Hawks Film Room Ep 52: First Look at Nickeil Alexander-Walker & Luke Kennard! | Film Breakdown

Hawks Film Room Ep 52: First Look at Nickeil Alexander-Walker & Luke Kennard! | Film Breakdown

What’s up, family? Welcome back. I mean, I am I am elated. I am I’m having so much fun. Um, Nquille Alexander Walker is in a Hawks uniform. Luke Canard is in a Hawks uniform. Very shrewd, financially sound that moves that maximize optionality. Shout out on Sole, man. I mean, it’s really hard to have a better off seasonason than this. Like, we’ll talk about everything. It does hurt to lose Caris Levert. I do think there are more moves percolating, but all things considered, um I am endlessly uh impressed with what he has done so far. And the biggest thing to me too um just so much versatility offensively, defensively, closing lineups, starting lineups, offensively slanted lineups, defensively slanted lineups. There are so many fun things to talk about, right? Um, so let’s start with I think it’s probably the most premier acquisition, which would be Nikquil Alexander Walker. So this ended up being a uh signing trade with me Minnesota. Uh, ended up costing the Hawks four years uh and 62 million, which comes out to about 15 a.5 I believe. Um, just double check that. Um, but what I like about this deal is that because it’s at 15.5, um, the Hawks could potentially put in the MLE. They ended up putting it in the trade exception, I believe. Um, so that ended up cutting the $25 the Jonte trade exception to uh 11 or something like that. I have to double check the numbers. Um, there are a lot of like financial stipulations that are still kind of all across the board just because the Hawks have so many different exceptions and and uh they have the trade exceptions, they have the MLE, they have a bunch of stuff and so you don’t have to use all of it on one player. So, as I pull up the graphic to show you guys, uh, Bobby Murk’s graphics are really helpful for stuff like this because the cap stuff can get very confusing, but essentially, uh, they absorbed, um, Nikil Alexander Walker’s contract into the trade exception, which is why it’s 11.3 million. They still have the Bogna Baronovis trade exception, which is 13, and then the AJ Griffin, and I forget who the other one is. They then took the Luke Canard contract, which was $11 million, and put that in the non-tax MLE, which comes out to, I think, 14.1 or so was the MLE this year. Um, and so they ended up, they still have $3 million left there. Right now, currently signed on the roster, they have five, uh, the starting five. I think ongoing you have Luke Canard, Nikil Alexander Walker, and then V creich, Kobe Buffkin, Kongu, Mohamed Gay. Those are guys are signed. Uh, Asa Newell has not been signed, but he probably will be. Um, you still have Larry Nance and Keon Wallace, Don Barlo, and Garrison Matthews as free agents. Um, the Nquille deal is a really is a really big win for the Hawks because I think that combo guard archetype, by the way, I I did put this link on my Twitter, but uh, one of my favorite Grizzlies fan grizzly fan accounts, he did a really good piece about the importance of a combo guard and the prevalence of that archetype over the last couple championship teams, right? Of course, OKC has a ton of those guys. Alex Cruso, Case Wallace, Lou Dor guys who can toggle between being a two, a three, and sometimes even a one, right? You need those guys who can scale up and down a plus defenders. They’re disruptive. They can hit open shots that can keep the ball moving. Nil Alexander Walker is 100% from that same mold. He’s not a as defensively dominant as someone like an Alex Kuso. He’s not as offensively gifted at times as someone like I guess like a Andrew Nehard, but he is a very very very very solid player and he fits really well with what the Hawks are trying to do in terms of defensive playmaking, transition conversion, tertiary playmaking. Um I was so excited for Nquil Alexander Walker. I was pulling clips before free agency even started. That’s how much I believe that he would be in a Hawks uniform and lo and behold uh he ended up in a Hawks uniform as everything should be. Um, and so as I pull those clips up, I I’ll sort of walk you through some of the things I really noticed about his games, things I love. We’ll start let’s think. Uh, I think we’ll start defensively, you know, that’s I think that’s the the thing he’s most known for. Um, in Minnesota, too. And and let me actually let me say that for the offensive stuff, but yeah, he’s he’s 6’5 in shoes with a 69 wingspan. He’s really 6’4. Uh, he has uses his length really well. uh he’s not in ball screen navigation, 98th percentile and offensive f fouls drawn per game and of course there is this there’s always this thinking of like guys who can mentor other young guys right has a very similar frame to a Kobe Buffett he plays a very similar game to a Kobe Buffkin he some in some ways plays a similar game to Dyson Daniels