The Atlanta Hawks are experiencing deja vu all over again
The Atlanta Hawks must be feeling that their back luck has run its course from last season. They had so many different players on the sidelines for stretches of the season. It ended up costing Lloyd Pierce his job. The Hawks turned to Nate McMillan who steadied the ship, taking the Hawks to within two games of the NBA finals.
Last season the Hawks lost De’Andre Hunter for the majority of the season thanks to a knee injury. They also lost Cam Reddish at a similar time with an Achilles injury again for most of the season. They only had a short amount of time with Bogdan Bogdanovic before he fractured his kneecap in a freak incident in mid-court.
Well, this season the Hawks are missing Onyeka Okongwu to start the season again and Hunter is out for two months due to surgery on his wrist. Then, during the most recent game against the New York Knicks, they saw Cam Reddish reaggravate his wrist injury and Bogdanovic sprain his ankle in the first half after stepping on a Knicks player’s foot.
The Atlanta Hawks hope this year’s supporting cast can help again.
Last season the Hawks relied on Kevin Huerter, Solomon Hill, and Tony Snell when he returned from injury. They even used Skylar Mays in patches, such was the desperation of the situation. With the exception of Snell, all of these players are back.
Just yesterday we suggested that the Hawks needed to carve out more minutes for Timothe Luwawu-Cabbarot. Well, without Hunter, Reddish, and Bogdanovic for any period of time, TLC is going to be a required rotation piece.
Next. The second unit backcourt is showing promise. dark
The Hawks are also going to have to lean on Hill again, the insurance policy did it all for the Hawks last season. The other avenue the Hawks may need to go down is to give Jalen Johnson some decent rotation minutes. The Hawks’ depth is about to be tested but they should come out of it relatively unscathed, they have done this before.