Fantasy Review For 2018/19 Season:
Thanks to Trae Young’s uique skill set they were fast, they were exciting, they were passing and most importantly, they were good in the second part of the season. Their season was highlighted by young players whos developement exceeded all expectations: Young, Huerter, Collins, Len and even Spellman.
Changes in the offseason:
Lost = Omari Spellman, Dewayne Dedmon, Taurean Prince, Kent Bazemore
Added = Damian Jones, DeAndre Hunter, Cam Reddish, Allen Crabbe, Evan Turner
They are being very consistent with their team vision, adding more and more young pieces to their core.
Projected Depth Chart:
| PG | SG | SF | PF | C |
| Trae Young | Kevin Huerter | DeAndre Hunter | John Collins | Alex Len |
| Evan Turner | Cam Reddish | Jabari Parker | Vince Carter | Damian Jones |
| Charles Brown | Allen Crabbe | DeAndre’ Bembry | Chandler Parsons | Bruno Fernando |
Positional Battles: SF
Hawks rotation right now seems to have a clear shape with very little of a meaningful doubt. Only question about possible roles could be raised about Small Forward spot and even there, there is no doubt about who is the starter. That role belongs to DeAndre Hunter, with Jabari Parker being used as an offensive punch off the bench. Only the minutes split is an unknown, especially with also DeAndre Bembry contending for rotation role behind the two.
Fantasy Relevant in leagues with 12- to 15-teams:
He is a very talented and a bit flawed big man, what brings in question his real value as a fantasy cotributor. Right now he projects as a Top30 fantasy 9 cat player, but the problem lies in his stat distribution. While drafting a center so high in fantasy you would expect quite reasonable defensive stats, and John Collins is probably the worst in that regard in the top tier of big man. His projected 1.0 blocks and 0.7 steals have to be be considered optimistic after his last season defensive meltdown, what limits his ceiling. Any drop in one of his three great categories – points, rebounds and field goal percentage, could heavily influence his overall value. You could also argue, that rebounds and field goal percentage could be easily snapped later in the 40 to 80 range, and with a price of a high pick that comes with Johns Collins, he just might be not worth it.
Making almost 2 threes a game in the last two months of the season he became some kind of poor man’s version of Brook Lopez. He has an legit chance of becoming 2 threes – 1 block guy, while also delivering some points, rebounds and positive FG%. He should be drafted in top100-120 range with an upside of around Top80.
One year was more than enough for this young man to take over the whole state of Georgia. Year after his trade for Luka Doncic we know that it had two winners, with both organizations getting their new, exciting franchise players. Young first year in the NBA was a bumpy road as for the first three months he wasn’t even top200 fantasy player… as expected. The surprise came later with his talent exploding after the All Star Weekend. He was a top50 fantasy 9cat player for the last two months of the season and a boarderline top10 player for the last two weeks. He owes his rapid progress to his steadily improving FG% and an assist/TO rate. Those two features were supposed to be his flaws for years and shockingly he solved them both in the second part of his rookie season. Its worth noting that during his late run he was making only around 2 threes per game, a value that could be even doubled in his sophomore season. He enters his second year as unquestionable team leader… and the only true point guard in the team. Also his GM is very vocal about Hawks plan of playing him around 35 minutes, what seems extremely encouraging for his fantasy owners. With that workload he enters a top20-30 territory and due to his improved shooting he looks like an elite fantasy point guard.
If you think about him as a JJ Redick/Kyle Korver type… stop. Hunter might be much much more, with balanced production across the line, including decent defensive stats. What brings him down are shooting percentages, as he was horrific in FG% and slightly negative in FT%. If he only manages to bring his FG% to the 43-44 levels, he will immediately become top100 fantasy contributor.
Could be useful with trades/injuries:
Damian Jones, Bruno Fernando, Jabari Parker, Cam Reddish, DeAndre Hunter
Just don’t bother with:
DeAndre Bembry, Evan Turner, Allen Crabbe, Vince Carter, Chandler Parsons
Don’t forget to check the rest of the Atlanta Hawks fantasy basketball projections.
Posted in Teams preview