Hawks Sign Damion Lee For Rest of Season
By Chris Guest
After signing rookie Damion Lee to two consecutive 10-Day contracts, the Atlanta Hawks announced that they have signed Lee for the rest of the season, which, at this late point, only features a slate of five games.
Lee is the third consecutive late-season 10-Day contract signee to have his contract guaranteed. The contracts of both Antonius Cleveland and Jaylen Morris were guaranteed not long ago, and Lee joins the ranks this week.
Damion has clearly been the most productive of those three, though both Cleveland and Morris have been hobbled by injuries in their short Hawks careers. Cleveland’s status has been upgraded to doubtful for Atlanta’s next game against the Miami Heat.
Lee has been a productive member of the rotation and has played so well, in fact, that he has pushed rookie Tyler Dorsey out of the starting shooting guard spot with Kent Bazemore out for the season.
In 260 total minutes through 10 games played, Lee has put up some solid numbers. Lee is averaging 9.8 points per game in 26 minutes per tilt, as the Hawks’ injury concerns have forced Lee to play big minutes very early in his career. He has also been the most consistent performer at the two guard spot in Kent Bazemore’s absence.
Lee came out of the gate firing from three-point territory, though he has cooled considerably in recent games and his 27 percent shooting stroke from deep is not where it needs to be going forward if he wants to stay on the team – or even in the league.
He’s getting up a lot of attempts – 3.7 per game on a 42.5 percent three-point attempt rate – so if that’s the skill he wants to hang his hat on, the consistency must improve. Lee has shown some skill as a defender, and his 110 defensive rating per 100 possessions is actually tied for third-best on the Hawks (which is more of an indictment of Atlanta’s defense than anything else).
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Still though, Lee’s play is certainly worthy of a roster spot for the rest of this season and since he’s only 25 years old, perhaps he can mature a bit on this roster with the rest of this young Hawks team.