The New Orleans Pelicans suffered a tough 112-104 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night, and while they didn't get a win in the record books, they got one for the future. Rookie wing Micah Peavy had a breakout game and continued to flash signs of why he was one of the biggest steals of this past draft.
All season long, Peavy has made his mark on the defensive end. Scrapping for steals, diving after loose balls, getting deflections, generating turnovers, and locking elite scorers down. In simple terms, he's done everything a team could ask for from a rookie defensively. However, in this game it wasn't just the usual elite play defensively that stood out, as he had by far his most complete offensive performance of his young career.
This could very well be the start of something big for Peavy
In the loss, Peavy recorded a career-high 17 points, to go along with seven rebounds, two assists, four steals, and one block, while shooting 64 percent from the field and 60 percent from three. Peavy knocked down three 3's in this game, which ties a career-high from a game against the Lakers back in November.
Peavy has been doing things right offensively this entire season, but in this game, he finally saw them pay off. On a nightly basis, he's cutting at the right times, coming off screens and getting open threes, attacking the basket with force, running the break in transition, and going up on put-back attempts. But against the Pistons he connected on these chances.
Although Peavy has always been viewed as a defensive hustle-first type of player, he's always had the ability to capitalize on the chances he gets offensively. Last season at Georgetown, he posted an average of 17.2 points per game while shooting 48.1% from the field and 40.0 percent from three. This is why I chalked up his early-season shooting struggles to a rookie slump, and in this game it appears he broke out of it.
All season long, Peavy has been a leading contributor off the bench, earning the coaching staff's trust through his hustle and lockdown defense. But now, if he takes this performance and expands it into more consistent offensive production, the Pelicans would be looking at one of the league's brightest two-way talents.
When watching rookies in retrospect, we often look back at signature games they had and say that right there is the moment he figured it out. The performance Peavy gave the Pelicans on Wednesday was that game for him, and is bound to be the start of an incredible second half to the season for the rookie wing.