The Atlanta Hawks play organized basketball again, albeit the opening of the summer league. While this is not the same as watching Trae Young, John Collins, and Bogdan Bogdanovic, it is still a crucial time for the team.
The Hawks may be looking to fill their final roster spot from the summer league roster which is common when a team has a spot open. The Hawks have built the summer league roster which consists of some borderline NBA talent to go along with Jalen Johnson and their two-way players.
Both Sharife Cooper and Skylar Mays are also going into their first summer league and the Hawks are going to be looking to put them through their paces. There is a good chance that the Hawks might convert one of these contracts to a full deal and offer one of the other players on the summer league roster the two-way spot.
Atlanta Hawks player to watch No. 1) Jordan Bell
Jordan Bell has played on four different teams in the four seasons that he has been in the league. He has never really found a niche within the league that suits his style of play. He is an undersized center at 6’8″ who has a very limited range on his shot.
He is a similar size to Onyeka Okongwu and could be a good option to sign to a minimum deal if he is able to perform in the upcoming summer league to help replace some of Okongwu’s lost production while he recovers. He is also a potential two-way player who has 160 games of NBA experience and was a member of the 2018 Golden State Warriors championship team.
Atlanta Hawks player to watch No. 2) Eric Moreland
Another player the Atlanta Hawks signed to their summer league team with NBA experience is Eric Moreland. The 6’10” power forward has also been around the league, playing on four teams in four seasons. He was even out of the league for the 2016-17 season which would have been his third in the NBA.
Moreland is another inside big with very little range on his shot. However, given the 83 games that he has played in the league, he could be a standout for the summer league team. Moreland has not played in the NBA since the 2018-19 NBA season so he has a lot to prove.
He is another minor member of a championship team. Moreland was a member of the 2019 Toronto Raptors championship-winning team, even though he only played four regular-season games and eight playoffs games. He saw what it took to win it all and this is invaluable.
The Hawks are looking to go one better than last season where they made the Eastern Conference Finals before losing to the eventual champions the Milwaukee Bucks. In a league where inches matter, having a player who has been there could make a difference.
Atlanta Hawks player to watch No. 3) DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell.
Another player that he NBA experience within the Hawks summer league squad is the 6’4″ shooting guard DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell. He played a total of seven games with the Denver Nuggets back in the 2018-19 season.
His averages were nothing to write home about, going at 1.0 points, 0.9 assists, and 0.6 rebounds in 3.2 minutes per game. It is impossible to make any assessments on Akoon-Purcell based on this because he did not hit the court in any meaningful time for the win-now Denver Nuggets.
A better way to assess his potential impact on a game is to take a look at his G-League statistics from the 2019-20 season where he played 41 games for the OKC Blue. Akoon-Purcell was mainly used as the sixth man on an injury-depleted Blue roster, averaging 17.7 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.2 steals in 27.0 minutes per game.
He has a really strong driving game, showing the ability to get around his defender with a good first step. However, his 3-point shooting is also noteworthy as he has hit 40.5 percent of his 5.0 attempts per game. If he could bring some of this action to the Hawks’ summer league campaign he could be an outside chance of a two-way deal if Cooper or Mays get the full deal.
Atlanta Hawks player to watch No. 4) Admiral Schofield
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Perhaps the most likely to push for a two-way contract is Admiral Schofield, once again assuming that one of the current two-way players earns a full deal. Schofield last played in the NBA in the 2019-20 season for the Washington Wizards.
He only played 33 games and averaged 3.0 points and 1.4 rebounds in 11.2 minutes per game. Schofield shot the ball at an acceptable rate for a rookie, going 38.0 percent from the floor and 31.1 percent from beyond the arc. This can be explained by a lack of court time with the Wizards.
Schofield’s career could have been given a kick start by the OKC Thunder last season after he was traded prior to the season commencing. Unfortunately for Schofield, he was cut prior to the roster being finalized so he did not have a chance to show his 3-point shooting prowess. He displayed this ability in college where he went 38.7 percent from beyond the arc.
Schofield represented the Greensborough Swarm in the G-League bubble last season and was not impressive. He averaged 10.1 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 2.1 assists in 26.2 minutes per game. However, he was not good from beyond the arc, only shooting 22.7 percent. He has the most to prove of the players listed and could break out in the summer league.