How the Atlanta Hawks approach rookie Mouhamed Gueye
The Atlanta Hawks obtained the draft rights to the 39th overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft Mouhamed Gueye, a forward from Washington State University was selected. Being a second-round pick, there wasn’t much pressure or expectations to perform. Gueye, 20, got a late start to his basketball career. He hails from Dakar, Senegal but didn’t move to the United States until he was 16 years old. He eventually grew to be a 6’11” thunderous forward that chose Washington State as his college choice.
As a freshman, Gueye got to make an instant impact. During his freshman season, he started in 33 of 35 games but only put up 7.4 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. Like many big men, he struggled at the free-throw line. However, “struggle” might be an understatement. On 2 free throw attempts per game, Gueye made less than 50% of his free throws during his freshman season.
Atlanta Hawks rookie Mouhamed Gueye is raw but possesses skills you’d like to see in a big man
Gueye is a powerful forward that isn’t afraid to show his strength at the rim! As well as being a poor free throw shooter, however, Gueye also struggled to stay out of foul trouble as he averaged nearly 3 fouls per game in both of his seasons at Washington State.
Out of the gates, Gueye did get a big role as a freshman starting in 33 games, he only played 21 minutes per game. That would change during his sophomore season and his play was improved as well.
Going into his sophomore season, Gueye was looking to maximize his opportunity. He went from playing 21.9 minutes per game in his freshman season to playing 32.1 minutes per game in his sophomore season. With this increase in playing time, Gueye improved his stats significantly. He doubled his scoring average from 7.4 points per game to 14.3 points per game. His shooting percentages from the field and three decreased, but that can be explained by increased volume.
The encouraging thing to look at is his improved numbers from the free-throw line. While 67.4% is still a poor percentage to shoot from the line, it is a noteworthy improvement. Every player has good and bad qualities in their game and that is no exception with Gueye.
Along with being a poor shooter from the line, he also found himself in foul trouble.
He totaled just under 100 fouls in both seasons at Washington State which came out to 2.7 fouls per game in his career.
Gueye was originally drafted by the Charlotte Hornets at 39th overall. Six days later on June 28, 2023, Gueye’s rights were traded to the Boston Celtics along with Colby Jones (the 34th pick) to the Celtics for James Nnaji (the 31st pick). That same day, Boston shipped him off to Atlanta for a 2027 second-round pick. Finally, Gueye found a home as he signed a 4-year guaranteed contract with the Atlanta Hawks on July 3, 2023.
Atlanta believed in him and Gueye was about to show the Hawks front office, fans, and coaches that he could be in this league for a long time!