A couple of weeks ago against the Nets, De’Andre Hunter had one of the best games of his Hawks career, dropping a season-high 26 points on 10-of-11 shooting and going a perfect 6-for-6 from deep. But unfortunately, Dre was recently ruled out for eight weeks after undergoing wrist surgery, which was announced a few days ago. He was in the midst of his best season as a shooter, hitting 39.5% from distance and 45% from the floor.
The Hawks will have to replace those valuable minutes, and though Atlanta is better tooled to handle the loss offensively, they can ill-afford to lose a player with Hunter’s defensive pedigree, who drew the opposing team’s best offensive player on most nights. Today, Atlanta will square off with the Boston Celtics, and Nate McMillan told the media that Cam Reddish and Solomon Hill would be the primary replacements guarding Jayson Tatum.
Without De’Andre Hunter, McMillan named Cam Reddish and Solomon Hill as defenders with length who may play some of what would’ve been Hunter’s minutes guarding Tatum tonight.
— Kevin Chouinard (@KLChouinard) November 17, 2021
It is terrible news to hear about De’Andre Hunter. Still, a silver lining is an opportunity for others to get valuable minutes in a less-than-important part of the season, namely Cam Reddish. The former Duke standout might be Atlanta’s best wing defender to match up with Tatum, who the Celtics’ offense will run through with Jaylen Brown out.
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