Atlanta Hawks: Kobe Bufkin scouting report, deep dive, player capsule, offense, defense, future, etc

Atlanta Hawks: Kobe Bufkin scouting report, deep dive, player capsule, offense, defense, future, etc

On today’s show, I am joined once again by my friend Glenn Willis of ATLN29 to discuss another player capsule. This time, it’s Kobe Buffkin, his future, his present, and more. Coming up, you are Locked on Hawks, your daily Atlanta Hawks podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. Hello friends, welcome to episode 2035 of the Loftton Hawks podcast. I am your host Brad Rolling coming to you here in early August and today’s podcast is brought to you by the folks at FanDuel Sportsbook. And right now if you’re a new customer get 150 in terms of dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins at FanDuel. I also want to encourage you at the top of the show as I always do to make Locked on Hawks your first listen each and every day. Check us out and subscribe to the show anywhere you find your podcast. That includes Apple, includes Spotify. We’re also on YouTube. So, please like this video as you’re watching it. And of course, be sure to tell your friends and your family and your colleagues about this podcast. Today, we’ll be diving into Kobe Buffin. If you missed it, over the last few weeks and even months, I’ve been doing a player capsule series with my friend Glenn Willis of ATL29, where we kind of take a deep dive into players on the Hawks roster. Most recently, we did a look at at the some of the two-way guys on the roster. We have all kinds of backlog of these player capsules and uh Mo Gay was also broken down recently on the podcast and today it’s Kobe Buffkin. I will also plug our shows earlier on this week. I did a podcast about Trey Young when it came to dear Fox and kind of framing that conversation about his extension. Also did a show on Wednesday I guess Tuesday into Wednesday with Frank Madden of locked on Bucks talking about the Bucks and a very interesting year to follow the Bucks because the Hawks have at least part of their unprotected first round pick this season. So listen to those podcasts, tell your friends. But without any further delay, we’ll dive in right now to myself and Glenn discussing Kobe Buffkin. I’m joined once again by my good friend Glenn Willis, another player capsule on the horizon and a guy we just talked about not that long ago because he played in summer league. Glenn, how are you? Yeah, I’m good. I’m good. Uh I think uh this this should be a fun one and might and I already anticipate your reaction in the comments, so we’ll see how that goes. Yeah, I think we are objectively the two of us higher than Kobe Buffkin than the fan base. Y um you never want to pigeon hole the entire fan base, but you know, that’s my feel. Um Tyler Jones and I have joked together on this podcast that we don’t really understand why people are so mad at Kobe, but maybe it is because of the injuries and all. We’ll cover we’ll cover all that. And I also pledge to the listener right now, this will not be a two-parter. We’re going to do Kobe in one part. Other guys, two parts open, one part on Kobe. He hasn’t played enough to not be one part. That’s that’s what I’ll say. Um, so Kobe Buffkin entering his third season, has not played very much. We know that 21 years old as we’re recording this. He’ll be 22 in September, but he’s actually younger than people realize because he wasn’t even a one and done. Like he was a two and done in college, but he was a very young two and done in college. Um, for a reference point, he is younger than a couple of first round picks in this last draft. He’s only five months older than Nicole Uruch, who sounds like he’s a lot younger than Kobe, and he’s really not. They’re the basically the same age. Um, but clearly the headliner with Kobe is he hasn’t been healthy the last two years. He’s played in 27 games in the NBA, plus 14 G-League games all his rookie season. Um, he had the he had the shoulder surgery back in January. Came back for summer league. Looked fine in summer league. Looked at least to me. I I saw some painting him like he had this disastrous summer league and I don’t really see that. He had some bad moments. Sure, he had some good moments, too. Um, but Glenn, I mean, we already kind of talked around it, but I think we’re higher on him than most. Where do you stand here in early August on the Kobe Buffet experience knowing that by all accounts it’s going to be a big training camp, big preseason, big everything for Kobe coming up? Yeah. And then they I presumably they’re going to pick up his option, you know, for next year. I don’t know, man. I don’t I don’t know if I presume that person. I mean, it’s we’ll talk about it, but it’s not it’s enough money where it’s not a no-brainer. Yeah. Yeah. So, um