The Atlanta Hawks hit the court tonight in their first preseason action of the year, and you could tell that the team was a little bit rusty.
It did not help that CJ McCollum, Lu Dort, and Mouhamed Gueye did not play in this game, nor did it help that Aaron Wiggins was injured in the first half of the game and did not return. The good news for Atlanta was that the starters played well to start the game, and when the team was down big in the second half, the players who were in, mostly two-way contracts and Exhibit 10 players, brought the Hawks back into the game. The bad news was that the defense in the second quarter allowed the Grizzlies to get ahead by a big margin and never look back.
So who are the winners and losers from tonight’s game?
Winner: Kingston Flemings
Flemings stat line is not going to wow, he only had 12 points on 4-11 shooting (2-6 from three), but he is a big winner because Quin Snyder opted to let him start in place of McCollum and let him get meaningful minutes that will allow him to grow.
The Hawks had a huge void at point guard on last year’s team after they moved Trae Young and that was one of the reasons that Flemings was drafted. He clearly has some trust with Snyder, who is not hesitant to play rookies in limited roles, and that is going to pay off this season.
Loser: Hawks Second Unit
Atlanta was controlling the game early on when the starting lineup of Flemings-Nickeil Alexander-Walker-Dyson Daniels-Jalen Johnson-Onyeka Okongwu was out there, but when the second unit of Flemings-Aaron Wiggins-Corey Kispert-Asa Newell-Jock Landale came in, that was a huge reason that the Hawks lost the second quarter 49-26 and allowed Memphis to shoot 8-11 from three.
I don’t think that is going to be a problem every night, but the defense in the second quarter was alarming in this game and something to watch.
Winner: Corey Kispert
Now, Kispert’s poor defense was one of the reasons that the Hawks had the awful second quarter, but he should get his props for having the night he did scoring the basketball.
Kispert scored 19 points tonight, shooting 7-11 from the field and 4-7 from three. His spot in the rotation on a night-to-night basis is questionable, but if he can shoot the ball like this, that is his ticket to get there.
Loser: Aaron Wiggins
Wiggins is not a massive loser, as he got injured in the first half and only played 10 minutes, but he was a team worst -13 in those minutes, scoring seven points, but not adding much else to the team.
I will say again, there should not be any major conclusions drawn from this game, but Wiggins is going to be asked to be a major contributor this season and he is going to have to play better moving forward.
Winners: Jalen Wilson and RayJ Dennis
Both Wilson and Dennis are on two-way contracts, but they have real NBA skill and they showed it tonight.
Both players scored 12 points and were a huge part in the Hawks being able to close the gap. Dennis was a team best +12 in this game while Wilson was a +8. Dennis had a huge season in the G-League for the Hawks last season while Wilson has played major minutes for the Brooklyn Nets over the past couple of seasons.
Will either player actually play for Atlanta this season? Probably not much, but Atlanta has to like what they saw tonight.
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