Atlanta Hawks: The impact of Skylar Mays receiving a qualifying offer.
The Atlanta Hawks extended a qualifying offer to Skylar Mays making him a restricted two-way free agent. This gives the strong impression that Mays will be one of the two-way players for the Hawks next season, probably alongside the newly drafted Sharife Cooper.
Interestingly the Hawks did not offer Nathan Knight, their other two-way player from last season, a qualifying offer. This means that Knight is free to try out for any team but given that he has been playing in the pro-am in Atlanta, he will probably just join the Hawks G-League team.
However, it is an exciting time for Mays. He was used with regularity towards the end of coach Lloyd Pierce’s time in charge of the Hawks, mainly due to the injury crisis being suffered by the Hawks at the time. Then Bogdan Bogdanovic came back like a gift for the new coach Nate McMillan and Mays barely saw much meaningful playing time after that.
The Atlanta Hawks certainly see something in Skylar Mays.
More from Soaring Down South
- Start, Bench, Cut: Sorting through the Hawks’ power forward options
- Hawks’ Bogdan Bogdanovic reacts to earning FIBA World Cup championship bid
- When does training camp start for the Atlanta Hawks?
- Grade the trade: Hawks deal Trae Young to Clippers in shocking proposal
- Dejounte Murray rips NBA 2K after Atlanta Hawks ratings reveal
Mays showed the Hawks glimpses of what he could do last season. He only got 8.2 minutes per game and what he did in that time was certainly intriguing. He shot the ball at 44.9 percent from the floor and 35.0 percent from behind the line. Given that he had no guaranteed court time, this is impressive for a two-way rookie.
In the 33 games that he played last season, Mays had five games that he scored in double figures including his announcement game where he scored 20 points and went 4-of-5 from beyond the arc. It was truly a great game that opened up more court time for Mays.
He also had two games where he had five assists showing that he can run the offense. His assist to turnover ratio was 3:1 which is really good given how little time he had on the court with the rest of the team in order to build chemistry.
Next. Grading the 3-team Delon Wright trade. dark
Expect Mays to be a key piece for the College Park Skyhawks next season assuming the G-League goes ahead in a more traditional format next season. Hopefully for Mays’ this season will go on a more normal trajectory and he will get to show his wares more regularly, possibly earning a full NBA deal somewhere down the track.