Yeah. I mean, for me, I love what what I think Kobe can do. I say that while I also understand why Hawks fans might be frustrated with the fact that he hasn’t been able to play much in two seasons uh with the injuries. Um it to have been able to kind of really see what he can do requires that you watch him play some in the G-League, right? And that’s where a lot of the sample kind of comes from. And what pops, you know, in the G- League is that he really knows how to play defense. Like he’s he’s a really really smart defender. um good help defender, good on ball, and then to me is like I think he’s going to be surprised. I think he will surprise people with what his defensive capabilities are. Now, because he hasn’t played a ton, he probably still needs to learn how how a certain efficiency crew is calling a game. How physical can I be? how physical, you know, there there’s that calibration that only comes with playing and getting used to like, oh, this ref calls it like this, this ref calls it like this, this crew calls it like that, you know, and so there’s just reps and experience that the baseline is just small, you know, in both of those areas so far. And so I think there is going to be adjustment period for him if he is presumably kind of in the lineup and in the rotation heading into the season. But I’m most excited for what he can kind of give them defensively. offensively, you know, we, you know, I I talked to Summerly when I did my own recap on Patreon when I talked to Kevin and Tyler did a kind of a wrap up. Uh, and then you and I talked a little bit too that, you know, I mean, I think you and I probably saw the same thing up close, which was they wanted him to be super aggressive, like like really really aggressive. And it was good and bad, you know, as he was kind of ramping that up. But the thing that you love about Kobe is that you ask him to do something and he goes out and he does his best to do it right. Even if there’s some um you know inconsistency, even if there’s some, like I said, some good and bad. And I think that’s one of the reasons the Hawk is drafted co is they love the mindset. They love his willingness to work through adversity, his willingness to be coached, his willingness to put the team first, all that sort of stuff. And so on the human being side of things, you got a guy who really does fit the culture. Uh, but the experience and rep baseline is pretty small from an NBA standpoint now. So for fans who maybe feel like they don’t really know what the Hawks can get from him, I I understand that especially if you don’t have the luxury have seen him play some College Park and such. Yeah. And look, acknowledging we both I think like him more than some do. I’ve been saying the whole time like there is a lot of uncertainty here. They’re just it’s undeniable. I mean, and for the Hawks, I totally understand. You know, Aussie was been around, but he’s not, you know, he’s a new general manager. Quinn’s been better the whole time. I mean, it’s always been kind of out there that Quinn likes Kobe, and I’ve heard the same. But, I mean, baking on Kobe is not something that I would advise, and I would say, even as someone who likes him, I would not advise that. I think the whole time I’ve been saying, “Yeah, you I’m I’m totally fine giving Kobe a chance and a real chance to earn playing time this season.” I also have said you should not gift it to him in a way that you probably would have last year coming into year two on a team that was still kind of retooling. I think if he had been healthy last year, he would have played a lot whether he was playing great or not, honestly. But this year’s different like on a number of different levels. It’s it’s it’s year three new GM and I would say probably by most most importantly a team that is clearly in a different spot in terms of their trying to win cycle. They’re really trying to win now and Kobe we don’t know how good he’s going to be. Um but also what you said is it’s perfectly applicable like he’s he’s shown a lot of different things. You have to look for what they are and also like his pedigree does matter. They did they know what they saw in him when they drafted him. They’ve seen him play I mean a lot more than we have. there’s practice practices and training camp stuff and we didn’t see that. So, we we just don’t know. But, there’s enough on especially on defense. I think he’s actually I I don’t know if I’d use the word proven because it’s like such a small sample size, but like what he’s shown as a professional defensively has been quite appetizing, like quite good. Um, offensively, much more of a mixed bag for sure. But, um, yeah, I I still believe that there’s a prospect here. the age is still young. Like, and yeah, I mean, he’s been hurt. He said, I mean, he he he owned it