his ability to use his length and his positioning to beat guys who are bigger than him stronger than him or these fronting guys we’ll see it in the clips um I think he could really help show Kobe Buffkin what he should be able to do given that Kobe somewhat has a little bit better physical tools. Um, but the thing that really stands out to me about Nquille is his ability to um take the ball away from people while he’s behind them or he’s on their hip, right? So, he uses that plus five wingspan to just tap this away from José Alvarado with his left hand. Just very clean steel. I love this play here. This is a this they’re basically trying to set up this alleyoop, right? So, if you see the way that the Lakers are aligned, they’re trying to isolate um Nquille as the low man here. I don’t know why this is buffering, but they’re trying to isolate Nikquil as a low man. Um, wow, Twitter is garbage. Let me pull that back off for y’all. Um, so they’re trying to isolate him as a low man, which is why they have Ruo Hachimuro cutting through and uh they’re pulling uh Nas Reed away from the rim. Right as Reeves comes down this pin down, it now isolates Nquille as a low man. Now watch what he does against Jackson Hayes. That is breaking up a lob at 65 as the lowman. Using that length to his advantage, high pointing the ball, getting all ball. Okay, now this is this isn’t something he did every time, but it’s the type of plays that you can only make with great positioning, understanding where plays are developing and having the length the requisite length to do so as well and the timing with the hands. Right here, he’s again as a low man, he’s guarding too because Lud Dort stampeding from the corner and he’s able to force Lud Dort to double pump and then take it away from him. Um he’s very good at coming out of nowhere. He just takes the ball away from KPJ here on the on that pull up three. Again, here you’re going to see the backtapping and the screen navigation. or actually that was a ghost. But as Deon Booker gets past him, you still see his ability to back tap it away from Deon Booker. And these are like the best types of steals. I think they got out and scored in transition there. Again, here back tap. Duncan Robson gets a step on him. Wolves are going the other way. Easy two points for Dante Devenenzo. Very big thing for the Hawks because they got out in transition a lot, but they didn’t score very effectively on those possessions. They’re going to need another guy as opposed to just Dyson who can generate those opportunities. here. He was able to time it up perfectly to get that block on Denny. Perpetually active, man. And the defensive metrics love him. Uh his advanced numbers are really, really good for uh his role, but also just in general. If you’re looking at he’s at 90th percentile in perimeter iso defense, 98th percentile in defensive shot quality influence, 77th percentile in blocks, 73rd percentile in deflections per 75. And the Hawks now have four guys who are in the 50th percentile, 70th percentile or higher in deflections. You got Dyson Daniels who led the league in deflections. You got Jaylen Johnson, Mohamed Gay, and now in the kill Alexander Walker. They technically have five guys who are in the top 50th percentile if you include Zachary Ruiz as well. So, the Hawks are building to be a disruptive team. I’ve talked a little bit about the turnover economy on Twitter, Tik Tok, YouTube, all over. The ability to influence your opponent’s inability to take care of the ball is the best way to play defense in the modern NBA, right? Everyone is so good at creating their their offense, getting to the spots that if you just take the ball away from them, you’re creating the best opportunities possible for your team while completely preventing their ability to score the ball. Like I think this is a great example right here. When you see Nquille jump that pass, there’s no better opportunity. There’s no better play type, more efficient play type than transition buckets. And uh he was able to generate a lot of those with his disruption. Now offensively, uh we’re talking about a guy who shot 51% from the right corner, 44% from the left corner. Um he ended up I think averaging nine points per game and and 20 minutes played on average in uh Minnesota. And while Minnesota did get a boost in playmaking from someone like from Julius Randall and Anthony Evers took a bit of a leap and of course that Mike Connley this is the first like motionheavy offense that we’re going to see in he’s kind of he was played in Utah for a little bit. He played in New Orleans and he’s always kind of been with these ball dominant guys. Now there it’s outside of Jokic or Luca like if you haven’t played with those guys then you’ve never played with a Trey Young right um but even in those types of less conducive situations he shot 38% from three overall 58 true shooting percentage one of the best spacers in the league as well so he had a plus