1. Will Glenn Robinson III Make the Hawks?
I recently just wrote an article on how GRIII should make the Hawks this season. He has been a fantastic summer league player for the Hawks averaging 11.8 points in just 21 minutes a game. He has never found a home in the NBA, but he is clearly athletic enough and can play good enough defense. His offensive game has struggled transitioning to the NBA, but he has improved his shot and it has shown in Summer League. He is 6-14 from behind the arc, and his shot looks really smooth. The Hawks do not have a real clear cut starter at small forward and will be rotating a lot of wing players in and out. Robinson could not only make the team, but perhaps play a nice role for the Hawks this upcoming season.
2. Should the Hawks start Thabo Sefalosha at Small Forward every night, or scheme for different opponents?
I think it is important to stick with a starting 5 throughout the main course of a season. Sure, if Thabo is really struggling moves will be made, but he preformed really well when on the court last season. Coach Bud likes to have the starting 5 play as one tight unit. We saw the benefits from that pay off last season. Thabo has a lot of experience and is great on defense. We also saw him get in a good rhythm with his jump shot last season. Thabo will start at the beginning of the season and will continue to start unless one of the new guys really step up.
3. Are the Hawks Finished in Free Agency?
It looks like the Hawks have made their moves in free agency. There may be a couple small acquisitions in the coming weeks, but I would not expect much. But anything can happen, just look what happened with Ty Lawson a few days ago.
4. Have the Hawks made enough moves to fix the rebounding situation?
The Hawks rebounding was awful last season, and they were really exposed in the playoffs because of it. The coaching staff kind of shrugged it off, but they knew changes needed to be made down low. That is why the first moved of the free agency period was to acquire Tiago Splitter. Splitter is going to do wonders for the Hawks next year. He is one of the most underrated players in the game and the acquisition of him alone makes the frontcourt a great one. Being able to rotate Splitter, Millsap and Horford down low for 48 minutes is going to be a nightmare for opponents. We also will not have to ever see Pero Antic again. That will prove to be a HUGE help next season. I also think Mike Muscala has made the necessary strides to become a solid NBA bench player. He can really spread the floor with his shooting and get rebounds. He needs to work on staying out of foul trouble, but he likely will never get enough minutes for that to be a problem. The Hawks will be good on the boards next season and dominate in the low post.
5. One good reason why we gave up our first round pick?
Well, I think there are many, but here is the best one. Coach Budenholzer really likes Tim Hardaway Jr. and has been keeping an eye on his game. If you read our interview with Atlanta Hawks play by play announcer, Bob Rathbun, he tells us that Coach Budenholzer has watched tons of tape and still watches tons of tape of NBA players and keeps tabs on the ones he really likes. He did this with Kent Bazemore when the Spurs played the Warriors in the playoffs a few years ago. He noticed Bazemore on tape and felt he was undervalued. Two years later, he is in a Hawks uniform playing like nobody else thought he could play. Hardaway Jr. is a lot better than Bazemore and should do wonders now that he is off the dreadful Knicks. Trust Coach Budenhozer. He knows what he is doing.