Soaring Down South
Fansided

Atlanta Hawks’ 2018-19 Season in Review: Justin Anderson

By Dallin Duffy

ATLANTA, GA - APRIL 3: Justin Anderson #1 of the Atlanta Hawks seen following the game against the Philadelphia 76ers on April 3, 2019 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Scott Cunningham/NBAE via Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - APRIL 3: Justin Anderson #1 of the Atlanta Hawks seen following the game against the Philadelphia 76ers on April 3, 2019 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Scott Cunningham/NBAE via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 5
Next
Atlanta Hawks
Justin Anderson #1 of the Atlanta Hawks (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /

As we continue our review of the Atlanta Hawks’ ’18-’19 roster, let’s take a look at one of the more interesting players: Justin Anderson.

Justin Anderson was acquired by the Atlanta Hawks as a part of the three-team trade that involved Carmelo Anthony, Dennis Schroder and Mike Muscala.

Outside of a 2022 protected first rounder,  Justin was really the only piece the Hawks got back, since they bought out Melo soon after. Some were disappointed in the trade for this reason but still, he was a former first rounder that had played meaningful minutes for a playoff team just the season before.

More from Soaring Down South

Despite that, and the fact he was joining a much less talented team, the forward struggled to get minutes in Lloyd Pierce‘s rotation, who coincidentally was on the bench in Philly with Anderson, as an assistant coach in the last two seasons.

Anderson got only 9.6 minutes per game in his first season as a Hawk, posted up on the end of the bench for the majority of the year. He did go on to start a few games and played a bigger role down the stretch overall.

Despite this, he became a bit of a fan favorite of sorts and had some games where he showed flashes of being a quality rotation piece down the road.

He’s a restricted free agent this summer, which means the Hawks will have first priority to sign him and will be able to match anyone else’s offer if they extend the qualifying offer.

We’ll see soon enough if they do just that, but for now lets go back through his first season in Atlanta, starting with the expectations he had coming into said season:

Home/Hawks News