five relative true shooting percentage on spacing looks and I think all those things will only continue to be better in the context while playing for the Hawks because again the Hawks were first in shot quality and second in three-point openness rating and we were one of the worst in the league at converting on that shot quality. So, now you got guys who are not just great shooters, but can do a little bit more with the ball than just put the ball in the basket. So, let’s look at a couple examples of those. Uh, I love Nil’s ability to drive closeouts. He’s a very quick processor. So, here he’s going to take Ryan Dunn off the dribble, pump fake, get him shifting. Then, he’s going to counter that the fact that Ryan Dunn cuts his drive off with the spin. And as he gathers, he reads the help from Mason Plumbley. and look at this no look past the to Julius Randle for a poster. Like I think um in a lot of ways Hawks fans have come to love Verie’s ability to make passes similar to that. Um the difference between a guy like Nikquil Alexander Walker and Luke Canard and a V creature is that these guys have more offensive gravity. They’re more viable defensive players. Um this is actually a really crazy pass. It may not look like it at first, but as Nquille is running down the floor, he has a threeon two developing. Shenon is trying to split the difference between two. So when the kill picks the ball up and goes like this, he’s actually looking at Mike Connley in the corner. And you’ll notice that Shenon peels off of Terence Shannon Jr. and you see, watching Shingun’s reaction here. Can I zoom in? I don’t think so. But if you Shangon throws his hands up. I was like, he’s like, “Oh, like I completely messed it up because he didn’t know where the ball was going.” That’s the type of manipulation you don’t see from many role players. Um, he can attack out of handoffs, out of pick and roll. Uh, he does a great job finding inventive ways to get it to the big man. So again, here, look at a little little bit of that manipulation. He’s going to gather at the free throw line, throw that initial pump fake, then gather like he’s going to go for layup, and then just wrap it around Shinkun’s back, and he’s completely out of position. And again, that’s a level manipulation and passing creation you don’t get from most roleplaying wings, but we’re talking about a pretty supercharged combo guard that uh is a plus defender as well. There were 11 players who I think had a B+ or higher in Ball index’s database for like finishing, shot creation, shooting ability and there were also a C or higher in defense and Aquil Alexander Walker was one of those select 11. So, uh, he does a lot of different things well for the Hawks. The one thing I will caution against, while you do see him bring the ball up the court, running pick and roll, you do not want him here, he’s going to run double drag and he’s going to end up getting that lob to Rudy. You do not want him as like your primary backup point guard only. Like he cannot be the only guy ball handling. you kind of saw his limitations against OKC. Again, it is OKC, but when he was asked to initiate offense and do a lot for Minnesota and get them into their sets and and take care of the ball, he wasn’t necessarily able to do that. Um, that’s why you got to understand what you’re getting in a guy when you trade for him or sign him, right? The Hawks, they didn’t necessarily understand what they were getting for Deontay and that that’s why he ended up being so underwhelming for Nquille. This is a tertiary decision maker plus defender, great spacer who can share, he can share ball handling duties, but he should not be the only guy. And that’s where the Hawks make a lot of sense, right? You have Dyson Daniels who can handle the ball. You have creature, you have Jaylen Johnson, and now you have Nil Alexander Walker and Luke Canard who we’ll take a look at after read. Just look at a couple more clips from Nquille. Um, I think he’s going to have a really good season for us in Atlanta. Uh, the the contract he got was more than fair. He’s at 10% of the cap. And again, for an archetype that’s very very coveted and outside of, you know, we would have been paying Terrence Man that money. Think about it that way. Okay. Uh you basically swapped Terrence Man’s contract, yes, for a first, but you ended up giving that contract to someone who’s a much more useful player, has a lot more utility, um a better defender, better passer, better shooter, like a full-on upgrade. And the difference between that alone is a first. Now imagine it’s basically a difference in that draft between now we got that 2026 first from New Orleans. So a brain like a no-brainer for me. Um really good signer. There’s a reason why Nquille is one of the headline free agents. If you even go on the NBA website, Nquille is the first person you see when you load up the site. And I think it’s really cool for the Hawks to get a marquee free agent. It may