right away talking to us in Vegas talking about like, hey, haven’t played in a long time. He owns it. He knows the deal here. I mean, it’s not these guys are not they’re not silly. They’re not robots. Like, they understand. He knows he’s got to stay healthy. It’s not breaking news. Like, he understands he’s got to play. So, that’s kind of the like intro of this whole thing. But, he did play Satan Gile, which people kind of forgotten that stuff matters. And look, he put up numbers in several he I mean he averaged 195 and five basically got to the line a bunch. Didn’t shoot it great. That’s probably one certainly area of uncertainty with him. But as a theoretical player, there’s still a lot to like in the way that there always was a lot to like. It’s just that it hasn’t been able to kind of come to fruition yet. And that is the biggest thing with Kobe. We could probably stop. You know, Glenn, this could be the shortest podcast of all time. Let’s let’s sign off now. That’s Kobe. I’m kind of kidding, but I’m also not kidding. It’s just one of those things. Is brought to you by Open Phone. If you’re running a business, you don’t ever miss call as money left on the table potentially. 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And if you have existing numbers with another service, open phone will pull them over for you at no extra charge. Open phone, no missed calls, no missed customers. Yeah. So, I mean, I agree with you. The defense is, I think, really enticing. You know, his ability to play on the ball, off the ball. He’s a great communicator. He’s a for a guard, he’s a he’s a surprisingly good organizer. Like, he, you know, if you watch him play College Park, he’s organizing a lot. And those things in that sense, it’s all there. on offense, you know, I think it is like what does the role look like? Is is he playing next to Canard in those minutes? And I think it’s helpful if that is the case because um as I’ve talked about with Edmond and Hawkspeed and then we talked a little bit with Kevin and Tyler, just having better offensive support, higher level veteran offensive around him is going to, I think, allow them to rightsize the offensive role for Kobe, right? I think the shotmaking is going to be important. You know, part of that just comes with playing consistently if that if that happens, you know, in a season, playing more regularly, more consistency, but there’s things like you watch him run a pick and roll, traditional pick and roll. Uh, and there I kind of break that down a little bit is um he makes the right read. He sees what’s happening and all those things. Um, what some teams in Summerly were doing, they were kind of jumping passing lanes and things like that. And that’s nor I mean, you know, Kobe hadn’t played with most of those guys ever before that setting. So that that kind of matters, too. But what I’m interested in seeing is if they’re going to let him run the second unit offense or co-run the second unit offense with Luke is um when they’re uh brushing the screen or slipping the screen going faster, can he play faster? Right? Uh because I think I think one of the most important things for guards who are running say middle pick and roll to do is to read what is the pace I need to have in this example based on how the other defenses. You know, slipping is a great way to beat a hedge or a great way to beat a temporary double or a great way to beat a team who’s get the center up to the level of the screen. And and so can Kobe understand what pace is needed on a given execution, whether it’s a straight normal traditional screen, a brush, or a slip, can he do all forms of that? And I think that will come with reps, you know. And so that’s what I’m interested in seeing like is is do they let him run, you know, 10 to 12, you know, pick and rolls in in the preseason game and let and and get throw all for all three different forms of all of that. Is he can he run the guard to guard screen, you know, and kind of, you know, say Luke screening for him and popping into the three-point line. There’s a lot of uh diversity in how the Hawks kind of use uh pick and roll. And I’m anxious to see can Kobe do all of it yet, you know, and can and pace is a major factor in what you’re trying to do in that pick and roll. And I just we haven’t had a chance to see him, you know, uh kind of a have to use all different forms of pace setup, all that sort of stuff yet. And so I I’m anxious to see kind of where he is in that part of his offensive game. I agree. And I think something I’m reminding myself of too is like his role, let’s just presume for a second, this is not a guarantee at all. Let’s presume for a second that he is a backup point guard girl at some point. He would operate that much differently than he would being the star on the G-League team or