Welcome to Atlanta De'Andre Hunter and Cam Reddish

[NBASupes]

 

[Spud2nique]

Revenge of Hunter & Cam. NBA players always seem to have a chip on their shoulder after the draft of teams that passed them up. From Little IT being the last pick in his draft to the Kings or Draymond landing to #35. 

Which teams for our guys..

Hunter: 3 teams (could argue none tho)

Lakers: Traded our of #4 (Ant Davis)

Pelicans: Not for not picking him #1 but rather not just keeping #4 and taking him there.

Knicks: Maybe id he turns out better than RJ. 

 

Cam:

Pelicans : If he turns out better than Zion

Grizz :  If he turns out better than Ja

Knicks: If he turns out better than RJ

LAKERS/PELS: moved #4

Cavs: The needed a pg tho in Garland

Suns: wow ...

Wolves: If Cam is better than Culver.

Bulls: Cam over White

Wiz: Cam> Hachi

Conclusion:

 

Hunter :

PELICANS 

Cam: PELICANS/SUNS/WOLVES/BULLS/WIZ

 

 

Sorry add LAKERS for both. Cam in LA would have been huge for BSPN too.  

[Spud2nique]

I didn’t see this tier grouping before. Cam is tier 3 and Hunter is tier 4. That’s makes sense. I have a problem with a few tiers here.

http://www.tankathon.com/big_board

Garland should be higher imo.

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

Can someone post snippets 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[marco102]

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

27 minutes ago, marco102 said:

 

 

Gotta be 'Tough and Greedy'....I like it!

[NBASupes]

Reddish progression: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[NBASupes]

Cam was teammates with Kevin in u19: 

https://www.fiba.basketball/world/u19/2017/player/Cameron-Elijah-Reddish

https://www.fiba.basketball/world/u19/2017/player/Kevin-Joseph-Huerter

https://www.fiba.basketball/world/u19/2017/player/Paul-Jamaine-Washington

https://www.fiba.basketball/world/u19/2017/player/Joshua-Aloiye-Okogie

https://www.fiba.basketball/world/u19/2017/player/Carsen-Cade-Edwards

https://www.fiba.basketball/world/u19/2017/USA#|tab=games_and_results

[NBASupes]

Watching his HS tapes, I can clearly see he used to move much better. Much much better than what he looked like at Duke. Didn't even look like the same athlete. He was merely average athletically. He just had so much skill and range with fit. But the Cam I see with his athleticism, that Cam can win MVPs. 

I think he would be our most talented player day 1. 

[NBASupes]

The rest of the league messed up, we gonna win titles ya'll. It's just a matter of when. 

[JTB]

6 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

Can someone post snippets 

Sure no problem....just keep in mind it’s going to be a very long post or 2 or 3.

[JTB]

Building the Draft Board

By Chris Kirschner

When Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk and the rest of the decision-makers meet Thursday at Emory Sports Medicine Complex for the NBA Draft, they’ll have roughly four years of intel on the prospects who make the final cut to be on the team’s draft board.

Schlenk and his team normally begin scouting prospects when they are 16 years old and playing in AAU leagues across the country. On Friday, one Hawks scout was in Charlottesville, Va. for the NBA Players Association Top 100 Camp scouting for the 2020 and 2021 drafts. Scouting is a never-ending process.

When the evaluations for this year’s group of draft picks began, Schlenk, who was still Golden State’s assistant general manager, started with more than 100 prospects on his radar.

In the final days leading up to the draft, Schlenk, vice president of basketball operations Rod Higgins, director of basketball operations Mike McNeive and the rest of the scouting staff go through their draft board to come up with 44 names the team likes, coinciding with the Hawks’ 44th pick in the draft. Those 44 names will be the players they think will get selected in those first 44 picks. They’ll then fill out the rest of the 16 picks with the players they have interest in filling spots on the Summer League roster or in training camp before the season begins.

Schlenk spends numerous hours on the phone with teams in the days leading up to the draft to discuss possible trades and gather as much intel as possible as to who those organizations might be interested in selecting. By now, the staff knows which players they hope to land, so the meetings they have at this point are to discuss all of the possibilities that could happen.

