Atlanta Hawks: 6 Most Interesting Guards in 2018-19
By Chris Guest
#4 – Jeremy Lin
Despite being an eight-year NBA veteran, Lin is coming off a season in which he only played a total of 25 minutes for the Brooklyn Nets before rupturing his right patella tendon and ending his season supremely prematurely.
As such, Lin’s return will be highly entertaining, and he should also help serve as a veteran leader for the Atlanta Hawks point guard of the future, Trae Young.
Lin’s name is still widely known, so his signing to the Hawks comes as a part of a larger effort by the organization to recapture the fan base after a rather insipid season last year.
Lin brings big-name recognition and a new play style to the point guard position, something that will be welcome after the doldrums of watching Dennis Schröder line-drive his way to the basket over and over last season. Though effective, DS17 was rarely looking to get his teammates involved with John Collins open as the roll man on innumerable occasions in the pick-and-roll.
Linsanity should be a far more canny operator and will likely not be worried about buffing his stats in favor of getting his teammates involved and “making the right play.”
Defensively, Lin will also serve as an upgrade on any Hawks point guard from last season, as both Schröd and Isaiah Taylor were quite bad on the less glamorous end.
#3 – Tyler Dorsey
The only other returning member of the Atlanta Hawks guard rotation is 2017 second round pick Tyler Dorsey.
Dorsey’s season should be very interesting, especially considering he did not look particularly NBA-ready in Summer League.
Instead of playing within the system and letting some of his younger cohorts develop, Dorsey instead opted to hijack possessions and hoist up contested long-range jumpers. While he curtailed this activity as Summer League went on, it was still rather disconcerting to see him look off new teammate Trae Young at the start of the summer festivities.
TD was one of the few bright spots last season for a rather bleak Hawks team, but with many new faces and far more upside than last season, Dorsey will have to develop and change his game in order to stay relevant on this new-look Hawks squad.
If he can improve his playmaking and turn his three-point shooting into a lethal weapon, Dorsey will have a great shot to be a member of the Atlanta Hawks young core for the foreseeable future.