Power Ranking Every Atlanta Hawks Player During the 2017 Playoffs
By Nile Goodwyn
13. Kris Humphries
Humphries was the only Hawk who failed to score a point during the Hawks’ six-game stint in the playoffs, making him the least valuable Hawk during the postseason. The only stat Humphries did obtain was a garbage-time block during Game 3, which was an 18-point Hawk win.
12. Thabo Sefolosha
During the regular season, Sefolosha was arguably the most important wing player on the Hawks’ roster during the regular season. He suffered through a number of injuries that limited him to 62 games, but Sefolosha was expected to be an integral part of any playoff success the Hawks had.
Instead, he played 2.3 minutes per game over 4 games, which ranked last on the team. This left many to question why his minutes had evaporated. Sefolosha was not on any injury reports during the playoffs, leading to a belief that he had fallen out with the coaching staff, and his lack of playing time was a penalty for this.
In any case, the Hawks failed to deploy the best perimeter defender on the roster against a team whose best two players, John Wall and Bradley Beal, play mostly on the perimeter.
11. Malcolm Delaney
Delaney’s placement on this list is intriguing.
In a single game, he scored eight points in three minutes on 3-of-3 shooting. In the long run, this meant nothing, as the Hawks won Game 3 by 18 points, and the outburst earned Delaney zero minutes over the next three games. Many Hawk fans believed that he should have gotten playing time over Jose Calderon, who actually impressed during his playoff time.
10. Mike Dunleavy Jr.
Dunleavy was placed in the Hawks’ playoff rotation to stretch the floor, a facet of the game that the Hawks did not have during the regular season (23rd in three-point percentage). Dunleavy nailed two of his five three-point attempts, meaning that he fulfilled his role.
In only 8.8 minutes per game, Dunleavy was not expected to carry the Hawks to the Conference Finals but played his role to the best of his ability. In games that in which Dunleavy played at least 10 minutes, His 0.3 Plus/Minus ranked fourth on the roster, showing that the Hawks were actually 0.3 points better with Dunleavy on the court than when he was on the bench.