“Just meeting with the staff and going over everything for the 100th time,” Schlenk said about what these final days are like.

Mock drafts are a big part of the build-up toward the draft. Schlenk and the scouting staff run through numerous situations and act out how they think the draft will play out according to the intel they’ve gathered from talking with agents and executives. They go over how the draft should play out according to the analytics and what they think might happen based on their personal hunches. A mock draft last week ended at the 48th pick because there’s still discussion among the staff about who could possibly be selected with those final few picks.

In the range of picks Nos. 45 to 50, Schlenk will start calling the agents of the players who haven’t been drafted to express interest in having them play for the Summer League team in Las Vegas. On Thursday night, the Hawks will have more than 60 names on their draft board consisting of the players who they like and who they think will get selected.

Atlanta currently has six picks in the draft, Nos. 8, 10, 17, 35, 41 and 44 but won’t add six rookies to the roster at the start of the season. But they do prepare as if they are making six picks, although the likelier option is the team unloads a few of those picks in draft-related trades.

After the blockbuster New Orleans-Los Angeles Lakers trade this weekend that involved Anthony Davis going to the Lakers in exchange for Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and three first-round picks, the Hawks have expressed interest to the Pelicans in acquiring the No. 4 pick, which New Orleans received in that trade. By trading up to No. 4, the team could assure it lands either Texas Tech’s Jarrett Culver, Virginia’s De’Andre Hunter or Duke’s Cam Reddish. The thought is if the Hawks moved up to 4, it would be to take Culver or Hunter.

Outside of possible deals inside the first round, Schlenk publicly expressed his desire to move on from the team’s second-round picks.

“It’s no secret that with our three second-round picks, we are going to try to package them and move up if we can, but that’s easy for me to sit here and say and harder to accomplish,” Schlenk said. “What we don’t want to do and want to try to avoid is selling them. We’ll try to trade them for futures, like we did last year, so we have the asset. If we get to a point where we draft, we could draft and stash because, again, you can use those players in transactions down the line, so we’ll try to keep the asset alive.”

The hierarchy of those second-round picks and what he hopes he can accomplish with them is: trade, draft-and-stash and sell. One of Schlenk’s main goals leading up to Thursday is to acquire the best assets possible through trades, but he said there isn’t an urgency to make deals. The team isn’t looking at this draft as a failure by any means if it ends up making all of its picks in the first round while possibly using one or two of the second-round picks as draft-and-stash moves because those players can still be a part of future transactions.

“I think what we’re finding in this draft is that there’s a lot of depth to it,” Schlenk said. “You might see guys who one team has in the top 10 and another team might have him in their 20s. It’s kind of a beauty-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder kind of thing. We like a lot of the guys there (in that range), so we like having three different stabs at it.”

There’s also a lot of confidence surrounding the organization having so much draft capital because of how well it has drafted in Schlenk’s first two drafts as the general manager. Atlanta found two starters and two players who are part of the core foundation of the Hawks in John Collins and Kevin Huerter at No. 19 and traded for Trae Young plus the No. 10 pick, which might help them move up Thursday night.

The Hawks’ analytics staff assigns a value to each of the picks in the draft and decides whether it’s worth it for the team to trade up or down. If the Hawks are receiving future draft compensation, the analytics staff projects where that team’s pick might land in the draft. Before the Luka Doncic-Young deal, the analytics department projected the Dallas pick to be No. 8. The highest it could have been on lottery night was No. 9 due to Dallas losing a three-team tiebreaker that could have had the pick be as high as No. 7.

“A big part of (trades) will be where we project the team’s pick to be that we’re receiving and do we think it’s fair value,” Schlenk said. “All picks aren’t on the same, right? So if Golden State offers us their first as opposed to a team projected in the lottery, that’s going to be a much better trade for us. That’s how we go through the process.”