be an underwhelming class and you know it isn’t LeBron or it isn’t KD, but the Hawks are building a very solid team. You’re seeing other national media members give us respect. I was like, I didn’t even know that was possible, man. Like, Bill Simmons is calling us out. Zack Low, uh, Sam Vini, John Hollinger, like all people who are making really positive comments about the Hawkswitch, which honestly, man, a really a great feeling because it hasn’t always been that way. Like, I’m sure all of you are aware. Now, Luke Canard is the next guy. We signed him on a a one-year 11 million deal. One second, let me get some water. Sent him on a one-year $1 million deal. um optionality. Shout out on Cisle. Uh that’s a really good way to keep the books clean for the 2026 season. They are going to probably sign Dyson to an extension. I do sign Andrey to extension. They seem a little get a little bit more expensive, right? So, you want to be able to have the potential to bring him back if necessary, but also don’t commit yourself too long term. I think that Luke Canard is has always been respected as a shooter. Like I think, you know, even if you haven’t necessarily caught kept up with what he’s doing in Memphis, I’m sure you know that Luke Canor can shoot the ball. And uh yeah, the man can shoot. I think he is one of the best movement shooters in the NBA. And what makes that really important for the Hawks is that, you know, with Bogey gone, for sure, we haven’t had that. But quite honestly, I don’t shooter of Luke Canard’s caliber or play style since Kyle Corbin, right? someone who’s running off screen, someone who can make those short roll dribble passes, who can get to the cup out of flare screens by curling. Luke Canar can do it all. He’s grown so much as a playmaker, right? I love the way he moves off the ball. So, here he’s going to act like he’s not going to use this screen from uh Also, by the way, Memphis is a really inventive offense. But first, it looks like Brandon Clark’s going to set a ball screen for Scott Pippen Jr., but he’s actually faking this to set it into a a pin down for Luke Canard, who gets a running start. Keonte George is completely out of position and that is a 46% let me say it one more time 46% three-point shooter on over 10 threes per 100 possessions. That’s what Luke Canard has done over the last three years. Okay, if you leave him open he will make it. Now watch the movement here. Okay, the movement is key. He’s going to be open here for the handoff, but with Brandon Clark catching it deeper in the paint, he knows if he relocates, he can make that pass easier and get himself open. Again, 46% three-point shooter. He is very dangerous. He can get to his spots out of anywhere, right? This is going to be a brush screen, guard to guard screen. He’s just going to open up. Lakers can’t communicate that well enough. You see the pump fake and then he shoots this in a phone booth and you see the quickness of the relief, the release. He doesn’t see these guys around him. Just fires it up, paying cash out. Um I think he has a extremely quick release, very reliable, very repeatable. Here he is running pick and roll, getting all the way to the rim. Again, he’s not just a shooter. He can put the ball on the floor. And we’ll take a look at some of the passing once we look at the movement. This is a full-on football route. Okay, I think this is my favorite play that I found from him. First, the back screen for Jaylen Wells. When this happens, watch what he does sham pump fake. I’m acting like I’m going to the rim. Then I’m going to hit the brakes and then completely leave him out of the desk and then he’s wide open. Then he pump fakes him again. He’s completely off the screen. That’s nasty. That’s nasty work. Um yeah, here he is running off of and I do think in some ways uh it’s really good that we have KP even though I don’t think KP is the level screener that Ed is or the passer or you know the intuitive dribble handoff hub. Having a big you know outside of an to set those screens is going to be really important. Uh they can do some interesting things with Jaylen Johnson I’d imagine as well you might even be able to do some guardto guard stuff. Um here he got really custom running off these pin downs from uh Zack Edy. He’s very comfortable on the in between game. He gets to the floater. He can get to the rim. Here you see that guard to guard screen. Again, if teams don’t comfortably switch that, he’s just too good of a shooter to leave open and he will make you pay. Um he really helped the Hawks capitalize on that shot quality. I love this inverted look here. Like again, like this is what I’m saying. Memphis is really, really smart with the way they draw plays. So here they’re they’re doing a back screen to get Zack Edy to cut across towards the rim. Lakers don’t want to they can’t switch this, right? because that’s Austin Reeves guarding Luke Canard and then they still try to show because because Zach