Grand Rapids Drive guard Bronson Koenig has been making a more noticeable difference in games lately, averaging more points and more rebounds as a starter than he ever did as a backup.
Koenig is a rookie in the G-League, the NBA’s minor league farm system, and has averaged 15 points and 3.0 rebounds throughout the last three contests, helping his team to two wins and a narrow loss.
Those performances have brought Bronson’s 14-game average to just under 10 points per game, twice as much as he had in his first two appearances with Grand Rapids.
Since becoming a starter last month, the rookie has also done a better job of crashing the boards. He has totaled nine rebounds over the past three games, which is three times the number of boards he had in his first three contests.
More importantly, he has become more confident shooting the ball. Over the past three games, Koenig has attempted 39 field goals – more shots than he has taken during any other three-game stretch of the season.
More than half of those attempts have come from beyond the arc, where Koenig appears to be most comfortable shooting the ball. The rookie guard has actually been doing better from long distance than from two-point range.
Since the start of the month, Koenig has shot 55 percent from behind the three-point line but less than 37 percent from inside of it.
He has been most effective from the corners, where he shoots at an impressive 50 percent.
Indeed, the most memorable moment of the 23-year-old’s playing career came from the corner, in the final seconds of a 2016 NCAA tournament game against the Xavier Musketeers.
With just two seconds left on the clock, Koenig cut to the right wing to receive an inbounds pass.
He dribbled to the corner and let loose an arcing fade-away. The shot went in with a swish, winning the game for his Badger team and sending them to a school-record third straight Sweet 16.
Koenig reminded fans of this shooting ability during Grand Rapids’ last game, as he went five of eight from beyond the arc and finished with 17 points on the night.
If the rookie guard can continue to perform at this level throughout the remainder of the season, he would drastically improve his statistics – perhaps enough to grab an NBA coach’s attention as he thinks about next season’s roster.
Lucky for Koenig, he has been getting a considerable amount of playing time to do so. The Grand Rapids Drive host the Delaware 87ers tonight at 7 p.m.