Trades aren’t snap decisions made in the tense moments leading up to the start of the draft. Hours before the draft began last year, Atlanta and Dallas already had agreed to the framework of the Doncic-Young trade, but it was contingent on both players being available at the time the teams picked. But in those final hours, teams normally have a general sense of who might be taken ahead of them as that process of gathering intel begins as soon as the draft order is set.

Once the draft order was set, the Hawks started heavily evaluating players who potentially could be in that eight to 10 range on draft night by meeting individually with 18 players at the combine in Chicago and for pre-draft workouts in Atlanta, which began in late April.

By the time the players arrive in Atlanta, the organization knows mostly everything about them as they possibly could know. That’s why head coach Lloyd Pierce looks at those workouts as an elimination tool more than anything.

“I think in a lot of ways, to me, I end up finding ways why I don’t like a guy more so than why I do like a guy,” Pierce told The Athletic last week. “You’re not going to like everyone. I’m pretty sure this is workout 15 or 16, and we have six guys a day. We’ve brought in around 100 players. You’re not going to like everyone. We’re trying to find six. So you go through these workouts, and you go, ‘Nah. Underwhelming.’ It’s better to do that face-to-face after seeing them in a workout.”

There’s also the off-the-court component of the workout that is just as important to the Hawks. For several of the players who have come through to Atlanta, Pierce, Schlenk and other executives have taken them to breakfast, lunch or dinner to spend more personal time with them. Those meetings are designed to understand how players might fit into the team’s locker room, which is of importance in the Schlenk regime.

The pre-draft workout itself is only a small piece of the team’s evaluation. A player could have an awful on-court workout and miss every shot in Atlanta and wouldn’t necessarily be crossed off the team’s list. The decision-makers aren’t looking for perfection; they are looking to see if their film evaluations on a player’s mechanics and his measurables match their analysis.

“I think teams have made mistakes when you disregard what a player might have done in his four years of college and then he comes in and has a great 45-minute workout,” Schlenk said. “That would be a mistake.”

Thursday is the result of years of work to find the best players for the Hawks’ future. Whatever the team decides to do — from trading up or down to making all of its picks — Schlenk won’t second-guess any decision.

“I’m an overweight bald guy,” he said with a laugh. “I can’t doubt myself.”

(Photo of Travis Schlenk, left, and Trae Young: Dale Zanine / USA Today)

[JTB]

HUNTER READY TO GO TO WORK WITH HAWKS

By Chris Kirschner

NEW YORK — De’Andre Hunter adjusted his suit jacket while looking in the mirror and saw the reflection of his older brother, Aaron.

There was one final accessory that was missing but De’Andre didn’t realize it yet.

Aaron had walked into Golden Nugget Jewelers in Philadelphia on Monday to pick up his younger brother’s suit accessory — a circular necklace that featured a baby picture of De’Andre being held by his father.

“The last finishing touch was putting his dad around his neck,” Aaron told The Athletic. “He’s not here to celebrate this moment with us, but with that chain, he was here.”

De’Andre looked down, picked up the necklace and was overcome with emotion. All he could muster to say over and over was, “Wow. Wow. Wow.”

His dad, before he passed away when De’Andre was in the first grade, was tough on him. Basketball wasn’t De’Andre’s passion when his father was alive because of how tough he was on him.

But when his dad died, basketball was all he wanted to do. His mom, Priscilla, said it was immediate when De’Andre’s mindset changed that first time he touched a basketball after his father’s death. Everything in his life revolved around the game.

“From that day on, it was just basketball, basketball, basketball,” Priscilla said. “He would watch basketball; he’d play basketball and then eat, sleep and drink basketball.”

Priscilla was De’Andre’s mother and father after her husband’s death. It was Priscilla who woke up every morning before school and drove 45 minutes each way so her son could attend Friends’ Central School in Wynnewood, Penn. It was Priscilla who made sure her son prioritized education first. And it was Priscilla who received the first hug after Adam Silver announced that her son was drafted No. 4 overall by the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday via the New Orleans Pelicans and Los Angeles Lakers.

