Atlanta Hawks: Nate McMillan gives interesting quote on player roles

The Atlanta Hawks are set to open their new season on Thursday. All eyes have been on the team’s health all preseason after it was revealed at the start that several players were dealing with previously undisclosed injuries. Add in Trae Young’s quad contusion suffered during the preseason opener and things nearly reached a fever pitch.

Thankfully, Head Coach Nate McMillan has said that he expects everyone, save for Onyeka Okongwu, to be available for the opener; a notion backed by their participation in the preseason finale. Danilo Gallinari is the only question mark.

Atlanta is looking much healthier heading into the regular season compared to last year, prompting McMillan to speak on how it will impact individual players.

Atlanta Hawks Head Coach Nate McMillan is trying to drill home a message of sacrifice

The Hawks head coach has been pretty clear that this season, much like last year’s improbable run to the Eastern Conference Finals, players are going to have to buy in even as their individual numbers might not be where they’d prefer. Many players, including Young and John Collins, saw their numbers dip at the benefit of the team’s success.

It’s why many of the challenges we laid out for the starting lineup revolved around getting Young off of the ball and others like Bogdano Bogdanovic and Clint Capela more involved in making plays.

Beyond that is how many minutes players are coming in and expecting, to which McMillan spoke directly.

"“With all of the guys that we have coming back – and playing time and minutes – it is going to take some time to get that, for guys to get comfortable in their roles, and they will find out those roles as we get into the season.” – via Kevin Chouinard/Hawks.com"

By the sounds of it, there is a chance the starting five on opening night won’t necessarily be the one the Hawks run onto the court deep into the season when jockeying for playoff positioning.

That bodes well for players like the newly-minted Kevin Huerter. He just signed a four-year, $65 million deal on Monday, narrowly beating the NBA’s deadline for rookie extensions. Huerter started 49 of the 69 games he appeared in last season and has started in 156 of 200 career games, including 10 of 18 in the postseason.

Even a player like Cam Reddish, whom everyone is waiting to take that next step, stands to benefit from the fluidity of the situation at the moment.

He has dealt with trade rumors all summer though the team has made clear they just want to see some consistency from him. He’s started 55 of 84 career games, 21 of 26 last season.

This obviously doesn’t necessarily mean they will earn starting spots again this season; barring injury, of course. But it does open up the possibility. The Hawks depth is one of their strengths and an argument could be made they are better off being fluid so as to keep opposing advance scouts on their toes.