Onyeka Okongwu 2025 scouting report, Atlanta Hawks deep dive, defensive profile, rebounding, etc.

Onyeka Okongwu 2025 scouting report, Atlanta Hawks deep dive, defensive profile, rebounding, etc.

On today’s show, it is part two with myself and Glenn Willis talking about Anaka Akangu in deep dive fashion and it’s coming up right now. You are Locked on Hawks, your daily Atlanta Hawks podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Hello friends, welcome back to the Lock on Hawks podcast. I am your host Brad Roland coming to you here in mid August. Today’s podcast is brought to by the folks at Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account and use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. 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 and of course crucially tell your friends and your colleagues and family about the show as well. This is actually going to be part two of two with myself and Glenn Willis talking about Anaka Econ. So, if you missed part one, I strongly encourage you to begin with part one. Should be available in this same podcast feed, whether it be Apple or Spotify or YouTube, etc. Start there. When you’re when you’re done with part one, come back to part two and we’ll dive right back in now. Myself and Glenn talking about Anaka. We’ll get to some role stuff as well, probably at the end of this. Um, more porzingas, I’m sure. But I want to talk about defense because it’s the area. I don’t know if it’s more controversial, but when we joke about size, it’s the area that I always hear, oh well, he’s just too small to deal with so and so, or he can’t protect the rim. He can’t do this, he can’t do this, he can’t do this. And look, last year by a lot of the advanced metrics, um, Bobby, I think he is a better offensive player than defensive player at this point. Is that fair, Glenn? Do you do you agree with me on that? that part of his game is more advanced. Yes. I what we’ll get into is I think the roster context going into this next season is going to set him up to be more functional and my word is optimized on defense in a way that that did not exist last year. Now, does that mean he’s going to be an awesome defensive player? No. But I think I think the roster and lineup construction is going to let him lean into a significantly more op uh optimized role next year. Well, yeah. Let’s let’s get into that because I mean again part of the so we talked about the this on offense too. Part of his appeal is the versatility he has that also extends the defense like part of the idea of is that you don’t want him to be a straight drop big like you’re not going to play him the way you would play Walker Kesler. Like they’re very different players. A get on the floor like he’s a he’s a good athlete. He reads the game well. All those things the scheme versatility. Um the questions there. So when you say like optimize more, I think I know what you mean, but just try to I’ll open the floor up to you. What do you mean by that as far as like maximizing him? Because there are questions like his rim protection numbers for instance were not great last year, etc. What do you mean when you say that? Yeah. So I I do think like leaning on him to be your primary source of rim protection is a bad formula, right? It’s not a terrible formula, but it’s not really how you set yourself up for success. So for me, number one, Porzingis’s weak side run protection, Jaylen’s weak side run protection, Mo Gay’s weak side protection let you get him out in space, impacting the play. You know, he has good lateral athleticism, can get to the level of the screen, can hedge, contract, all that sort of stuff where last year you’re like, “Oh, we got uh, you know, David Rody Low Man, like, oh, we’re we’re getting killed.” or I hate to always pick on him because I actually respect, you know, I’ve got some numbers on that later, but yeah, basically when a Kongu played with anyone other than Rody or George Nyang, who I enjoy deeply, the numbers were way better, which makes sense. Yeah. Right. And and so for me, you know, um even Dyson as low man, like Dyson has the ability to come in and impact impact the rim a little better when even with LeVert like in you know, not the athlete he was when he was 25 years old, but still a smart defender, can knows how to impact the roller, all that sort of stuff. So just having multiple sources of weak side rim protection lets you put a yka into a defensive construct that lets him uh switch one through five if that’s what you want to do to hard hedge trap get to the level recover all that sort of stuff which he’s great at. And the thing that jumped out at me say come late February that was completely different than I’d ever seen him play defense is that he started when he had a ball handler in front of him. if that ball behind put that ball on the floor in front of him. He was attacking the ball, right? He was looking to take the ball away from that ball hand. And that was something he’d never done before. And so I feel like like once Clint was kind of like, “Okay, Clint’s on the shelf,” they’re like, “Okay, let’s steer our defensive kind of construct.” Even though they were not optimized before at all at power forward at all, not even close. Um they were still like okay let’s build uh and the defender that we want him to be that we think he’ll be next season and let him lean into where his more natural strengths are defending in space uh defending the ball switching on you know you don’t want him on the best