I pulled aside one of Shead\u2019s veteran teammates to give me a quick scouting report. \u201cHe is a pit bull\u201d was the first item. Sounds promising for this purpose.<\/p>\n
Shead is only 6-foot-1 but was the Defensive Player of the Year in two different conferences (his Houston Cougars team changed leagues in 2023-24, moving from the AAC to the Big 12), and won Big 12 Player of the Year in his final season playing for a team that relies on high-effort, suffocating defense. Like Brooks above, all that got him was the 45th selection in the relatively weak 2024 draft. An injury that kept him out of the combine and spring workouts likely didn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n
However, because of the Raptors\u2019 plethora of injuries, including to Immanuel Quickley, Shead ended up getting plenty of floor time last year. He was able to show off his point-of-attack defense.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Defense) is something that we really, really took pride in at Houston,\u201d Shead said. \u201cWe were the No. 1 defensive team for four years while I was there, and I think it\u2019s just carried over. It\u2019s just about playing hard and trying to keep that defensive intensity up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shead has 12 steals in his last five games. A lot of them were him straight-up picking dribblers clean. Good dribblers, too. Just in that stretch, he got Deni Avdija, Austin Reaves, LaMelo Ball, Derrick White (twice!) and Jalen Brunson. Watch:<\/p>\n
Overall, his 3.0 steal rate ranks ninth in the league.<\/p>\n
Shead made an immediate impression with his defense and effort as a rookie, but in his second season, he\u2019s become a rotation staple because of offensive improvements. His outside shooting (32.8 percent) remains a work in progress, but averaging five assists for every turnover will get you some leeway on the scoring front.<\/p>\n
Before a recent game, Raptors coach Darko Rajakovi\u0107 credited Shead\u2019s continued work on his left hand and shooting.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust going left and making reads,\u201d Shead said of his offseason improvement, \u201cIt\u2019s not always about scoring, it\u2019s about if they\u2019re trying to push me left or right in the ball screen, can I still make the read out of that?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m understanding the pace of the game and how to really create for my teammates. \u2026 Impacting defense is what I\u2019m going to do regardless, but I\u2019m impacting offense this year a lot more too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miles \u201cDeuce\u201d McBride, guard, New York<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the first quarter of a late-November Knicks game against Toronto, and the crowd stands up and roars \u201cDeuuuuuuuuuuuce!\u201d as McBride catches the ball at the 3-point line.<\/p>\n
McBride made four 3s in the first five minutes, with the crowd roaring its approval, as the fan favorite helped New York rout Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cMan, it\u2019s an amazing feeling,\u201d said McBride of the chants from the Madison Square crowd \u2014 something that didn\u2019t happen at West Virginia. \u201cI don\u2019t know who started it, but I appreciate it. It\u2019s a great feeling to have that love here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The undersized 3-and-D guard is shooting 44.4 percent from 3 while contributing tough on-ball defense, after going mostly overlooked out of West Virginia.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, it was tough not playing,\u201d McBride said. \u201cYou know, I\u2019ve leaned on God, I leaned on my friends, my family of course and \u2026 just worked. There\u2019s really no secret recipe, it\u2019s just working hard and keep covering everything you can do in the finite minutes, keep carving out a role, and now we\u2019re here today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knicks coach Mike Brown said the level of McBride\u2019s shooting surprised him when he came to coach New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust a tough guy that is a two-way player that can score in bunches,\u201d said Brown. \u201cI didn\u2019t know he could shoot it as well as he does. He\u2019s a high-level shooter, and also his work ethnic is really high.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoaching against him is tough, he can defend, he can shoot, he\u2019s got a (midrange) game.\u00a0\u2026 He\u2019s extremely athletic and is a great, great, great human being, I love being around the dude.\u201d<\/p>\n
A second-round pick by the Knicks (36th) in 2021, McBride got off to a rough start as a rookie \u2014 his handle wasn\u2019t tight enough for full-time point guard duty, and, at 6-2, it was unclear how he\u2019d fit in anywhere else. In his first two seasons, he posted player efficiency ratings of 6.1 and 8.4, playing just 1,132 total minutes. (The average PER is 15.0.)<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where his work as a shooter and doggedness as a defender kicked in. He also holds on to a long-simmering grudge.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely, I think about it all the time \u2014 all the teams (that) passed up (on drafting him),\u201d McBride said. \u201cBut like I said, it\u2019s worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n
A football player in high school, McBride chose basketball but still brings a gridiron mentality with his physical defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want that to be one of the things I\u2019m known for,\u201d McBride said.<\/p>\n
Embracing that and working on his shooting got him into a position to be an impact player on one of the league\u2019s best teams. While he spent his first season at the end of New York\u2019s bench, that was his focus.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaking shots, that\u2019s gonna keep you on the floor,\u201d McBride said. \u201cBut playing defense is something I\u2019ve always put first, making sure I get guys going with my defensive energy, and then coming in and making shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Credit New York\u2019s patience with him as well. Despite this rough first two years, the Knicks not only hung on to him, they extended his contract in December 2023. He\u2019s proven one of the best values in the league since, on a descending-money deal that pays him $3.96 million in 2026-27 before he hits free agency. Presumably, he\u2019s heading for a much higher tax bracket.<\/p>\n
Zach Edey, center, Memphis<\/p>\n
Oh, you think a giant can\u2019t have that dog in him? Think again. My first tip that Edey, who might be wired differently was from another team executive who interviewed him before the 2024 draft, and told me Edey had a Zach Edey-sized chip on his shoulder from how low he was rated before that process started. In particular, I was told it burned him up that UConn\u2019s Donovan Clingan \u2014 whom Edey scored 37 points against in an NCAA tournament game \u2014 went two picks ahead of him.<\/p>\n
Talk to Edey about it and he won\u2019t mention the Trail Blazers center by name, but he doesn\u2019t exactly shy away from the idea that he uses that draft cycle \u2014 and the one before it that saw him return to college despite being National Player of the Year \u2014 as motivation, and that he didn\u2019t get enough credit for his mobility because of his size.<\/p>\n