Atlanta Hawks: Onyeka Okongwu will benefit from his playoff experience
The Atlanta Hawks have had a much better end to their season than many NBA experts predicted. They qualified directly for the playoffs after so many expected them to only be good enough to make the play-in tournament. This would have been the case had they had stayed with Lloyd Pierce as their coach.
However, the Hawks decided to remove Pierce and installed Nate McMillan as the interim head coach just prior to the All-Star break and they have not looked back since. He implemented systems and structures which helped the Hawks squad get their season back on track.
One thing that McMillan did early on in his tenure was to start developing Oneka Okongwu. He started by giving the rookie a role and after he was satisfied, McMillan expanded that role. What he ended up with was a defensive center who gained a connection with Lou Williams on offense who could give Clint Capela rest time without hurting the Hawks.
Atlanta Hawks rookie Onyeka Okongwu is in the rapid learning program
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There is nothing like the playoffs for finding out what type of stuff a player is made of. So far in this postseason, Onyeka Okongwu has taken on Taj Gibson, Nerlens Noel, Joel Embiid, and Dwight Howard. That is a pretty impressive resume of opponents in your first two playoff series.
Gibson is a tough, physical player whose physicality has the impact of changing the way his opponents play against his team. Nerlens Noel is one of the better defenders in the league who gives nothing away.
In this series, Oknogwu has been defending one of the most incredible forces in the league in Embiid. He has leaned in spurts on how to play against an offensive juggernaut, attempting to curtail his influence on the game without fouling.
He has then come in against a center who has accepted his role after being one of the most dominant forces at the start of his career. If Okongwu can learn how to slow Howard down then he will be the better for it.
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While Okongwu has not played more than 12 minutes in a single game in the playoffs, he is going to have learned so much in this time. He will then be able to apply this over the offseason, meaning he will be better for the Hawks in the coming season.