point guards in the league but you just fine on a average wing slight above average wing whatever it might be and so for me it just all starts with all that other source of weak sub rim protection lets you not have to anchor him to the paint and to the rim where he has less value in my view. Yeah. And I’m glad you said that way because the simple version is not putting him in a role that’s not suited to him. Like not treating him like he’s a sevenfooter. Not treating him like he’s a traditional drop center. Um and not that Clint’s a sevenfooter either. We’ve been over that forever. But Clint was much more of a traditional defensive center as far as how he operated than Anka is ever going to be. And uh you mentioned I actually had this fooled his block rate went down last year but his steel rate went way up and I think part of that was what you just said like he was much more aggressive going for the ball in different situations and not trying to be a shot blocker as much like he has the ability to block some shots. No one’s saying otherwise but if uh you’re not trying to be that only rib protection you know also his foul rate went way down. I I think he’s I think basically some of his scheme some of it is that he has traded some of his he always had a lot of foul issues early in his career honestly. um he’s traded some of that for less blocks and that actually was the right choice it seems like to me because when you’re not playing 20 minutes a game you can’t afford to be in foul trouble like there were many times if Clint was out it’s like okay on you cannot get in foul trouble tonight and I’m sure that was the messaging honestly from the coaching staff it’s like we cannot afford for you to be playing 20 minutes tonight when our backup center is Don Barlo god bless him um so anyway I I had that pulled anyway but when you said that I’m Oh yeah, I have that somewhere. His steal rate like rocketed up. His steal rate was actually he averaged like one Yeah. 1.6 deals per possessions last year. It was 0.9 the previous year. So it almost doubled. Like that’s probably purposeful. I would say going after the ball too much be more aggressive and not just like dropping back and trying to look we can be real. There are times when being 68 is limiting and because you you don’t want to play him as a drop center. Like I we both appreciate what he can do defensively. I think there’s this for whatever school of thought that he’s like some bad defender. He’s really not. Like it’s that’s not a thing. But if you put him in a bad spot, if you ask him to be Rudy Gobear, he’s not going to be Rudy Goar. That’s not going to happen for sure. And if you ask him to deal with Yogic like he nobody can deal with by themselves. I mean, maybe Zubot and one other guy, right, can maybe kind of do that. and and I I understand that’s why part of me thinks like I wonder if they are going to add a center with that other spot. You know, we talked to you and I talked about that. Yeah. Um to take a little bit of load off of off of him and stuff, but but for me, you know, I I think um you know, his just he is great in space and he’s really good at the level of the screen and his recovery is great, but but for me it’s like again we talked about the the Capella offensive template. he was kind of buried in the Capella defensive template for three or four years and and had trying to do kind of the things that Clint excelled at, which is blocking shots and rebounding. Like this is Clint has made a ton of money his career doing those two things and finishing at the rim until last season, you know. Um and um and but but for me it’s like I I enjoyed down the stretch of last season letting freeing up Anaka defensively to do the things he’s best at. and and I’m I’m I’m excited for and you’re not yet gonna see more of that this coming season. This is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook and August 26th is officially FanDuel Futures Day. 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May not seem like much, but if you remember, and this was true, like the book on Anka early in his career was that he was a bad defensive rebounder for a center. And it was true by the numbers. But now that is no longer an issue. Like I made this joke as soon as they signed Orzingis. I bet if you pulled Hawks fans and ask them who the better defensive rebounder was between a Congo at 68 73, they’re going to say the wrong one because it’s a Congo by a lot. Like it’s not even close. Um and again, there’s more to life than being tall, but he is actually a very good rebounder now. And not just offensive. Like he’s always good on offense. Defensively more shaky. Not anymore. Like at least the last year and a half or so he’s been a very stout defensive rebounder. Yeah. I mean, part of that is not getting uh knowing how to keep yourself clean and in and rebounding position, not letting the other pinner other center uh kind of pin you under the rim. A lot of it’s just being proactive and making sure that you’re in a space to kind of control which the area of the floor you’re going to try to kind of use the rebound and those things. when he was younger, I mean, he just if he was going up against the big guy, he’s just like the big guy would just kind of clamp down on him and he couldn’t even like get off the floor, you know, and then and he some of his foul issues were were rebounding fouls as well, uh, and stuff like that. But but you for me last year it looked like he just figured out sort of the