Atlanta Hawks: 4 takeaways from the Summer League opener
Atlanta Hawks Summer League takeaway No. 3: A couple of unlikely contributors stood out
We came in expecting to hear Johnson, Cooper, and even Mays’ names called often. They are, after all, Hawks draft picks. But the play of DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell and Ibi Watson was also impressive considering the environment. Neither player is under contract and they certainly weren’t expected to make many waves.
Akoon-Purcell was highly effective, dropping 13 points and snagging eight boards. He shot 66.7 percent overall and hit one of his three triples.
It is quite the outburst — again, albeit in Summer League — for the 28-year-old out of Illinois State. At 6-foot-6, he has really good size for a wing and was a double-digit scorer both years in college.
He still went undrafted and has bounced around between Europe and the G-League, having a seven-game cup of coffee with the Nuggets in 2018-19. He’ll have a hard time earning a spot with the Hawks who are deep on the wings. But he still showed he has something and could interest a team looking for a solid end-of-bench guy.
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Watson had the most exciting eight points and two rebounds ever in Summer League action.
He was consistently there, as was Akoon-Purcell, hustling for possessions and cleaning up missed shots. He seemed to always be in the right spot at the right time.
A five-year collegian who split his career between Michigan and Dayton, transferring served him well. He went from a low-minute, low-output guy for the (National Champion) Wolverines to a 15-point-per-game scorer for the Flyers in just two seasons.
He shot 48.1 percent from the floor at Dayton and, as a senior, canned 41.6 percent of his triples. Still, he too went undrafted. Unlike Akoon-Purcell, however, he has yet to see the NBA.
Watson is the longest of shots to make this particular roster but his energy showed.