being the star on a summer league team. Like it would it’s a different situation. You’re playing you’re playing differently. His aggressiveness level would probably go down a little bit. You’re 100% right. Earlier we talking about like the Hawks were coaching him to be as aggressive as possible and sometimes looked kind of silly at summer league. Like he was really really up in the usage on purpose. Um, and look, Kobe isn’t a elite passer. He was not built that way. He never was. He’s always been more of a combo guard. He has good He’s He’s a pretty good passer, but he’s not Trey Young. Like, I think he looks worse on a team and to a bunch of fans that are used to watching the best passing guard alive. He He looks worse because Trey is so good in some ways. That sounds kind of funny, but I think it’s true. Um, but anyway, like I think the role will be very interesting. I think him and Canard do make sense together. Um there are definitely a possibility and we’ll probably say this for later on a little bit that is that maybe Kobe just isn’t going to be in the rotation and maybe it’s Canard and Dyson or Canard and Nquille when Ty’s out the court. That’s also very possible. Um but I think if you put him with Canard on both ends of the floor that would make sense. On defense you got Kobe to guard the better player in the back court. And on offense you’ve got Canard to give you a spacing and b a second ball handler. Because at summer league, the time it would look, at least to me, the time looked the worst in summer league is when he was the only guy on the court that could handle the ball, which did happen a bunch of times, and it did not look great when that happened. Um, and that’s fair. I think that’s maybe he’d get there eventually, but I don’t think he’s ever going to be like the I am the only guy I am doing the Troy Young role ball handling at the NBA level. I think he needs he’s going to be more of a secondary. Even if he is the primary, he won’t be like the primary primary primary in the way that some other guys might be. Does that make sense why I said? I don’t know. Yeah. Yeah, it does. When in summer league when Nico was on with him, he had that other ball handler to help him. Uh Flaggler, they were trying to kind of get him on ball a little bit more. That’s the first time that in his professional career he’d really kind of been playing some point guard, you know, if you’ve kind of watched him play other places and stuff like that. Um and there really, you know, um really wasn’t uh a lot else uh there. So, and but I mean I think the Hawks wanted him to experience like, okay, you’re the only ball hanging on the floor. You’re going to see two at the level of the screen. Like, how do you deal with that? How do you work through that? I you know, and some Hawks fans will be like, oh man, he sucks. You know, first of all, he doesn’t. Second of all, they were they were wanting him to deal to deal with that stuff, to see that stuff and and learn how to deal with it. And he got better game by game at it, you know, and all that sort of stuff. But I but I I think co Kobe is probably reason number one I’m most excited about the Canard edition because I think he’s just gonna have more offensive structure. Canard is an absolute A+ professional on offense. You know, makes the right play all the time, can shoot the ball, all that sort of stuff. And I think I think NL Walker if he’s playing when Dyson’s off, for example, has a little bit more offensive juice than people realize as well that he’s made himself into a real shooter. Um and he and he’s you know a a you know reasonable ball handler and and creator as well. So you know last year with all the injuries and every you know and guys that were playing on the second unit when after Jaylen went down you know all that sort of stuff it would have been ugly for Kobe. They would need Kobe to do a lot. um this year he has a lot more veterans and structure and capability around him such that I think he’s going to be more set up for success presuming he’s and going to be playing on that second unit consistently. We don’t know for sure that’s the plan or I think we have to wait till we get to October and kind of see what we see. Um but for for me I I think he needs to play. I think I think it’s very important for him to play. It would be helpful for sure in evaluating him for him to play and and for his growth for him to play. The only give and take of that is that again, not to overstay it, but like this is a team that’s in a different spot now. They’re they’re trying to win. And that does not mean count counter to what Nate McMillan once said, you don’t stop doing development because you’re trying to win. But it’s a little bit different now where every game is going to have a little bit more meaning than it did before. And