art of rebounding more so than he had in prior years to like I said make sure he has the space he needs. You know not letting the other center take space away from him being proactive to to own the space he needs to own to be a better rebounder. And those are all the little kind of dark arcs we might say of like what it takes to to rebound successfully especially as as a smaller guy. So I thought there was a lot of growth in that area as well. Averaging 10 rebounds a game is not nothing. like that’s that’s a good number. Uh and especially impressive for a guy who, you know, does who’s not 71, 72 and doesn’t have all of that height to just kind of lean on. But I thought he was just more proactive and and uh and I think that proactivity set him up for more success there. And and I think it was, you know, I think just more kind of mental uh development around this is what it takes to be successful in this area of the game. And just saw a lot of growth for him last year in that area. I’m looking at his EPM profile. He was 91st percentile in defensive rebound rate last year. Like that’s excellent. I mean, he’s Yeah, it’s just worth keeping that in mind and noting it. Um, like I said before, steel rate up, block rate down, that’s the one area. I mean, it’s not a fantasy show, but like if Josh Lo was here, he’d be I’m sure ranting about that. I I think maybe maybe it goes up a little bit more. I think, you know, it’s always been a little bit higher than it was last year, but his foul rate, just to put the number on it, um, as a I’m trying to put the per Yeah, the per minute. So, as a rookie, Aneka averaged 8.2 fouls per 100 possessions, which is incredibly high, obviously. Then it was 7.4, then it was 6.5, then 5.5, and then last year 4.4. So he has like greatly improved his foul avoidance five straight seasons and that matters especially when you’re asking guy to play more minutes. Like that was one of the things about Clint is that Clinton was never in foul trouble and that really does matter when you’re playing big workloads. Anka can play 30 minutes a game now in a way he probably couldn’t have been because he’s just able to stay on the court. It doesn’t matter. Yeah. I mean a lot of that is technique, you know, not bringing your hands down when you’re trying to block a shot, you know, staying vertical. just all the stuff that you hear the color analysts on NBA shows or NBA broadcasts talk about, right? And stuff like it’s just just cleaning that stuff up just helps you stay out of foul trouble. Uh and knowing when to try to make a play and when like oh we I can’t recover this play and I don’t want to take a foul here, especially give him an end one or whatever it is. And so just the the judgment of I can still impact this play or not worth a foul here and and letting that kind of be the you know kind of a process you work through mentally helps you kind of helps you helps you as well. You know there’s no reason to take unnecessary fouls. Um especially when you know like the team’s needing to play 30 31 minutes a game like they were were last year. So just thought he got smarter and um I don’t know which assistant coach works with him. You might know that. I you know I don’t I don’t it’s changed. It’s changed a few times. Yeah. Yeah. Um but I but but I you know I I believe a lot in the Hawks coaching accessibility to kind of develop guys to develop the rapport and the relationships and all that sort of stuff and and to me it just looks like some you know what whoever as a side coach was last year just really was was pushing and pushing and put smarter smarter smarter more and more you know clean it up you know good judgment good processing all that sort of stuff and I think I think we saw that growth across the last two and a half months of the season. Um, and I’m excited for what he might carry over into this year. Yeah, some of the more advanced metrics I said before, like EPM did not love his defense last year. Uh, Raptor was a bit higher. DPM, which is that dark model, it was actually higher as well. One thing I wanted to note, um, he didn’t get to play with Jaylen very much last year, and we’ve covered that in nauseium. We’ll do it even more when Jaylen when we do Jaylen’s pro capsule. But the gap between Jaylen minutes and non Jayen minutes at the four last year was the Grand Canyon for the Hawks. Part of that was part of that was who Jaylen is at his strengths. Part of that was who was behind him in particular defensively their options. Not to single him out. Again, Rody even even Niang who is better than Rody for sure. But um the numbers when Akongu was playing with one of those guys not great defensively. When he was playing with a real four and by that I mean Jaylen or even Mo on defense. Yeah. The the Aongu Mogay numbers on offense were pretty gross as most of the Mogay numbers were on offense, but their defensive numbers were great. So, and my my general working theory is that if a Kongu is paired with a quality defending power forward, you are in good shape defensively. What you don’t want to do with him is give yourself an undersized or a, you know, physically lacking four. Um, and the good thing for the Hawks is they don’t really have that kind of archetype this year. Like they on the roster even like who’s that guy? I guess maybe maybe it’d be Rishch if they try to play Rishet the four would be the only way that they could that kind of profile of like an unders sized under physical four for me it’s you’re basically playing him