The Atlanta Hawks did not have the best Summer League. They went 2-2 in tournament play before losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers in their last matchup of the tournament. Things did not start well for the Hawks, considering they had their star forward from last season’s Summer League out before the first ball was tossed in the air, due to a non-surgical procedure on his knee.
Then, their first-round draft pick AJ Griffin was unable to play a game for the tournament thanks to a foot injury. He was listed as day-to-day for every game but did not take the court as a precaution which was detrimental to the team in one way.
However, what it did do was allow for others on the squad to show some of what they were capable of. This allowed Tyson Etienne to earn himself an Exhibit 10 deal thanks to the play that he showed against the San Antonio Spurs.
The Atlanta Hawks did not have one true standout player.
On top of the issues previously mentioned, Sharife Cooper had a thumb injury throughout the entire tournament. This even led to some of us wondering if he should be shut down for the remaining games given how poorly he was performing. Fortunately, he showed his versatility as a player and was still able to influence the last couple of games.
Looking back at the tournament, Tyrese Martin was the Hawks’ best player on the squad. As such he was rewarded with a two-year deal which was probably not going to happen if the top-line players were available.
With a lot of the top picks playing from the 2021 and 2022 drafts, it was always going to be tough for the Hawks to have a player named in the All-Summer League first or second teams. However, thanks to the ability of the coaching staff to extract the best out of what they had available, Summer League was not a total loss.