I know Quinn will feel that, etc. And that’s like, all right, if if they don’t think he’s one of their best 10 guys, they’re not going to put him out there very much. Yeah, that’s that’s the thing. Like, there’s a little bit of of a a tight rope to walk there, you could see him I don’t think this is going to happen, but you could see Kobe play a little bit at the GLeague. Wouldn’t stuff me if that happened. We’ll see. Um, anyway, I do people think, you know, it’s again, it’s 14 games, but he did really, really pop in the G-League the one time he played there. It’s been a year and a half since he played there, but he averaged 246 and five in the G-League in 14 games and was like very very clearly dominating when he was down there. It’s been a while, but that didn’t happen. That’s that’s a good sign. Um, two things I want to bring up about his like scoring slashshooting. One is he was at the college level a like dominant finisher for a guard by the numbers. Like elite synergy profile. He shot like almost 70% at the rim in half court. like he was just awesome. That hasn’t necessarily materialized in the professional level. And I’m not saying it can’t, but that’s that’s a question I have and I would say much more of a doubt that I have now compared to where I was at the draft two years ago. Um, that’s one thing. And the other one is whether he can make threes. And that’s much more eye the beholder. Which table do you trust? Like he shot 30% in the G-League, which is good. He to He took more threes in the G- League in 14 games than he actually almost twice as many in 14 games as he did in his entire NBA career because he was just taking more shots in the G-League. He shot well in the G-League, not well in the NBA. I I don’t know where his baseline is from three. If you do, Glenn, I’d love to know, but I don’t. Yeah, I mean, again, I always like to say I’m not a I’m not a shooting I’m not a professional shooting coach. Um, but it I mean, it looks fine to me. Like, you know, it’s it looks consistent to me. That’s about as far as I’ll go in and trying to kind of evaluate that. Um but but for me it really is about shot prep and footwork and you know all that sort of stuff being ready to kind of shoot it on the catch. Um and um it’s going to be interesting to see kind of where where he is. Um coming in. I mean a big big part of becoming a consistent shooter is just playing consistently developing a rhythm. the rhythm that comes with playing, you know, if he plays say 14 minutes every game or even if that’s what it is and those things, it’s just being on the floor. And so for me, for a guy who’s been hurt, you know, has had several injuries to kind of work through and deal with and kind of come back from, you know, I’m curious to see just if he can stay healthy, right? And the other thing we’ll mention, like you as summerly got up close, you could see he’s much stronger than he was a year. You know, I he’s really put on a lot of muscle, you know, he was much more he had much more well- definfined body. And so you hope that helps him, you know, kind of be a little bit more injuryp proof than he’s been in the in the past and all of that. But for me, I have a hard time evaluating guys shooting numbers if he just hasn’t been able to play consistently. Uh because I think there is kind of a rhythm aspect to that. Um but also I don’t I don’t want to see him predict he’s going to shoot 37 38 39% from the three-point line. We won’t know until we kind of get to October and see what his role is, where he is in the pecking order, how much he’s playing, and then see how he does. I don’t want to prejudge that. I would say if I had to give a projection on Kobe shooting, it would be somewhere in like the mid30s from three. I don’t know what that means. The mid-30s is like 33 to 37. That’s a big range, but that’s I don’t know. It’s I I Good luck trying to figure it out. I mean, I I don’t know. But it matters. I mean, that’s the thing. I do think that he’s a guy that is going to need to make some threes with his profile. He’s not a super elite athlete. He’s not a super elite ball handler. He isn’t a super elite passer. Like, he’s going to have to make some shots. And that’s that’s the reality. And if you’re skeptical that he will, then you probably don’t like Kobe Buffy. Like I get I get it too. Like I I do especially especially on offense. This is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook Summer Sports and are now in full swing. Whether you’re all about baseball, under the lights, golf on the greens, or high stick soccer action. FanDuel is the best possible way to make every game even more exciting. You’re already following the action, so why not make it a little bit more thrilling for yourself. You can use F to check off matchups and also keep the app fresh with new daily promotions and fun ways to bet. 