Atlanta Hawks: Tyler Dorsey Looking to Pick Up Where He Left Off After All-Star Break

With the 2018-19 regular season fully underway let’s take a look at the upcoming season for second-year Atlanta Hawks player Tyler Dorsey.

Though the Atlanta Hawks were not fully in tank mode in 2016-17, whenever Dwight Howard is brought onto a team, a rebuild can’t be far behind. (Props to Orlando Magic Dwight though, he was a beast and should’ve won MVP in the Derrick Rose year).

In the first draft of the Travis Schlenk era, Schlenk took John Collins at #19 overall, which turned out to be a transcendent steal as JC is one of the best players on the team and also likely a franchise building block for years to come.

However, in the second round, Schlenk selected an NCAA Tournament standout from Oregon in sharpshooting two guard Tyler Dorsey.

An under-the-rader choice to be sure, but all 3 players from Oregon taken that season (Dorsey’s teammates Dillon Brooks and Jordan Bell) have gone on to outplay their second-round placement.

Dorsey took a while to adjust to the rigors of NBA basketball, as he is a bit undersized at the shooting guard spot and his limited wingspan means he will most likely always be a slight negative one the defensive end.

However, after getting some seasoning in the G-League last year, Dorsey played well down the stretch alongside the explosive efforts of Taurean Prince and his fellow rookie Collins.

Dorsey was one of four Atlanta Hawks players to play in all 23 games after the All-Star break (Prince, Mike Muscala and Isaiah Taylor were the others) and Dorsey’s numbers were rock-solid during that stretch.

Dorsey was tied for 5th with 10.7 PPG after the All-Star break, though both Dennis Schröder and Kent Bazemore, who played less games combined than Dorsey played in total, are in front of him.

Where Dorsey shined the most was from three-point land, where he used a smooth stroke and a versatile shot to get up 5.1 triples a game after the break, which was second only to Prince on the team. He was also hitting those shots at a 36.4 percent clip, which was also second behind TP.

Beyond his three-point prowess, Dorsey was third on the team in field goals attempted per game, behind only Schröder and Prince, with 10.2 field goals attempted per game.

With multiple new young, up-and-coming faces on the roster, Dorsey will have to work on his decision-making in the pick-and-roll and ensure that his three-point jumpers are going in with alacrity.

Kevin Huerter is a baked-in replacement for Dorsey and Bazemore, but so far, Huerter looks to be a little lost out there.

With that being the case, Dorsey must lean in to his “microwave” bench scorer role and learn to trust his shot even more than he seemingly already does.