The end of the 2020-21 season seems to have been an eternity ago. Since then, we have had the NBA Finals conclude, the 2021 NBA draft, and a free agency that saw the Atlanta Hawks get deeper. The last two offseasons conducted by Travis Schlenk have been works of art.
However, all of that has simply been in preparation for the upcoming 2021-22 NBA season where the Hawks are expected to be major players in the Eastern Conference. As such, general manager, Travis Schlenk’s season-opening press conference has implications on how the team progresses.
He had a mixture of news which will be broken down by our team of writers over the coming days. However, there were a number of areas of concern that Schlenk raised, and one of those was the health and progress of De’Andre Hunter as he continue to rehabilitate from knee surgery.
The Atlanta Hawks will have to wait a little longer for De’Andre Hunter.
Hunter was one of the Hawks’ best players last season before injury stopped him in his tracks. In fact, he was actually rated the Hawks’ most underrated player last season. He is in fact good enough, when healthy to be the third cornerstone of this franchise.
The problem is that Schlenk announced that Hunter is not going to be a full participant in training camp this season. This means that he is still on the road to recovery. The Hawks are taking the cautious approach to his rehabilitation which is wise given how young Hunter is and the damage he could do to his knee if he came back too soon.
The good news is that Hunter will be participating in some of the activities in training camp so he is progressing towards full recovery. This is exciting news for the Hawks as if they can have him ready for the start of the season, then the starting five looks to be one of the best in the league.