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Open the FanDuel app today or visit fan.com/lockton to get started. on defense, like we mentioned earlier, but I think people have almost forgotten that like he was really NBA level good defensively, like immediately. And that wasn’t a huge surprise if you looked at like his profile, like he was supposed to be a good defender eventually, but like it didn’t even as a rookie like he was pretty effective defensively. Um it’s been a while. I get that, but uh I pulled some numbers. I won’t share them all because it would go long, but um according to cleaning the glass and his minutes at point guard, so basically when he’s not playing with Trey, the Hawks defense was 95th percentile as a unit. That isn’t all Kobe, but I think the theory of Kobe being able to be a part of a really good defense, I totally believe like if you put Kobe out there with the rest of the Hawks personnel, like you can have some really good defensive lineups. like the only I mean if you can keep especially if you can keep Canard off the floor. We talked about Canard and Kobe making sense and they do. But if you put if you put Kobe out there with like four good defenders, I think you’d have a pretty darn good defense. Um so that’s that’s an area we should always bring up. I’m not sure what you want to talk. What have you seen from him in his again limited sample size, but as far as like you know on ball stuff, screen navig? He’s just such a smart and locked in defender, right? And and so for me, um you know, I I remember like I don’t I don’t remember if it’s the beginning of last season and watching him play. I I I think I said on Twitter at one point that he could be a defensive culture setter. like he is so bought into attention. His attention to detail is through the roof. Uh he’s so engaged uh on that end of the floor. His communication organization, you know, exceptional for a guy of his experience level. Uh always in the right place. Um and is just is just always looking to be resourceful and helpful and do something that helps his team. And so I do think that’s where he’s going to kind of make his biggest mark this this next season. you know, having him on with either Dyson or Nikil, Alexander Walker, for example, gives you another guy. And I think I think we talked about earlier, I think Risha Shay is going to be another guy who we see real growth at the point of attack. I don’t know if we want him on point guards. I don’t know why not, you know. Um but uh but it it is it is the defense and it’s one of those things where as the offense needs to become more consistent and stable, the defense will I think keep Kobe on the floor and give an opportunity to kind of you know and and sort of like we talked about with Vit, you know, is that his offensive value buys you a chance to kind of live with some of his limitations on defense with Kobe’s opposite. the defensive value gives you I think reason to have him on the floor while he is learning to kind of grow and become more consistent and stable offensively. And so that’s that’s where my expectation is. I think I think I think offensively he’s going to be up and down in the start of the season just because he hasn’t had like we talked about the experience and rep baseline is so low at the NBA level right now. Um but I think he gives you enough defensively to make um a good case for having him playing every night. You know, will that be the decision Quinn makes? I don’t know. But but I think what he gives you defensively is enough to justify him being a guy you’re continue investing in. Yeah. And look, we can kind of end on this as far as like the role and the team option. And I like to tell people when I don’t know things and I I don’t know on Kobe in general right now. Like I I’ve heard things I I I did I shared some reporting, you know, during after summer league that like I heard a lot of positive stuff from the Hawks about Kobe around summer league. I did and I also gave the caveat I’ll give now like they’re not really incentivized to say bad things about Kobe to people like me because like he’s on their team. Like it is what it is. But they also don’t like these people that I talk to don’t usually lie to me. So it’s like I they still like Kobe. But we have to acknowledge repeatedly the uncertainty here. And you know, I get asked all the time like, is Kobe a draft bust? Like, no, not right now. Could he be one? Yeah, for sure. I mean, that’s definitely on the table. Like, I still I still like the player and the the archetype of the player, but if if this season doesn’t go well for him, he’ll probably move on teams, I would say, at some point, whether it’s either, you know, in a salary dump or if they decline a team off or whatever. Like usually you