The Atlanta Hawks are missing the opportunity to develop Onyeka Okongwu?
The Atlanta Hawks are not playing consistently well as a team at the moment. As a result, they can go from 40 points down against the San Antonio Spurs one day and then beating the higher seeded Boston Celtics a few days later.
They have the nucleus of the starting five going for them. Trae Young, John Collins, and Clint Capela are all locks for their positions. The Hawks are missing both Bogdan Bogdanovic and De’Andre Hunter, their other two starters through injury.
The Hawks have some serious holes in their roster at the moment due to injury but it is the backup center position which we are focussing on today. This is the one spot that the Hawks have no injuries in and they are choosing to play second-year man Bruno Fernando over rookie Onyeka Okongwu. This is a missed opportunity by the Hawks.
The Atlanta Hawks should be prioritizing rookie growth at this time.
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In the last ten games, the Hawks have lost eight which is going a long way to ruining their season. Onyeka has been unavailable due to injury for two of these and has received four DNP-CD’s. In the four games Okongwu has played he has tallied 33 minutes including the 16 minutes against the San Antonio Spurs.
In the same time, Bruno Fernando has .played in six contests, tallying 48 minutes including the 14 minutes in the Spurs game. However, since both players played together in that blowout loss, the Hawks have favored Fernando over Okongwu.
He has played in three of the four contests since totaling almost 20 minutes of game time. He has two points and six rebounds in this time. Conversely, Okongwu has played in one game, getting three minutes of court time.
Okongwu, who was the sixth pick in the 2020 NBA draft, and was the second-best big man available behind James Wiseman, is languishing on the bench. With the Hawks being in the middle of a really bad run of games, surely getting the rookie court time should be a priority.
Next. Imagining the team without John Collins. dark
His ceiling is much higher than Fernando’s and the Hawks should be taking every opportunity to help the rookie develop. If the Hawks fail to make the playoffs, which would endanger Lloyd Pierce’s job, then at least they would have put some development time into a talented player who will help them in the future.