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Can Atlanta Hawks’ Reddish or Hunter Make All-Rookie Team?

By Dallin Duffy

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 06: De'Andre Hunter #12 and Cam Reddish #22 of the Atlanta Hawks look on during the first half against the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena on March 06, 2020 in Washington, DC. 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. (Photo by Will Newton/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 06: De'Andre Hunter #12 and Cam Reddish #22 of the Atlanta Hawks look on during the first half against the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena on March 06, 2020 in Washington, DC. 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. (Photo by Will Newton/Getty Images) /
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Can the Atlanta Hawks send two players to the All-Rookie Team again?

Last Summer, the Atlanta Hawks got more NBA award season buzz than they had in recent memory, even more than when they were winning 60-games a few years back. Trae Young was battling Luka Doncic for Rookie of the Year and joined him on the All-Rookie First Team later on.

Fellow rookie guard Kevin Huerter was selected to the Second Team, and while he wasn’t officially nominated, John Collins was in the running for Most Improved Player.

This year, Atlanta’s PR team will be less busy whenever the NBA awards are announced but the team will be semi-involved again. Young is a candidate for an All-NBA team, and he and Collins are also long shots to earn a Most Improved Player nomination.

They can also make it two years in a row that they send two players to the All-Rookie Team, with Cam Reddish and De’Andre Hunter both in the mix for a selection. Currently, they’re on the outside looking in, however.

Their respective shots may be growing even slimmer with the 22-team return in Orlando giving voters fresh looks at some of their competitors while Reddish and Hunter sit at home.

Let’s look at the rookie field and the current contenders for the team:

Locks:

Likely Inclusions:

On the Bubble:

Long Shots:

You may think it’s easy to pencil in Reddish or Hunter, especially given the sheer amount of playtime the two were given, but once you start listing the other rooks off you realize how deep this class was.

By my count, there are about 12 rookies fighting for the final two spots as Morant, Nunn, Willaimson, Herro, Clarke, Paschall, Davis, and Washington will all more than likely be included.

Hunter’s most distinguishing quality is the aforementioned playtime and no rookie averaged more minutes per game than the fourth-overall pick’s 32.0 per game. For reference, hat’s nearly double the 17.0 minutes that undrafted guard Terence Davis averaged.

Reddish, meanwhile, likely would have been a near-lock if he played the entire season like he did the final two months. But truth is, Cam was pretty awful his first few months in the league, earning him a reputation as an “early bust” that took him nearly the rest of the season to shake.

His great second-half numbers are weighed down by his rough start in his overall averages, which voters may not take into account when considering. He would have really benefitted from playing a few more games this season.

Although Reddish may have been the better player all things considered for Atlanta, Hunter has the better shot of landing on the second team, thanks to his minutes played and resulting counting stats.

I searched the Internet for a bit, finding a few All-Rookie teams put together by bloggers and reporters. I found a Hawk just once, with Keith Smith of NBC Sports slotting De’Andre Hunter in.

It’s unlikely that either make it, however, which is less a knock on them that it is a testament of the stacked rookie class. Again, we don’t know when voting will be on these awards, but if it’s after the playoffs that are scheduled to end in October, it’d be six months since the Hawks last played competitive basketball.

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Should the Atlanta Hawks’ Cam Reddish or De’Andre Hunter make an All-Rookie team?

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