don’t get a fourth year if your third year is still like a totally complete he gets hurt again or whatever. Even if it’s not his fault, that’s just kind of the way this goes sometimes, but also I think that there’s a scenario where he’s playing 15 minutes on opening night. Like there could be that, there could be him not playing at all. We we don’t really know. Um I think it’s it’s kind of a no duh, but training camp and preseason are as big for him as they are for anybody on the roster. Maybe maybe bigger. Honestly, if you were to say, “Okay, Brad, and I’ll ask you, Glenn, if you disagree with me or not, if somebody asked me like who is October one through like October 20, whatever it is that opening night will be, who is who is the player on the roster that has the most at stake in that 3-week period, it’s probably Kobe Buffin.” Yeah, agreed. And I think, you know, it’s gonna be interesting to see like if he plays a ton in the preseason and they let and they steer a lot of usage towards him and, you know, let make him run the offense and how how that goes and all that sort of stuff. It’s going to be interesting to see. Uh, I I think he’s worth the investment personally, but I’m not the decision maker here, you know, in any way. Um, but I I think he I I know he’s the cultural fit they would look for in players. He’s absolutely that. And I know and I believe in his defensive value. completely fair to say again offensively there’s some growth that’s going to be needed which requires experience reps and all that sort of stuff. Um but he’s a smart player. He just needs experience, you know. Um but you know, we could keep going back. The Hawks are trying to win a lot of games this year and they’re going to build a rotation that sets sets them up to win games and there might be games where Kobe plays in the first half, doesn’t play in the second half if it didn’t go well. You know, they shorten that rotation second half. That might be a thing that happens. Um, but I’m still a big believer. Um, but I also understand Hawks fans that are like, “Glenn, we haven’t really seen anything out of him.” You know, true. That’s a true statement, you know. Yep. Uh, even if I still personally believe in him uh a lot a lot right now, but um, you know, might be putting, you know, the cart before the horse or whatever, but I, you know, I I’m rooting for him because I I just like, you know, what he conveys personally, the kind of teammate he is, all that sort of stuff, how coachable he is, all that sort of stuff. And so I’m hoping that it that it goes well, but also I’m not going to shout down people Hawks fans that might be like, you know, I need to see it. Okay. Yeah, there. So do they. I mean, they need to see it, too. So there is a a line to walk and I think we fall in the more positive. And I think we would even if we didn’t like Kobe, we would still fall in this line of like, guys, let’s It’s not I mean, injuries are different. Like if he had just been awful for two years, that would be a different discussion. like it would still for me I would want to put some nuance forward on that but him not playing because of injuries it’s like I mean I get why people are annoyed by that or bothered but it’s not anybody’s fault he just got hurt um to put a number on it just because it’s not what we usually do when you and I talk so I want to save it for the end but there’s the team option for Kobe it’s for the fourth year the fourth year so if you’re on a rookie scale contract first year first round pick you have to decide a year in advance about the third and fourth year options the Hawks have had a bunch of nobra trainers on these for a long time because they’ve had a some good first round picks. Um, this is the first one in a while they have a real decision on. Honestly, Kobe, it’s $6.9 million for his fourth season. So, this coming season, he’s locked in. No change. This is for the following year, but they have to decide by the end of October. So basically they get all the all of training camp, all the preseason and like the first probably four or five games of rigor season play to decide and then they have to choose and if they decline it he’s still on the team but he will be a fasia at the end of the season and that’s not like a look there are plenty of examples of guys who’ve had their options decline that don’t like fall out of the league like Jake Larabia is the most prominent one recently he had his option decline in Memphis and all that really changes is that the Hawks wouldn’t be allowed to offer Kobe a contract for more than that at the end of the season and then he becomes a free agent. So like it’s not a death sentence if he gets the option declined, but that’s a decision the Hawks have to make and it’s honestly their next like major roster decision that they’re made to