DeAndre’ Bembry
Coming off a career year a season ago, DeAndre’ Bembry has struggled to improve in his fourth year. He’s also been dealing with injuries after playing in all 82 games in 2018-2019. Bembry hasn’t played since January 20th with an injured right hand.
Even while healthy, Bembry’s play was trending down, with decreased efficiency on defense and making just 23% of his threes. He has not lived up to the sixth man status he was expected to have coming into the season, and has been out-played by rookie wings Cam Reddish and De’Andre Hunter.
Bembry is set to be a restricted free agent at season’s end. Playing in his first contact year, the former first-rounder has only hurt his potential earnings so far. Bembry is not only auditioning for a contract, but he’s auditioning for his future on the Hawks. As mentioned earlier, Bembry is losing his role as the defense-minded forward on the team, and the Hawks may not want to cash out to keep the 25-year-old around.
A good second half could turn all of that around however.
Bembry is healthy and set to return along with the Hawks on the 20th, and while he may average a bit under the 21.3 minutes per game he’s averaging to this point, should have enough court time to show his worth.
What to watch for:
- Improved shooting from three
- Continued health
- getting back to being the elite perimeter defender he showed flashes of being last year.