An exploration of some of the most interesting big men on the free agent market that the Atlanta Hawks could sign this offseason.
With the NBA Playoffs marching on towards their inevitable conclusion in the Finals, the Atlanta Hawks are left to ponder what next season might bring. Though the team will likely improve organically through the 2019 NBA Draft, free agency is another avenue the team might take in order to improve year-over-year.
We’ve previously explored a few different free agents the team could sign, including players in the playoffs, good fits as veterans as well as unorthodox choices, but in this piece, let’s focus on a position of desperate need for the Atlanta Hawks: Center and power forward.
While Dewayne Dedmon had two strong seasons as a member of the Atlanta Hawks, he had a hard time staying on the court to end both of his seasons, missing a combined 38 games over the course of his two years in Atlanta and playing in a new Hawks-high of 64 games in 2018-19.
Dedmon was brilliant with the Hawks last season, but he will be 30 next season, which doesn’t particularly match the Atlanta Hawks youthful vibe going forward. Beyond Dedmon, Alex Len is a serviceable backup center locked in for next season and Omari Spellman has shown promise, but neither player will likely lift the team’s ceiling considerably next season.
Let’s take a look at some big men the Atlanta Hawks could sign this offseason to shore up the frontcourt.
Boban Marjanovic
Boban Marjanovic is maybe the most lovable player in the NBA. You might not agree with that statement, but I’m afraid that would make you wrong.
Though breaking up the indelible pairing of Bobi and Tobi (Tobias Harris) might be unpalatable, if the Atlanta Hawks were to acquire Boban they would automatically vault into one of the most entertaining in the league.
Just imagine the already-lovable John Collins and Trae Young zooming up and down with the court with Boban sauntering behind them, waiting for his opportunity to sink that trailing three-pointer. Don’t laugh – Boban shot 40 percent from deep in the 2018-19 season (4 of 10), including hitting half of his attempts as a member of the 76ers (4 of 8).
Beyond that, Boban’s immense size and preternaturally good footwork and touch around the basket would make him a preeminent “garbage man” around the basket.
Though his mammoth size for some reason doesn’t make him a great rim protector, he still certainly affects shots, even if his raw blocks and block rate numbers are eye-popping.
Marjanovic’s career Player Efficiency Rating is 26.4, which is absurd, and his career true shooting percentage of 64.3 percent is also just wacky.
He played a career-high 681 minutes in 2018-19, so let’s hope he is able to stay on the court in Atlanta if the team opts to sign him.
Nerlens Noel
We have previously explored the cavalcade of reasons why signing Nerlens Noel makes sense for the Atlanta Hawks, and most of those reasons occur on the defensive end.
The Atlanta Hawks were dead last in the NBA in opponent points allowed per game (119.4 per Basketball Reference), so they definitely need some strong rim protection going forward.
Noel certainly has that pedigree, though he remains painfully thin (220 pounds) despite being 6-foot-11 4th-year NBA big man.
Despite a lack of size, Noel is still a brilliant shot-blocker at the center spot, as his 7.7 percent block rate would have been good enough for 2nd in the entire league behind Myles Turner had he played more minutes.
On that front, Noel played 1055 minutes this year for the Oklahoma City Thunder, which was his highest since his second year in the league in 2015-16 for the Philadelphia 76ers when he played a whopping 1965 minutes.
With the Atlanta Hawks, one would expect Noel would be able to play more as a rim protector since paint defense is what the team lacked the most.
Noel will have to decline his $1.9 million player option to sign with another team, so only time will tell if Noel makes that choice.
Julius Randle
We previously mentioned Julius Randle as a potential fit for the Atlanta Hawks last offseason. Instead, he was snapped up by the New Orleans Pelicans as a potential high-upside backup for Anthony Davis, as they looked to improve upon their surprising four-game sweep of the Blazers in the 2018 Playoffs.
Of course, that was not to be, as Davis’s trade request sent the organization and the team into a tailspin, which ultimately ended up with them finishing with a 33-49 record – well out of the playoff hunt.
Despite that, Randle showed his dominant scoring ability by producing a career-best season with the Pels.
In 73 games, 49 of which were starts, Randle produced new career-highs of 21.4 points per game, 0.7 steals per game and 0.6 blocks per game while shooting 52.4 percent from the field with a 60 percent true shooting percentage.
Perhaps most noticeably for Randle is the addition of a three-point jumper. Though his three-point attempt rate was under 20 percent (17.9%), that number represented a career-high, as did 2.7 three-point attempts per game, 195 total on the season and, most importantly, a 34.4 percent clip from downtown on the season.
Randle remains nearly unstoppable in the paint, as he is too quick for slower bigs and too big for small-ball centers at 6-foot-9 and 250 pounds.
Though his fit with John Collins might be suspect, the Atlanta Hawks would be a great fit for Randle if he declines his $8.8 million player option per Spotrac.
Kevon Looney
We have previously outlined why Kevon Looney would be a good fit on the Atlanta Hawks, but it bears repeating. Looney was drafted with the final pick in the first round by the Warriors in the 2015 NBA Draft and despite being in the league for four years, Looney is still only 23 years old.
That youth means that Loon could slide in easily onto the Hawks’ youth-oriented core.
Beyond that, Looney’s good size (6-foot-9, 220 pounds, 7-foot-4 wingspan) means that he can play as both a conventional rim protector at the five, or slide his feet on the perimeter and switch across multiple positions.
According to Cleaning the Glass, Looney was one of the most effective players on the Warriors this season as the team’s +6.9 point differential with him on the court was fourth behind only superstars Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and Draymond Green. That +6.9 differential was better than Andre Iguodala’s, Klay Thompson’s and DeMarcus Cousins’s. Not bad for a 23-year-old center!