Aaron and Priscilla Hunter. (Chris Kirschner / The Athletic)

“She did everything for me,” De’Andre said. “No matter what it was, really. She’ll do anything for me and our family. I can’t thank her enough. Without her, I would be nowhere near here.”

Aaron also took on the role of father figure after their dad’s death. There’s an 11-year age gap between the brothers, so Aaron took it upon himself to be more than just a brother to De’Andre.

Aaron loved basketball and taught his younger brother his first moves when he was 8 years old — the jab step and the face-up jumper, De’Andre’s go-to moves today. Aaron knew if De’Andre mastered those moves at that age, he could be unstoppable because 8-year-old typically aren’t learning those moves and wouldn’t know how to guard them.

He also told his brother that defense had to be prioritized immediately. Aaron calls himself “old school,” even though he’s still in his early 30s. But he also attributes De’Andre’s menacing defense to his Philly mindset. He was named the National Association of Basketball Coaches Division I Defensive Player of the Year this past college basketball season and helped lead Virginia to the national championship.

“We always say, ‘You aren’t going to score on us. I’m not going to let you score on me,'” Aaron said of the Philly mindset. “That’s what being Philly tough is about. His high school and AAU coach also taught defense, so he’s always been big on defense. They’d have him guard the center and then switch to the two-man. It’s just something that he was taught very young — slide your feet, be in position and not let the other person score on him.”

Aaron took on his father’s tendencies. He was tough on his younger brother. He would never tell him how good he actually was. He would say, “You’re good, but you need to work on this move or the next move.” Shortly after De’Andre was drafted, Aaron was the one to tell him to enjoy the night and celebrate, but work mode has to be engaged Friday.

Aaron said Friday begins the research for himself and De’Andre. They’ll sit down together and go over the roster and see how he can fit in. They’ll watch highlights and try to learn as much as possible about the Hawks on their own because he can’t officially join the team until the Pelicans’ trade with the Lakers involving Anthony Davis is completed on July 6.

Before the work begins, Aaron says he’s going to wake up Friday morning and immediately think Thursday night was a dream.

“This is something he talked about when he first picked up the basketball,” Aaron said. “To see him live this out brings nothing but joy to me. He always wanted this. He said he was going to do this. If he says he’s going to do something, I’m betting on him every single time.”

There is still some emptiness even in the happiest moment of his life. De’Andre said he has thought about his father every day as he went through the pre-draft process. He thought about his dad when Virginia made a run to the national championship game and beat Texas Tech. He wondered what his dad would say to him but could never eloquently come up with anything because he has limited memory of his father. All he can do is think about how happy he would have been and how he definitely would have cried.

“It’s a sucky situation, but we all did our best to provide for the lack of memories he has of him,” Aaron said. “We keep his name alive, and we always talk about him. We feel like he’s here with us. He’s not here, physically, but he’s with us spiritually.”

All De’Andre wanted to do when his name was announced Thursday was hug his family members and thank them. Each of them played a part in him getting to this level. In the days leading up to the draft, his mom practiced deep-breathing exercises at home because every time she would think about Thursday night, she would cry. She joked that she didn’t want waterfalls flowing from her eyes while the cameras were on her. She succeeded … sort of. She only cried a little bit, but she was OK with it.

She did cry when Aaron put the custom-made necklace around De’Andre’s neck. The tears were uncontrollable. She knew De’Andre wanted his dad to be a part of Thursday night but didn’t know how or if her son was going to honor him.

After De’Andre was selected, he was asked what his dad’s name was. Before he answered, he took the necklace, rubbed it between his index finger and thumb and smiled. His dad was with him the entire time, and he wanted the world to know his name.

“His name was Aaron,” he said.

He then shook his head with a boyish grin almost as if to say, “Dad, I hope I made you proud.”

(Top photo of DeAndre Hunter: Stephen Pellegrino / Getty Images)

[JTB]

HAWKS HAVE A CLEAR PATH TO SUCCESS 

By Chris Kirschner 

NEW YORK — De’Andre Hunter realizes the capital the Hawks gave up to secure his rights in the NBA Draft.

