The Hawks made two trades this offseason, headlined by the Dejounte Murray deal that sent the All-Star point guard to New Orleans.
The Pelicans returned four players and two first-round picks for Murray, but it wasn’t the only trade for Atlanta. Landry Fields also dealt former first-rounder AJ Griffin in exchange for a second-round pick from the Rockets.
His time in Atlanta was short-lived and confusing, to say the least. During Griffin’s rookie campaign, he played in 72 games and averaged nearly nine points on .465/.390/.894 shooting splits in under 20 minutes per game. It sparked a ton of optimism for his future, but his sophomore season took a turn for the worse.
The Duke product played just 8.6 minutes per game in 20 contests, averaging 2.4 points, 0.9 rebounds, and 0.2 assists. While his shooting percentage from beyond the arc plummeted to 25.6%. He was effectively phased out of the rotation, and the writing was seemingly on the wall.
With the Rockets, Griffin has a chance to grow with a young core, headlined by Jalen Green, Reed Sheppard, Jabari Smith Jr., and others. However, as John Hollinger tweeted, Hawks fans shouldn’t be too worried about him turning it around with his new team. His start in Houston isn’t going as well as Rockets fans had hoped.
Hawks fans — if you were worried about AJ Griffin breaking out in Houston, ummmm …. feel free to move that down your list of concerns.
— John Hollinger (@johnhollinger) July 14, 2024
In three Summer League appearances, AJ Griffin is averaging 13 points on 37.8% shooting from the field and 31.3% shooting from deep. Across more than 28 minutes per game, that’s not exactly the kind of production the Rockets were hoping to get from the former Hawks first-round pick.
Summer League stats should be taken with a grain of salt, but it’s been a shaky start for Griffin in his new threads.
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Photographer: Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire
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