The careers of Atlanta Hawks forwards Jarrett Culver and De’Andre Hunter have been intertwined, unbeknownst to them, since before they even stepped foot on an NBA court. From facing off against each other in the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Game to ending up as teammates in the 2022/23 preseason, it has been a long road filled with innumerable factors for both players.
However, they find themselves in completely different circumstances. If events had played out any other way, the results may have been disastrous for the Hawks.
In 2019, Culver and Hunter were both consensus top-10 picks on almost all NBA draft boards. The Hawks, who possessed six picks in the draft and were rumored to be interested in moving up, had a potentially franchise-altering decision to make. On the back of selecting Luka Doncic and trading him to the Dallas Mavericks for Trae Young and a first-round pick in 2018, the 2019 NBA Draft was to prove crucial in establishing the Hawks’ winning core of the future.
Plenty of fans and pundits were clamoring for the Hawks to move up after the lottery had stuck them with the 8th overall pick – bad luck for a team with the 5th-worst record in basketball the season prior. Many of these voices had one feasible target in mind: Jarrett Culver.
Atlanta Hawks made the correct decision in the 2019 NBA Draft
After winning Big 12 Player of the Year and averaging 18.5 points, 3.7 assists, and 6.4 rebounds per game in his final season at Texas Tech, Culver was considered an offensive juggernaut with freakish athleticism.
Zion Williamson, Ja Morant, and RJ Barrett were the consensus top three picks, but speculation suggested that Culver could have gone to any team interested after that. If the Hawks were going to move up, they’d have to pay heavily in draft capital.
In a convoluted deal that involved sending Anthony Davis to Los Angeles and the 4th overall pick back to New Orleans, the Hawks eventually shipped their 8th, 17th, and 35th overall picks in the 2019 Draft to New Orleans for the recently acquired 4th overall pick.
Instead of taking Culver, though, they selected Hunter out of Virginia.
Hunter, also a consensus top-10 pick in most mocks, was appealing for a different reason. He averaged 15.2 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 2 assists per game on his way to earning Virginia the #1 seed in March Madness, but his shining light was always on defense.
Hunter was the ACC Defensive Player of the Year, and that carried over to the Championship Game where put forth 27 points and 9 rebounds, hit a crucial game-tying shot, and held Culver to 15 points on an abysmal 5-22 shooting.
Virginia would go on to win the title with the difference in Hunter and Culver’s performances likely being the deciding factor for the Hawks. The Championship Game would also seem to become a poetic omen for the careers of both players.
The Minnesota Timberwolves would go on to take a page out of the Hawks’ book and trade up to take Culver with the 6th pick, just two after Hunter.
The Atlanta Hawks were proven right to take Hunter over Culver.
The two athletic wings would get off to similar starts in their first year in the league. Hunter would go on to average 12.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.8 assists on 41% shooting, while Culver would average a slightly worse 9.2 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.7 assists on 40% shooting, albeit in 8 fewer minutes of play. The defensive numbers were quite similar between the two.
Year two is where the cracks would begin to form in Culver’s game.
In his second year, Culver would see a decrease of nearly half in all of his major stats including points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, and even minutes. His three-point percentage dropped from a poor 30 percent to an awful 25 percent and his overall efficiency only marginally rose to 41 percent.
He also picked up an ankle injury, which further hampered his playing time and relegated him to the bench, eventually requiring season-ending surgery and leaving him with only seven games started at the end of the year.
Hunter, on the other hand, had a polar opposite second year.
Despite missing 59 games due to a right knee injury, his efficiency from the floor rose from a very modest 41 percent to a shockingly efficient 48 percent. His points per game rose to 15 and his other stats rose marginally in three fewer minutes per game than the year prior. His defensive influence on the Hawks was becoming apparent too, as he and Clint Capela helped the team move from 28th in the league in net defensive rating in 2019-20 to 10th in the league in 2020-21.
By the time last season rolled around, the roles for these two had already been carved out.
Culver, who had been sent over to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for Patrick Beverly, didn’t start a single game in the 2021-22 season and only played in 37 of them. His absences were due to both injury and poor play as he put up a measly 3.5 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 0.9 assists on 38 percent from the field.
Hunter, though seeing slight decreases in many of his major stats, had established himself as the starting small forward of the future. He was still shooting 44 percent from the field, 38 percent from three, and offered a tremendous amount defensively even after recovering from early-season wrist surgery. Hunter’s 13.4 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 30 minutes over 53 games indicated he was a lineup mainstay.
At this point, it was clear that Hunter was on the track of steady improvement while Culver was just hanging on to remain in the league.
The situation of the two players today is an indication of their careers so far.
Culver’s 4th-year rookie option was not picked up by his team while Hunter’s was. This allowed Atlanta to come in and sign Culver to a two-way contract, offering him a chance to “get things right” in the G-League.
Now, the two are teammates and are attempting to prove different things as they play for the Hawks in these early preseason games.
Hunter, perhaps fittingly, has looked like a man on a mission, scoring 38 points in 34 minutes on 65 percent from the floor in two games.
Culver has played in one of the two games, garnering seven minutes and turning the ball over twice, all while adding zero points, zero rebounds, zero assists, zero steals, and zero blocks.
If it wasn’t apparent that the two career paths are mirror opposites, it should be now.
Culver is certainly within the bubble of players that are at major risk of being cut before the season opener on October 19th even despite having a two-way deal. Meanwhile, Hunter is establishing himself as a very real candidate to break out and potentially earn an award.
Thus, the Hawks were right to trust what they saw in the 2019 NCAA Men’s College Basketball National Championship. If they hadn’t and decided to go with Culver instead, they wouldn’t have their up-and-coming star on the wing. The rebuild may have looked entirely different.
Judging by how events have transpired, it doesn’t seem like they’d still have Culver either.