The Steven Adams Mystery

Where did Steven Adams come from? We examine the relatively quiet rise of Steven Adams.

Steven Adams broke on to the national basketball scene during the Playoffs last year. Nobody saw the 7 foot New Zelanad native eclipsing Serge Ibaka’s role on the Oklahoma City Thunder. Adams played with great energy, defended well, and was not afraid of the moment. These are huge attributes to possess for a basketball player whose first two years in the league were relatively quiet.

Adams has always been an interesting prospect. Through his high school career until now, scouts have always raved about his talent. For a player who scouts have salivated over for so long to escape national attention is almost unheard of in this era.

In high school Adams was the 6th ranked prospect. The best part is, he didn’t even play in America. Even more impressive, he wasn’t playing professionally either. He played his high school ball in New Zelanad for Scots College. Then after graduating played one semester at Notre Dame Preparatory School in America.

Now at first you might think, well of course he was out of the spotlight he played outside of America.

But, there’s other great high school prospects who played outside the States. Most notably, Thon Maker. In Maker’s case we heard about him for almost three years now, even without him attending college in America to play ball. So simply being an international prospect doesn’t explain Adams lack of exposure.

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Steven Adams even went to college in America. But, his numbers weren’t stellar by any means.

Adams attended the University of Pittsburgh, a Big East school. He only played one season before declaring for the NBA draft. At Pittsburgh he averaged 7.2 points  and 6.3 rebounds per game. Those are OK numbers. He also shot 57% from the field which is good. However, he shot under 50% from the free throw line.

The numbers he put up at Pittsburgh don’t necessarily scream lottery draft pick. However, the Oklahoma City Thunder drafted him 12th overall in the 2013 NBA Draft.

Why would he get selected that early?

Was it purely talent scouts were seeing?

Possibly.

But, when looking back on that draft in 2013 there wasn’t much depth. The only two players selected after Adams who have a chance to be better than him are Giannis Antetokounmpo and Rudy Gobert.

So did the weak draft impact our perception of Adams?

Most likely.

This is probably why nobody expected much from him early on and why the Thunder traded for the Utah Jazz’s center Enes Kanter during Adam’s second year in the league year.

What’s even more crazy is Adams has been quietly productive for a while. In his second season in the league he started 67 games on a roster that included Serge Ibaka and eventually Enes Kanter.

Last season, he flat out started 80 games over Enes Kanter. Kanter, who by the way, averaged 18 points and 11 rebounds the year before with the Thunder.

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The coaching staff of the Thunder have seen something in Adams since he entered the league. Now, we’re all finally seeing it after how well he played against the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.

Adams quiet easy going personality, that doesn’t seem too comfortable with the media yet, has led to him being over looked for a while now.

What’s interesting still, isn’t how overlooked he’s been to this point. But, how people are still underestimating what he’s going to do in the future.

Last season, Steven Adams was 7th in the league in true shooting percentage behind Kanter who was 6th. Also, he was 11th in offensive rebounding percentage.

Adams is a very efficient player and with the increased minutes he’ll play this year his numbers will be a lot better than people think.

So now, no more sleeping on Steven Adams.

I’m paying close attention.

So are the all star voters too.