General manager Travis Schlenk traded picks 8, 17 and 35 and a 2020 Cleveland top-10 protected pick, which likely will turn into two second-rounders, and absorbed Solomon Hill’s $12.8 million expiring salary for picks 4 and 57 plus a future second-round pick.

“It just shows that he has faith in me and has trust in me,” Hunter said. “He believes in me as a player, and I’m excited to get to work.”

Hunter sat down with his agents, Joe Smith and Thaddeus Foucher, and mapped out the best situations in which he could start his career. Smith and Foucher told Hunter that the Hawks aggressively were trying to move inside the top five. So, like Schlenk, Hunter took a risk. He was only going to work out for one team during the pre-draft process: Atlanta.

After the Taurean Prince trade to Brooklyn, Atlanta needed a small forward because it had none on the roster before the draft began. Hunter worked out for the Hawks shortly after the trade and was told by Schlenk that the team was looking for a defensive-minded, catch-and-shoot wing who also could create offense for himself. Immediately, Hunter was sold on Atlanta. He fit perfectly with what the Hawks needed.

“I think they have a great young nucleus,” Hunter said. “They have great coaching. Trae Young is a great player. Kevin Huerter. John Collins. Those are all great young players. I feel like I can come in, provide a defensive spark, score a little bit on the offensive end and do the things needed to win.”

Say this about Schlenk: He is unafraid to make bold moves, and as he says, he never doubts himself because he’s “an overweight bald guy.”

Last year, it was trading Luka Doncic to Dallas for Young and what turned out to be Duke’s Cam Reddish. The Hawks also acquired a 2022 top-14 protected pick from Oklahoma City in the Dennis Schröder deal, which was widely criticized by the national media, and as it turns out, the Thunder have made him available in deals, according to multiple reports. Omari Spellman was the result of a three-team trade, and there have been other smaller deals that have resulted in second-round picks.

Since the lottery, Schlenk prioritized moving up in the draft. At first, it was to get up to No. 3, which the New York Knicks rebuffed, and then he settled on No. 4 for the assets he has gained through the years.

“We feel good about the way draft played out,” Schlenk said Thursday night. “Since I’ve gotten here, we spent a lot of time accumulating assets. Tonight we decided to cash some of those in for guys we feel like are going to help us in the future.”

It’s quite the price for Hunter, although he’s widely considered to be the most pro-ready player in this draft outside of Zion Williamson. The price to move from 8 to 4 cost two first-round picks, a high second-round pick, most likely two more second-round picks and absorbing one of the worst contracts in the league. Hunter has to meet expectations and probably exceed them for the value to be worth it.

But at this point, can anyone doubt Schlenk’s evaluations?

In his first draft, he landed Collins, who nearly averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds and shot 35 percent from 3-point range in his second season. His defense remains a work in progress, but he did show growth toward the end of this past season. He also has to develop into more of a creator than what he has shown — the next step of his evolution. Oh, he was also drafted No. 19 overall and only will be paid $2.7 million next season — an absolute bargain for one of the game’s best young forwards.

The same goes for Huerter, who fell to No. 19 and emerged as one of the best shooters in last year’s draft class and showed flashes of potentially being a force on defense, too. He’ll be paid slightly less than Collins next season.

The Hawks took a gamble in a lot of people’s opinions when they traded for Young, but he emerged as a deadly scoring threat from anywhere on the floor and is already one of the game’s best passers. It’s not a coincidence that Collins, Dewayne Dedmon, Alex Len and Prince saw their best numbers so far in their careers. All of them credited Young’s playmaking abilities throughout the season for why they felt like they had seen growth in their own games.

Especially after last year’s draft, a lot of the talk centered on how Atlanta was a knockoff version of the early Golden State days, but, the similarities are growing. The Hawks have a small point guard; the Warriors have a small point guard. The Hawks have large wings; the Warriors have large wings. Hunter is 6-foot-8 with a 7-2 wingspan. Reddish is 6-8 with a 7-1 wingspan. Huerter is 6-7, which is a good size, but he doesn’t have the wingspan of Hunter or Reddish.

