Allen Graves has moved from an unknown bench big man at Santa Clara to a projected first-round pick in the Tuesday NBA Draft. The 19-year-old forward averaged 11.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.8 assists, and his rise puts him in position to be taken as high as the top 20.
Santa Clara and Allen Graves
Graves started only four games and played 22 minutes per game, but his production traveled well beyond counting stats. He averaged 0.9 blocks and 1.9 steals, grabbed 2.8 offensive rebounds, and posted a 2.5 assist-to-turnover ratio while shooting 41.3 percent from 3 on 2.6 attempts per game.
Those numbers explain why he is no longer being treated like a hidden depth piece. Per 40 minutes, he averaged 4.9 offensive rebounds, 3.4 steals, 1.7 blocks and 1.3 turnovers, a profile that points to activity, versatility and possession value rather than raw volume.
Anonymous NBA scout
One NBA scout said Graves did not look like a player on the radar for the 2026 NBA Draft at first, even though analytics staff for that scout’s team pushed the file harder. After a second look, the scout said, “I came around to agree with our analytics people” and added, “I don’t feel about it the way they do, but he’s better than I thought he was initially, and that’s a place where analytics and the intuitive eye work together.”
An analytics staffer put the case in sharper terms: “For a player of his position and age, he grades historically in disruption, steals, blocks.” The same staffer said, “He rebounds extremely well and passes the ball really well, all meeting pretty special thresholds,” and added, “For someone of his age, it just has not really been seen outside players that go on to be really great in the league.”
Alan Guillou and rat points
Santa Clara also had internal language for the way Graves affected possessions. Alan Guillou, the school’s director of operations, said, “I call him the GOAT of (rat points),” and added, “I think it’s going to be hard for anyone to come close.”
That lines up with the bigger possession-game view that helped lift Graves from unranked recruit and redshirt season to draft candidate. Santa Clara stressed winning the possession game last season, and an analytics staffer said, “What we’ve seen with the top teams in the league is that they figure out ways to get more opportunities to score the basketball than the other team, and that’s a major reason for success.”
He is now on the board for Tuesday’s NBA Draft, with the most urgent question being how high he goes after starting this season as an unknown at Santa Clara.
