Atlanta Hawks: 3 veteran centers to fill the last need on the roster
Hawks free agent big option No. 3: Dewayne Dedmon could return after being traded away
When the Atlanta Hawks traded Dewayne Dedmon, they did so to bolster their wing depth, acquiring ‘Mr. 50/50/100’ Tony Snell. They had just drafted Okongwu and had Capela in place. But, by all accounts, there was no animosity, at least from the Hawks. Reports even say that Travis Schlenk valued the big man’s presence in the locker room.
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But we’ve talked about two others who can provide that well enough and it’s not what makes Dedmon, perhaps, a more attractive option than either of them.
The 7-foot tall, 245-pound center brings decent rim protection. He averaged 1.1 blocks per game with the Hawks in 2018-19 and 1.5 in his stint here during the 2019-2020 season.
Most recently, with the Miami Heat, he averaged a career-low .4 blocks per game.
He also had the highest net rating of his career.
That’s because Dedmon is just as much, if not more, of a contributor on the offensive end as he is on defense.
https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/1387604432158920708
Despite his poor three-point shooting being part of why the Kings traded him to Atlanta, the two best seasons of his career came with the Hawks. Dedmon shot better than 35 percent from deep on decent volume in both years.
He’s also a good free-throw shooter, knocking down over 73 percent for his career from the charity stripe and over 80 percent in his Hawks tenure. Knight was the only Hawks big to reach that mark with no teammate even at 70 percent. Capela (57.3 percent) and Okongwu (63.2 percent) were actually the worst of the group.
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Dedmon brings some of McGee’s rim protection, combines it with the threat of offense like Lopez but has the added dimensions of being semi-reliable from three-point range.