Atlanta Hawks: 4 Young Players to Take a Chance On
By Dallin Duffy
Jaylen Adams
Unlike the previous three names here, the Hawks wouldn’t need to make a trade for Jaylen Adams, but he’s still technically not on the team. Adams, the undrafted rookie out of St. Bonaventure, currently plays for the Erie BayHawks, Atlanta’s G-League affiliate.
He’s on a two-way deal splitting his time between the pros and G-League, but he’s played much more when on assignment for Erie. He’s started 12 games for the BayHawks, and as of January the 2nd, is averaging 16 points and 5.1 assists a game.
The nearly 30 minutes a game is not only good playing time for the young guard, it’s well above the 3.4 minutes per game he scooped up in his 8 NBA appearances. He’s actually averaging more minutes per game right now in Erie than he has total minutes in ATL.
The Hawks only have two point guards on their active roster: Trae Young, a 100% lock not to be moved anytime soon, and Jeremy Lin, who is either 1A or 1B with Kent Bazemore on the “most likely to be traded” list.
If Atlanta does decide to trade Lin, they should give Adams a chance to show his worth with more minutes.
He’s proven to be a good facilitator, and is more than capable shooting the deep ball. In his senior year Adams shot over 6 attempts per game from 3-point range, and hit 43% of them. He’s shooting freely in the G-League with over 8 attempted 3-pointers per contest, and is hitting them at a very respectable 35% clip.
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There will more than likely be room for Adams on the active roster at some point at this season, and the Atlanta Hawks would be smart to give him a fair chance.