Atlanta Hawks: 6 Players Facing the Most Pressure in 2018-19

5. Tyler Dorsey

After being selected in the second round in the 2017 Draft (41st overall) former Oregon Duck Tyler Dorsey had very few expectations placed on him in his rookie year.

For Dorsey, everything was gravy, as he was not drafted as a future franchise cornerstone but rather as a low-cost, sweet-shooting flyer in the second round.

After spending an extended period of time in the G-League, Dorsey was called up and managed to carve out a solid niche for himself as a “microwave” bench scorer, whose excellent long-distance shooting meant that he should be able to contribute at a high level for the Hawks going forward.

However, in order to fully navigate the NBA’s choppy waters, Dorsey must improve his ballhandling, passing and defense so that he can truly become and indispensable part of the Atlanta Hawks rotation going forward.

So far in the preseason, Dorsey has been solid, scoring 11, 18 and 5 points in each of the Hawks’ first three preseason games. The game against the Memphis Grizzlies, in particular, showed what Dorsey can do on offense as he shot 50 percent from the field and 44 percent from deep and was a +7 in 29 minutes of action.

If Dorsey can consistently produce efficient stat lines such as that one for the Atlanta Hawks, the pressure will diminish, but if his relative lack of size and effort on defense catches up to him, he might rise on this list going forward.