Editi gets a step and he has a large catch radius and then Luke Canard just pops out. So they could do that they could do that exact same thing with Jaylen Johnson. They can do it with Tyson Daniels. Anyone who has a guard on them um when and is a is a interior threat. He could do it with KP. It will be really interesting to see the things they can cook up with Luke. I think he’s going to unlock the most offensive stuff out of the guys we’ve signed. Um, it would not surprise me in the slightest, if any, combo of Trey, Luke, and Jaylen is one of our best threeman defensive combos. Here you see him run off this initial action. Again, there’s a guard to guard screen. Uh, I think that’s I don’t even know who that is for Toronto, but he gets caught up on the screen. Boom. Guard screen inverted for Jiren Jackson. He’s just going to release and be open. And again, you see how dangerous he is as a shooter getting guys off their feet and he’s able to comfortably hit those mid-range pull-ups, right? Like there’s other guys, you know, like if this is Garrison Matthews, he’s not able to like to be able to just put the ball on the floor and get to a mid-range. It’s going to have to be a step, a sidestep three. If you sidestep now, it’s easier to make that contest for DeJonte. It’s easier to recover if you’re to side step. When you can drive past someone and get to your spot, a lot easier to to actually turn that into positive buckets. So, um, Luc is really, really dynamic as a offensive player. U, I think you can actually put it in his hands and have him make decisions. Again, like this is a good example. Also, just to emphasize this point, Memphis had John Rant off the ball to let guys like Luke Canard initiate. Okay, that should tell you how good he is. Here’s the pick and roll. He’s going to get deep enough to force the big to get to be switched off of Zack Edy and then he’s going to get the ball to Zack Edy. Now, both Pelicans are kind of panicking because the small is on Zack and Big is recovering. Now, Luke is just going to recover out the space and he can get his feet set from any position. He could be back pedaling. He could be running 20 miles an hour. He can be lifting. He can be diving to the corner. He could be shooting in transition. He can be offbalance, on balance. Again, look at the movement. And this is really powerful. Okay, he starts off on the in the right corner. He’s and he’s just going to take advantage of the fact that Houston hasn’t adjusted their shell. He’s going to go to the open space and then get guys in the air, put the ball on the floor, and drill the shot. Uh he’s going to be a lot a lot of fun. Like, I actually cannot wait to see what he looks like. Uh, I think he’s going to really thrive off of Jaylen’s penetration, off of Dyson’s penetration, off of Trey Young’s passing, of course. Now, let’s look at his his passing. Now, Luke Canard is not known as a passer. I can tell you right now, though, that he’s coming off the best playmaking season, okay? He averaged 3.3 potential assists per one minute on the ball. He averaged 19 assist points per 100 possessions. 19 for a guy who started off as a shooter. Right here, you see that same guard to guard action, except now Luke is the one handling. He’s going to get downhill, get two feet in the paint. You’re going to see Desmond Bane go from relocate from the wing to the corner. Z Luke sees him here. He’s actually going to wait for him to get to the corner, pump fake, be completely under control, and then look at this bounce pass right into Desmond Bane shooting pocket is able to get all the way to the rim. Um, here’s against the Hawks again. You’re going to see that flip screen from Zack. Luke’s going to get downhill. He’s going to act like he’s going to shoot that to get Lance in the air, wrap it around his back, and it’s a easy dunk for Zack Edy. Okay, this is this isn’t the type of playmaking craft you see from most movement shooters, right? He’s going to drive this drive and kick one hand bullet pass through two Raptors defenders directly into John Contra’s pack pocket, man. Yeah, this is the type of guy the Hawks just signed for $11 million. Again, less than 10% of the cap. A really dynamic movement shooter. Someone we have not had in my opinion since a Kyle Quiver. Uh his role will be very similar to Bogdan Bdanovich though. I think it’ll be just be a little bit more movement based. Boogie was a much more proficient self-creator where he didn’t necessarily need a lot of movement to get open. Uh Luke will need that a little bit more, but that’s fine because again, the Hawks are built for movement. So, here they’re going to start him on the block. He’s going to run into this handoff from Zack Edy. Now, you’re going to have Desmond uh lift and you’re going to have Zack Edy dive to the rim. When this happens, it pulls in this lower defender to sort of tag Zach and then Luke is able to get this around and through the defense directly into Santi