Brace yourselves, Atlanta Hawks fans. Your favorite team will officially be on an NBA basketball court for the first time in three months. The 2021-22 season gets underway with the preseason opener on the road against the division-rival Miami Heat. It’s an opponent they had a winning record against last season but that is secondary at this point.
Atlanta opened training camp with quite a few more players on the mend than most anticipated. Third-year swingman Kevin Huerter noted that the team went through the playoffs more banged up than anyone knew about.
That being the case, their mission versus the Heat is a simple one: make it out in one piece.
The Atlanta Hawks plan to stay healthy means more minutes for the young guys
Head Coach Nate McMillan laid out his plan for his team on Sunday. We found out, via Sarah K. Spencer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, that the Hawks would be using two groups, something he touched on a few days ago when referring to his team’s depth. Later in the day, we got the injury report.
Hawks injury report for preseason game at Miami:
— Sarah K. Spencer (@sarah_k_spence) October 3, 2021
Clint Capela (left Achilles injury management) is out.
Kevin Huerter (left ankle injury management) is out.
De’Andre Hunter (right knee injury management) is out.
Onyeka Okongwu (right shoulder surgery rehabilitation) is out.
This would obviously lead one to believe we’ll see plenty of both Cam Reddish and Jalen Johnson if both aren’t in the starting lineup. But they too have dealt with injuries.
Reddish missed four months last season dealing with an Achilles injury and Johnson tweaked his ankle early in camp. The good news is both have been declared good to go and have practiced fully.
That just leaves the question of how much we’ll see of the Trae Young, Bogdan Bogdanovic, John Collins, and the rest of the vets on Monday. But, when speaking of the Hawks using two different sets of players, McMillan pointed out how he wanted the team to focus on building chemistry since they’d be playing short minutes.
With a home date against the Cleveland Cavaliers just two days later and most of the team has not played competitively for some time, they’ll certainly need both units. We knew their depth would play a big part in their success this season.
It is also going to be huge in simply getting them to the regular season in one piece. Last year the Hawks were one of the most banged-up teams in the NBA.
With only Onyeka Okongwu not expected to be ready for the regular season, they’re off to a good start in that regard.