Trae Young shines as Atlanta Hawks move to 2-0 in preseason

Atlanta Hawks fans who have been keeping up with the team’s preseason trip to Abu Dhabi will likely have heard head coach Nate McMillan’s comments after the first game about his plan to give the bench squad some love. As he suggested might be the case, none of the Hawks starters earned over 22 minutes of playing time in today’s game.

As we all should have learned by now, that wasn’t enough to stop superstar Trae Young from doing Trae Young things.

Despite having his backcourt partner Dejounte Murray unavailable due to minor back spasms, Young was able to put on a show in 20 minutes of play. His 31 points and 6 assists on 11-15 shooting from the floor and 7-9 shooting from behind the arc were the driving force in the Atlanta Hawks’ 118-109 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.

Young was his usual self, driving to the basket with his elite dribbling skills and draining threes from all locations. Standing pull-up threes, dribbling pull-up threes, draining from behind the arc through contact, and a signature three-pointer from the logo defined Young’s night as he brought the “ice” to the desert of Abu Dhabi.

However, given that he only played around 20 minutes, Trae’s efforts were not enough to keep the Bucks at bay. Much of that responsibility fell on the bench squad, mostly comprised of Atlanta Hawks newcomers and rookies, who also got their fair share of shine.

How did the rest of the Atlanta Hawks roster perform?

DeAndre Hunter was excellent again, dropping 21 points in 20 minutes on 9-13 shooting after his 17-point performance in 24 minutes in game one. These are very good signs for the fourth-year player desperately looking for a breakout season to hopefully earn a contract extension.

Another young player that the Hawks desperately need to break out is Onyeka Okongwu, who scored 12 points in 17 minutes and has looked very efficient in his time on the floor so far.

Perhaps the most significant discovery in this game, though, was some insight into the capabilities of the Atlanta Hawks’ new signings.

Players like Chris Silva, Armoni Brooks, Malik Ellison, and Tyson Etienne looked poor and were relatively inefficient as they contributed heavily to the temporary evaporation of the Hawks’ lead. Brad Rowland of the “Locked on Hawks” podcast considers these players, who were rostered as training camp invites, a long shot to make the opening night roster.

Frank Kaminsky, who has received somewhat significant minutes over the last two games in the absence of Jalen Johnson (illness), has yet to make a basket in four attempts and has seriously dented his chances to get meaningful regular season minutes.

Despite the struggles of many of the newbies, two players, who had yet to play a minute for the Atlanta Hawks in 2022, had an impressive showing.

The first of these is Vit Krejci, who drained his only three-point attempt and gathered two rebounds with three assists in only 10 minutes. He also threw in a slick Trae Young-like behind-the-back dish. The second is AJ Griffin, who had only featured one minute for the Hawks in the preseason due to some nagging injuries.

Griffin, who got a healthy workload of 25 minutes, stole the show from the bench. He scored 13 points on 50 percent shooting from the floor and 3-5 shooting from three. Griffin looked confident and impressive on the catch-and-shoot, being willing to pull up from deep three-point range and drain it. If he can avoid injury and continue to contribute efficient shooting off the bench, the Hawks would benefit greatly.

Plenty has been learned not only about the skillsets of the Hawks players but also the mindset of coach McMillan when it comes to his rotation plans.

The conclusion of this game means the Atlanta Hawks will finish their Abu Dhabi trip 2-0 and with good momentum on their long flight back to the States. They next play in Cleveland on Wednesday, October 12th, which will officially mark one week until their regular season opens in Atlanta.