Alama who keeps it catches it high, keeps it high. U I I love Memphis’s offense. A lot a lot of things the Hawks can take from here. I think all these sets that Luke is effective in will work really well with Ona Congo because Brandon Clark is a similar big man in terms of the touch in the in the short range or the short role. Like Brandon Clark has a really nice push floater. On has that same thing. They have the lob radius. they have screening ability. He’ll be really good with him. Um, I also think he’ll be really interesting with KP, of course, too, because KP can pick a pop. But yeah, Luke can actually throw passes like this. Um, driving closeouts. Again, you see the threat that he is as a shooter, but also as a driver. So, you see how because he demands that level close out, it’s easier for him to get downhill. And then you see the defense suck in. They’re worried about that initial lob to Brandon Clark. And he’s able to read this and throw this without really looking at Santi and get it directly to Santi. So, um, with these things in mind, man, I think the Hawks bench offense will be a lot better than it has been in prior years. It really does hurt to miss Caris Levert. Okay. And because Caris LeVert is not, it was always going to be tough to retain Caris and get Luke Canard in and um, the Kila Alexander Walker. If you’re looking at the financials, the Hawks would 100% be paying the tax because right now we are $8 million below the tax line, I believe. or uh yeah, let me pull it up so I’m not giving y’all the wrong information. But last I saw we were $8 million below the tax line. Uh and of course if you sign Caris Levert for what he’s worth, which is the Moe, if not more, then you’re looking at paying the tax. And I do think this Hawks team is good enough now to be paying the tax. But I also will understand why they wouldn’t necessarily do this, you know, off the bat. Um just because, you know, Oh yeah, sorry. They’re Yeah, they’re $7.5 million under the tax. Uh they still have some room before getting to the first apron. Um they they now have three open roster spots. So, with all that being said, I want to share with you guys my first initial stab at building the rotation. Now, this isn’t necessarily how I would run the rotation. It’s just more so how I think the rotation will shake out um with, you know, some of the tendencies that Quinn Snder has and the guys we have on the roster. So, uh, the first look at it, um, if I’ll have this in this view, Trayong has played 36 minutes. He’s averaged 36 minutes backtoback seasons. Okay, that’s not great. It’s not great for a couple reasons. First thing is, you know, he has the Achilles soreness, right, that he’s dealt with all season. And then there’s just no need to continue to overextend him when you have a plethora of other ball handlers, right? So, I’ve got Trey at 33 minutes, which would be the lowest he’s played since his rookie season. All right. All right. And now, of course, things are fluid, optionality, you know, versatility. You can play him more or less depending on the night. Dyson, I’ve also got a 33 minutes. He averaged 34ish uh this season, which ticked up a lot after Jaylen went down. Zachary at 29. I think the biggest hole on the roster right now is definitely at wing. Jaylen has the has the most moments per game at 34, Anek at 33, Nquil at 25 minutes, Chris Staps at 20, Luke Canard at 16, Mo at 9, Verche at 8. Now, some things I think we’ll definitely note. I think that Quinn will play Kristoffs more minutes. I just don’t I personally, if I was to project this, I don’t want Kristoffs playing more than six minutes at a time. And with that being said, I think that it really depends to like how they view Mogay. I think Mogay has earned the backup, the first crack at the backup four minutes. I don’t think we’ll see Ace New play in a consequential fashion this season. If not, and if we do, it would be like after the trade deadline um after he spent a good amount of time in College Park because and again, I will say some of this for when I break him down in in one of my YouTube videos, but he is he needs to put on a lot of strength. His spatial awareness off the ball is really is really rough and he is going to be a four in the NBA context. And so, if he’s going to be defending off the ball, you can’t afford to have a guy like that who doesn’t necessarily know where to be positioned, doesn’t close out cleanly, doesn’t box out cleanly. Again, all things I’ll highlight in my deep dive on his game. Um, so I do think he’ll be out of the rotation to begin and I think Mo will be there. Now, it doesn’t take a lot to get to surpass Mo as just and that may sound a little disrespectful, but just in terms of like how gifted Mo is defensively, he’s also pretty raw offensively still, right? So, he’s been in this system for going on three years now. Um, if they don’t see offensive improvement and and Assa comes around or Asa comes around well pretty quickly, it