After rolling to three straight wins, most recently earning a win over the OKC Thunder's preseason lineup, the Atlanta Hawks look prepared for the season opener on October 21st against the Orlando Magic. However, there's one last preseason game to play and it could prove to be an interesting one.
The Dallas Mavericks did an important piece of business with the Hawks this summer as they took on Zaccharie Risacher's contract in the trade that sent Lu Dort to Atlanta. The former No. 1 overall pick for the Hawks will be poised to show Atlanta what they're missing in tonight's preseason game. He's now teammates with another No. 1 overall pick in Cooper Flagg, who had a strong rookie season for the Mavericks. Flagg probably won't play in tonight's preseason game given that he didn't suit up for Dallas's last preseason game against New Orleans.
The game against Dallas won't show up in the standings, but it is the last evaluation point for head coach Quin Snyder before he consolidates his regular season rotation. It's a good opportunity to evaluate Atlanta's performance against another team that is clearly vying for a postseason berth this season.
Game Preview
Return of Risacher
After arriving in Dallas, Zaccharie Risacher hasn't exactly shattered expectations. He's averaging 10.3 points per game and shooting a measly 18.8% from 3-point range. To be fair, he did have a pretty good game against the Rockets. In that game, Risacher scored 16 points, grabbed three rebounds and dished out two assists.
Tonight's game is going to be the first time that the former No. 1 overall pick has gotten a chance to play his former team and will be coming out with something to prove.
Ejiofor's Edge
While I am skeptical that the Hawks are going to play many, if any, of their top 6-7 rotation players, one player who should be getting some run tonight is rookie first-rounder Zuby Ejiofor.
The Hawks were looking to build an identity around defense and toughness this offseason and while most will point to the addition of Dort as evidence of that, Ejiofor is a part of that identity as well, even if he is not going to see the court as often as Dort is. So far this preseason, Ejiofor is averaging 7.8 PPG and 5.0 RPG in just under 16 minutes per game while shooting 50% from the field and 29% from three.
I think he is going to operate as the team's third center this year and if Jock Landale were to falter on defense, you might see Ejiofor on the court.
Kispert Conundrum
With the Hawks not playing their full rotation in every game, there have been a lot of Corey Kispert minutes, and it has not been a very positive experience.
Kispert has the second-highest defensive rating when on the court (not in a good way) and is only shooting 33% from three. If you are going to be a defensively challenged sharpshooter, you have to make shots at a high rate, or you are just not playable in today's NBA. I don't expect Kispert to get many minutes when Atlanta is healthy, but this preseason has shown that he might get more minutes than Hawks fans would like.
How to Watch
Today's game will be shown at 7:00 p.m. ET and can be watched on NBA League Pass.
Projected Starters
G - CJ McCollum
G - Nickeil Alexander-Walker
G/F - Dyson Daniels
F - Jalen Johnson
C - Onyeka Okongwu
Until they are actually ruled out by the team, I am just going to project that the Hawks main rotation will play.
Add us as a preferred source on Google