The Atlanta Hawks wrapped up their time in Las Vegas for Summer League with a 104-85 blowout loss to the New York Knicks. But the time spent was much better overall and the pipeline of great talent acquired via the draft appears intact. That much was evident fairly early on though.
We’ve been raving about Jalen Johnson and Sharife Cooper from the opening tip.
There were some other, more subtle takeaways though than the straight-forward who has and hasn’t played well.
Many of the players on the roster had different goals from the outset, which can contribute to some of the disjointed nature of the games at times.
Some are just trying to work on their games, assured of a roster spot, others are trying to showcase themselves.
The Atlanta Hawks Summer League gave us a small snap-shot at the state of this team
Still, we will once again acknowledge the standouts from the summer, including one who will likely go largely unsung in DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell. He had another 13 points, seven rebounds, and four assists in the loss to New York. Hopefully, some team has taken notice of his play as he has little chance of making the Hawks roster.
Neither Jalen Johnson nor Skylar Mays played in the finale. Sharife Cooper did return, however, he turned in his worst performance of the summer.
After missing the last game going through health and safety protocols he had just six points and two assists on 3-of-11 shooting.
Cooper was likely headed to College Park for the bulk of his season but that is just part of the story for the young guys and the rest of the Summer League squad.