make. Obviously Dice extension and transition are bigger deals, but Kobe, they have a deadline October 31st. We’ll see. So just want to throw it out there. That’s that’s that’s why beginning of this conversation we brought it up and that’s a real investment. And it’s not like if it was $3 million, you just pick it up and whatever. But seven million, that’s that’s real money. It’s going to be uh a data point that informs us quite a bit in terms of what they do and don’t do. So we we will learn a lot about how they feel about Kobe on October 31st. There you go. Uh and usually they wait, even even ones that are absolutely no-brainers, they will basically always just wait till the last minute. Like last year they had two absolute no-brainer ones and they just did it anyway. Like they just did they waited forever. like Dyson’s third year, whatever. Um, this year you got Zach’s third year, that will be a no-brainer. Discuss, that’s a no-brainer one. Like, obviously they’re going to pick that up. Um, Kobe’s not a no-brainer. So, they But because they as an organization always wait till the last minute, that doesn’t mean that they’re wavering, but I think it is useful for them to use that literally four weeks of data. Like, usually it doesn’t really impact anything, honestly. like they kind of decide way ahead of time and it’s like okay if this guy breaks his leg we’ll have a different discussion kind of thing this one it’s like they’re actually going to be taking that into account all the way to the end I feel like so yep we’ll learn a lot uh well Glenn we did it one part on Buffkin unless you have more to add feel free to add some if you’d like to but we’re we’ll only do we only do one part I pledge that at the beginning of this podcast yeah no I think I feel like we covered it and uh like I said I think this will the YouTube comments are gonna be super interesting on this Um, but like I said, I do want to acknowledge that Hawks fans that are feel frustrated or like I haven’t really we haven’t had a chance to see him. Not going to push back on that, but I’m trying to be optim as I usually am. I’m trying to be optimistic and excited for Kobe to hopefully have a healthy season and see what he can do. You are uh usually more optimistic than I am in general. So, I’m optimistic too, relatively speaking. I’m definitely higher than Hawks fans. Seems like uh Glenn, as I always do at the end of these, please uh plug anything you got going on in your life. I know that by the time we record this, I don’t know when this is going to be going up. It’ll be relatively soon after we record it, but what’s going on? ATL29, Patreon, what’s going on? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Those are the things. So, Patreon and I was I’m using this kind of dead season to uh put out, you know, two to three a week of uh you know, 20 25 minute video on, you know, player breakdown and stuff like that. The first one went out was a Kongu. I had a little bit of bogey in there too uh and stuff. Um probably next one I think I’m going to do something to kill Alexander Walker next so Hawks can kind of kind of see what he has. Um but I’ll be you know putting out two to three a week between now and the end of September. Um and we’ll get to everybody you know uh in that in that range. Uh, and then you know when I don’t know when media day is going to happen and I don’t know when all that stuff kind of restarts and stuff, but uh um hopefully the video content will kind of tide us over until we have uh some news to talk through and things like that. And um and and of course we’re also kind of waiting to see if they do anything or not with that last roster spot. If I had to guess for media day, it’s probably like September 29. Usually that’s that Monday at the end of September, early October. That’s my I don’t I don’t know. No one’s told me yet. That’s generally like the range it’s in. We still got as of recording this, we’re still like eight weeks, something like that. So, uh, it’s coming though. It comes faster than you think or slower if you are tasked with podcasting throughout the month of August and September. I wish it would come faster. But Glenn, thanks for being here as always. I appreciate you sincerely for doing all of this to give me a much time. Everybody else, please subscribe to Lock on Hawks anywhere you find your podcasts and we’ll see you all next time.

Brad Rowland (@BTRowland) hosts Episode 2035 of the Locked on Hawks podcast, and he is joined by Glen Willis of ATL and 29. The show continues a 2025 Atlanta Hawks player capsule series with a deep dive into third-year guard Kobe Bufkin, including his injury issues, offensive capabilities, defensive strengths, potential concerns, fourth-year team option, and much more.

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