Atlanta Hawks lineup to get excited about No 3: The veterans on this team could also hold the fort down
It’s not just the young guys who could steal the show for the Hawks. They’ve accumulated a solid bevy of veterans to supplement the growth of their draft picks. Where they once relied on the likes of Marco Belinelli, Ersan Ilyasova, and Kent Bazemore for leadership they now have Bogdan Bogdanovic, Danilo Gallinari, and Clint Capela.
Lou Williams is like Sharife Cooper 1.0 and can still put up points despite his advanced (in basketball terms) age. Adding Wright allows Williams to operate off-ball, where he is much more effective.
The stars of this group, though, are Bogdanovic, Gallinari, and Capela.
Bogdanovic fought through a knee injury during the postseason, but he was one of the Hawks most impactful players. Gallo was similarly effective coming off of the bench.
Both players put on better defensive efforts than one might imagine as well.
Capela led the league in rebounds during the regular season and finished third in All-NBA voting for centers. He had some of the toughest assignments in the postseason, including Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo. It didn’t always look pretty or even work out in his favor. But that is a small list of players compared to his competition night-in and night-out.
You could even insert free agent signee Gorgui Dieng to add some extra shooting.
We never got this combination last season. But this group would score better than they defend, even if they did the latter better than expected. Still, most of these guys have been called “a bucket” at one point or another.