An excellent offensive rebounder, the Warriors’ offensive rebound rate jumped by 8.4 percent per Cleaning the Glass when Looney was on the court – in the 99th percentile of all big men – and the team scored a whopping 8.3 more points per miss when Looney was on the court rather than off.
With a defensive pedigree and the proven ability to improve on good teams, which the Atlanta Hawks hope to be soon, Looney would be a great fit. Don’t forget, Travis Schlenk was an assistant GM for the Warriors when Loon was selected, so that has to count for something!
Thomas Bryant
Thomas Bryant of the Washington Wizards flashed a lot of potential in his age-21 season alongside Bradley Beal – and not much else.
Bryant was a shining light in a tunnel of darkness for the Wizards, as his development means the team could lock up a long-term replacement for Dwight Howard once Howard’s contract is up next year.
In only his second season (and his first real one in terms of consistent playing time), Bryant led the NBA in two-point field goal percentage at a whopping 68.5 percent from two-point territory.
His 61.6 percent field goal percentage was 4th as was his 67.4 true shooting percentage, and his effective field goal percentage of 64.8 was 2nd in the league. An offensive juggernaut at the center position, Bryan helped buoy a Wizards team that needed all the help it could – even putting up the 4th-highest offensive rating (129.8) per Basketball Reference in the NBA!
All of those gaudy offensive numbers are likely due to Bryant’s “automatic bucket” quality at the rim, where he shot an insane 80 percent per Cleaning the Glass! However, he only took 59 percent of his shots at the rim, while opting for a steady diet of midrange shots as well, where he also shot fairly well (43%).
Noah Vonleh
Noah Vonleh of the New York Knicks was able to resurrect his career on the worst team in the NBA last season, and that’s no small feat.
Vonleh was one of the few Knicks who brought energy, intensity and a hard-nosed attitude every night (rookie sensation Mitchell Robinson being another), and Vonleh was extremely effective across 68 games played – which were his most since his second and third seasons in the NBA in Portland.
During the season Vonleh played 1722 minutes and produced a block rate of 2.5 percent, a steal rate of 1.1 percent, an assist rate of 11.1 percent and a rebound rate of 16 percent. With that all-around production, Vonleh joined an exclusive list among player in the 2018-19 season that includes Anthony Davis, Nikola Vucevic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jusuf Nurkic and Karl-Anthony Towns.
That’s fairly impressive company for a 23-year-old big man that can switch across multiple positions on defense.
Though he’s not the best rim protector due to a 6-foot-9 height, his 7-foot-4¼ wingspan helps to cover up his lack of size, and his muscular 250-pound frame allows him to bang with some of the burlier big men down low.
Beyond that, Vonleh showed a willingness to step out beyond the three-point line more than ever before this season on the way to a career-high 31.1 percent three-point attempt rate on a total of 137 tries from long-range.
Christian Wood
Christian Wood was let go by the Milwaukee Bucks right before they began their march to the NBA Finals, which they’ve made to look relatively easy so far after sweeping an extremely overmatched Pistons team – setting up a tantalizing matchup against the Boston Celtics.
But anyway, we’re talking about Wood’s time spent with the New Orleans Pelicans rather than the Bucks, as after he was waived, the Pels picked him up and Wood sort of took of – including a bruising career-best performance against the Atlanta Hawks late in the season (that, admittedly, caught this writer’s attention):
Though Wood played in only 8 games with the Pels to end the year, he produced some striking numbers: 16.9 points per game, 7.9 rebounds per game, 1.3 blocks per game, 0.9 steals per game and 0.8 assists per game – pretty good for a player that was let go in favor of a soon-to-be injured Pau Gasol on the Bucks.
Wood played solid defense with the Pels without fouling, both protecting the rim and roaming around inside the paint to try and blow up plays. Per Cleaning the Glass, Wood was only one of three Pelicans players who was in the 80th percentile or higher for steal rate, block rate and foul rate on the team.
Fouling less is certainly something the Atlanta Hawks could do more of, as Dewayne Dedmon, Alex Len and John Collins were all quite foul-prone throughout 2018-19.
Maxi Kleber
The combination of a rock-solid three-point shot and the ability to protect the rim is something that is extremely rare in the NBA these days. Normally, those players would be highly regarded by the teams they play for, and that is exactly the case for Maxi Kleber of the Dallas Mavericks.
Mavs fans tend to love him for his teddy bear good looks as well as his effectiveness at drilling an open three-pointer and also protecting the rim.
Kleber shot 35.3 percent from deep last season and he also produced 1.1 blocks per game. His 4.4 percent block rate was, stunningly, tied with Joel Embiid for 10th in the NBA.
According to Basketball Reference, only five players in the NBA last season played 1500 or more minutes and shot better than 35 percent from deep with a block rate over 4 percent: Karl-Anthony Towns, Brook Lopez, Myles Turner and Jaren Jackson Jr. – that’s exquisite company for the 27-year-old German forward.
As we already know, Atlanta Hawks GM Travis Schlenk loves shooting, as his three 2018 NBA Draft selections would entail; Trae Young, Kevin Huerter and Omari Spellman were all known for their shooting ability heading into the draft.
Though Kleber is a bit older at 27 and a restricted free agent (meaning the Mavs can match any offer sheet he gets in free agency), he would be a terrific fit for what the Atlanta Hawks are building.
There you have it! Do you agree? Disagree? Let us know in the comments. As always, keep it locked to Soaring Down South for all your Hawks news and updates.