More importantly, all three wings perfectly complement Young’s style of play, and all three are better playing off a ball-dominant point guard who can create for them.

“I think he’s a great leader and has a tremendous work ethic,” Reddish said of playing with Young. “I think he can do it all on the court. Obviously, he’s a tremendous passer. He will be able to find me throughout the entire game. I’m looking forward to learning from him, being around him, soaking it all in.”

What has become clear is this team is building around Young as its centerpiece. When Atlanta becomes a playoff team, teams will scheme to attack Young as often as they possibly can on both ends, especially on defense. So, Schlenk drafted two shields for Young who can mask Young’s defensive limitations. The same goes for Huerter. He is the Klay Thompson to Steph Curry — the knockdown shooter who can serve as the team’s second option on offense.

Head coach Lloyd Pierce touched on complementing Young and how it’s not always easy to do. Lots of times teams aren’t balanced, and it’s why we’re seeing more positionless basketball across the league — Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet on the floor at the same time in Toronto or Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum in Portland were the two examples he used.

Yet, the Hawks have found balance through the draft. Even Bruno Fernando fits in alongside Collins in the frontcourt. Fernando was someone I mentioned last month as a possible target for the Hawks’ two top-10 picks if they traded down. The Hawks viewed Fernando as a first-round talent and wound up getting great value at No. 34. Fernando can bang down low, provide solid interior defense and space out for the 3. His shot from 3 isn’t there quite yet, but there’s hope he can quickly develop one, much like Collins.

“Travis told me that he really loves me and wanted to give me an opportunity,” Fernando said. “I couldn’t think twice. I started getting emotional right away. I’m just extremely happy. It feels like I was just in Atlanta a week ago for a workout. Now, I get to go right back there and create a home. I’m excited about it.”

The Hawks have $63 million tied up in the expiring contracts of Kent Bazemore, Allen Crabbe, Miles Plumlee and now Hill but just $33 million committed to the rest of the roster. That means the Hawks, once they are ready to take that next step in the process, will have room to acquire whichever max-level free agent, or two, they want.

Next season still likely will consist of more of the phrase “growth and development,” a favorite go-to to describe the growing pains that all young teams go through, but the path to being “the next Golden State” has never looked clearer than now.

(Photo of De’Andre Hunter, right: Streeter Lecka / Getty Images)

[Spud2nique]

DeAndre Hunter also remind me of a rich man’s Grant Long. One of my fav Hawks of all time. He was limited offensively but brought so much toughness. I think Hunter is in that mold but much better offense... hopefully. Nice mix of Long here.

 

[Spud2nique]

5 hours ago, NBASupes said:

Watching his HS tapes, I can clearly see he used to move much better. Much much better than what he looked like at Duke. Didn't even look like the same athlete. He was merely average athletically. He just had so much skill and range with fit. But the Cam I see with his athleticism, that Cam can win MVPs. 

I think he would be our most talented player day 1. 

I’m gonna say Trae and Cam tied for most talented. Cam is a natural when it comes to shot making and making moves to create shots for himself, combined with unselfishness to find people. Trae has vision like nobody I’ve seen since Nash or Kidd. He’s aboveboard Cp3 in vision. 

I think they are tied or most talented.

Collins will be our 3rd best but a 20/10 nightly handful for the opposition.

[NBASupes]

3 hours ago, Spud2nique said:

DeAndre Hunter also remind me of a rich man’s Grant Long. One of my fav Hawks of all time. He was limited offensively but brought so much toughness. I think Hunter is in that mold but much better offense... hopefully. Nice mix of Long here.

 

I used to really like Long. 

I personally think a player Hunter reminds me of is a rich man's Thaddeus Young 

[Peoriabird]

12 hours ago, NBASupes said:

The rest of the league messed up, we gonna win titles ya'll. It's just a matter of when. 

What do you think Cam's best position is?  He looks like a 2 to me.

[NBASupes]

42 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

What do you think Cam's best position is?  He looks like a 2 to me.

SF. But he can play 2 as well as spot at 1.