could be he could snatch his chain. Um, so my initial stab rotation, I think they’ll start Rezach. I do think Nquilo is a better player now. Doesn’t mean that Rez can’t start over him or that Rez won’t be better. I think Nikquilo is a better player now. Um, there’s an argument to be made whether Nquille should start. I think if Reza Shay is on the same trajectory that he had after January 1, I think you start him right. We’re talking about someone who’s a 40% three-point shooter, 610. What I need to see from Rez is some additional aggressiveness, uh, effectiveness shooting at the rim, some more rebounding emphasis as well. Uh, at 610, he only averaged three. I would love to see that bump up to five or six. Would definitely give the Hawks a lot more comfortability switching on the perimeter if they can trust Reser to clean up the glass, right? A lot of that strength related though, of course. Um, I think that they’ll probably lean on Luke Canard as a backup PG, but again by committee and I think you’ll see V creichi play minutes in there. I think you’ll see the kill play minutes in the non-trade minutes. I think at least two of Canard and and Nquille and V and Dyson should be on the floor. So, um, if you do it that way, then I think you don’t have to worry about the ball security and initiation as much as long as one of the two of those four on the floor at any time because again, they can all dribble the ball. So they can all initiate to some extent but with both of them on the floor I feel a lot lot more comfortable. Um so I think you start off with your starters for about six minutes then I start to trickle in V and Nquille in the first quarter. Uh I again I kind of just believe that once you start playing guys sort of guys can definitely go the entire quarter or they can go eight nine minute stretches. Nquille is one of those guys. You’ll see I have him playing nine minutes or 10 minutes straight here. I’m not concerned about that, especially with the break, but I wouldn’t necessarily want to do that with Chris Stops and I I would consider not doing that with someone like uh a Jaylen Johnson, right? Um I think against small forward is a big hole for me. I don’t want to overextend Dyson here and play him there. I think I can close with Dyson and I can close with Akil at shooting guard. I think I can do that, but throughout the game, I’d rather not play Dyson there if necessary. I will close my second in my fourth quarter with him there because I do think the best roster, the best lineup for the Hawks ne next season will have Trey, Dyson, Nquille, Jaylen, and Porzingis. I think that’ll be our best five. The best offensive lineup will have Trey, Luke, and Jaylen in my opinion. The best defensive linement will have Trey or sorry, Nquille, Dyson, probably Jaylen is would be my guess. Right. So, if those are if that’s the core three for each type of lineup, I think putting Dyson in the kill in the closing lineups makes a lot of sense to me with Jaylen Johnson as the weak side rim protector. Um, and then depending on the opponent, you may or may not close with a na. I think if you’re closing against a team that has runs a lot of pick and roll, definitely close with if you’re closing against a bigger team, maybe like Orlando or uh even like a Denver where they’re they do run pick and roll, but it’s like you really need that rebounding help. you need a a presence around the rim. You could even go jumbo, possibly put Jaylen on the floor. Like I think the the closing lineups would be really interesting. In the defensive lineups, you have a lot of things to do. Um but I would guess they close with Nikil over Zack unless he’s on a heater or unless he takes a step forward, which I think they’ll basically treat Zack how they did last season where Caris closed a lot of those games because he’s just a better player at this point. Um the Hawks should have their their impetus should be to win games. Okay, they’re they’re good enough to compete seriously in this East. Um, it’s why I don’t see ASA in the rotation. It’s why I’m closing with Nquille. Now, Zachary could 100% on certain games close games. He can 100% be good enough throughout the season to earn the right to close games even if he’s not necessarily shooting the ball well. But I do think that Quinn as a veteran coach who again leaned on guys like even a Terrence man over Reese, I think that he will probably lean on Aquil Alexander Walker. I think the question will be how often will they play Trey with Luke? Because I think they’ll be really good offensively. But what’s the best front court pairing for that? Is it Chris and Ona, which I have playing here together? Is it Kristophs and Jaylen? Is it Chrisops and Gay? Is it Ona and Jaylen? They’ll have to figure that out. Um I think Verche is I have him virtually out of the rotation here alongside with Mo Gay, but there will be nights where he plays more. There will be nights where he plays less. Um they don’t necessarily need him to spot those minutes. I just want to give Dyson I don’t want to have Dyson playing more than 36 minutes a night with the defensive load we’re asking of him. Although he did do it really admirably this season. Um I think probably what I have the biggest difference between what I have right here and what will actually happen is probably the Porzingis minutes but I really think it comes down to like how fresh they want him to be. I think that if you want to make legitimate noise in the playoffs, Kristoff Porzingis needs to be healthy. He needs to be fresh. He cannot be overextended. he cannot be drained from the regular season. And that’s where my thought process is like 20 to 25 minutes a night is probably where I’d want to keep him. Um, we got to figure out what this viral infection was during the playoffs. I I He still doesn’t know. And that pretty clearly impacted his play. But even outside of that, even if that is something he’s going to have to continue fighting through, I still don’t want him playing like 30 plus minutes a night. He played 28 minutes a night in Boston. Now, Boston did blow out a lot of teams. They didn’t blow him out as much as they did last season, but they did. He didn’t close a lot of games to them. Again, they were typically winning those games by a large margin. Um, it would depend on the opponent and again, optionality is a privilege. Okay, it’s it’s a blessing to be able to say, “Hey, let’s close with our switchable uh three-point shooting dribble handoff big who can guard guards on the island or let’s let’s close with the original unicorn. Let’s close with Christos Porzingas. Let’s see what he can do for us offensively. to see the rim protection. Um, this team is so much fun. Like I above all, like above all these questions I’m talking to, you know, like some of the financial stuff, uh, I think this team is going to be a lot of fun. There’s a lot of pressure that I feel mounting, uh, that I hope they’re ready to deal with because the expectations are are gaining. Okay. With every great move, you’ve got to be able to prove that the the moves were justifiable and also that, um, they’re putting the right amount the right team around Trey. I think they are. I love seeing that Trey was advocating for Luke Canard and the Aquil Alexander Walker especially after he advocated for Dejonte Murray. You know, not every, you know, GMs aren’t great. GMs aren’t made in a day. Okay, Sam prey made mistakes too. And it seems like Trey Young is like, “Hey, I mean lean to the connectivity, the versatility, you know, the the.5 decision-making. Seems like he’s bought in. Quint Snder has his Joe Engles equivalent and Luke Canard. He has his Rudy Goar equivalent and Chris Porzingis. Let’s have fun. Let’s have optionality. Let’s play have versatility. Let’s close with NBA players and lineups as opposed to George and Yang at the four. Um, one of my favorite things said in the space today is that there are no excuses. There’s there’s no one you have to quintroof the lineup, right? Like you can’t put guys on there that he’s going to lean on because they’re vets but aren’t necessarily good players. One through 10, the Hawks have NBA players and the work’s not done. Larry Nance could be signed. They could pick up a wing somewhere. That would be my number one priority at this point. Um, yeah, Hawks are in a great great position. I can’t wait to get all this content to y’all. um working through clips have I have a lot of thoughts percolating on a rea lots of thoughts percolating on cryptops lots of thoughts percolating on this team in general so please please please stay locked in okay YouTube podcast stream Twitter Tik Tok I’m everywhere too forgot about that I’m going to start plugging that more um but yeah hope you all enjoyed this episode hope you learned a little thing a little little bit about Alexander Walker Luke Canard where our rotations could look like uh let me know what y’all think about that because I think that will probably be a big point of contention I already see my Twitter dimension is blowing up. So, I got to see what people are saying. But again, appreciate you guys for listening. Hope you all are enjoying what the Hawks are doing. We are on the path to glory. Okay. I I’m I feel it. I I have full faith in Otis Slathe, Trey Young, and Quinn Snder. Y’all be safe.

The Atlanta Hawks Film Room Podcast: a Hawks-centric series hosted by David Lee that brings fans from opposing teams to breakdown film and talk through the numbers that defined each and every game.

Episode 52 is a first look at the newest Hawks, Nickeil Alexander-Walker & Luke Kennard! Topics discussed include NAW’s defensive playmaking and tertiary playmaking ability, Luke Kennard’s movement shooting & shot creation, the biggest hole on the roster, my 1st guess at how the rotation will shake out and thoughts on moves still to come over the next couple of days.

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