with Jaylen or Mo or Porzingis maybe Ace Newell at some point but Ace Newell is a big four in the NBA so like some of that downside is probably uh mitigated a little bit defensively yeah for sure and like you know I don’t know why the international guys are good but like Risha tap rebounds like tapping the ball to a teammate you know, I can’t get the rebound, but I can tap it to, you know, to Trey over there or whatever it is. And Dyson does a lot of that, too. When he can’t get to Dyson’s a good rebounder for a guard, you know, and but but even when he can only kind of get to a tap, he does that. He uses that tap and and every little bit of effort the fiveman unit brings, the defensive rebounding matters so much. I mean, I know co NBA coaches like obsess around we have to rebound, we have to rebound, we have to rebound, we have to rebound, you know, you got to. Yeah. And I mean it is that you lose games by not rebounding. Like that is a coaches NBA coaches believe it’s like one of the most important areas of the game that you have to do every single possession. And so that they have guys that like oh I can’t get the rebound. I’m not going to just stay on the floor. I’m going to get a I’m going to go put a body on someone. So maybe my teammate can get the rebound. I might go get a tap out rebound. Whatever it might be. And they were just more more active uh in a lot of a lot of ways that way. Um, and it’s going to be, you know, it’s gonna be interesting to see with this new the new roster and the new additions that they have how that continues to to evolve because NBA coaches will never stop talking about defensive ever. A few things that are like more big picture but also kind of pull it all together. One of them is, we’ve talked around it, but the the old uh porzingis factor on both ends of the floor. Um, we’re not going to do unless you want to the who’s going to start at center thing. I don’t really care about that as much, but I do think it’s interesting that for the first time a lot of people are projecting, this includes me. Now, the Hawks haven’t really said this, just to keep that in mind, but that he’ll play some minutes to the four. And look, there were times out of desperation that they tried Anaka and Clint together. Um, but it was just, as I said, out of desperation. It was never a primary look they wanted to do. It was when they had injuries or whatever they had to. I’ve said this many times, but if you’re new to the podcast, Kung Wu has never been a power forward in his entire life. I know there’s a school of thought that he should be one because he’s 6’8. He is a center. He’s always been a center. And he’s always been a center at every level. high school, college, NBA. I think it’s like 98% of his minutes in the NBA have been center. Like it’s literally that high. But this is the first time in his career like he actually might play the forome. And it’s because of the fact that as we talked about his own versatility and the fact that Porzingis is a guy who can shoot from 35 feet away uh and on offense and then Aangu quite frankly can defend a lot of force. Like honestly, if you pulled non-Hawks fans, maybe even Hawks fans, like what Aneka is known for defensively, it’s probably like defending Giannis. Like he get he became very known for defending Giannis because he did it. He does it very well. He really does. He always has. Um but I think you that’s I teased this a little bit earlier when I said for me who you defend is the position you’re really playing. if he’s playing with Borzingis, he’s really the Ford offensively because Borzingis is much more of a traditional like rip protector, etc. How do you I mean, we don’t spend a ton ton of time on this, but how do you envision that if it if they do it because then it’s still an if like it’s a projection. I think they’re going to do it, but they haven’t said, “Hey, we’re definitely playing with the four with Persinga some this year.” But what do you make of that whole thing on both ends of the floor? Yeah. Well, we’ll pretend for a second that Quinn listens to the podcast. They could just laugh. I I can promise you Quinn does not listen to the podcast. There there are people in the organization that do listen to the podcast. Quinn is not one of them. I’m very Yeah, that’s why I said pretend for a second, but they he can just laugh, you know. But but for me, I I think it is workable. I mean, the league I don’t again I want to say for Hawks fans that only watch the Hawks and don’t watch the rest of the league, which is totally fine, right? Last year in Miami, they shifted BA to the four and played Kaware at the five a lot. Right now, you know, you go look at basketball reference, you can look at the minutes breakdown and don’t believe it because because Bam was functionally like the power forward last year. Houston has what 17 centers on their roster or whatever the number is right right now and they they’ll they’ll play you know two all the time and and the league is kind of shifting back to as long as one of your two bigs is skilled and have with anka and porzingis they have two guys that are skilled y and and it was impossible with Capella because what what are you going to do with with Capella like there’s just there’s not enough collective skill there to kind of make that work offensively but I think offensively and Porzingis can work absolutely fine. Could be absolutely fine. On defense, I do think it’s going to be a little matchup dependent. I think if they go quote big with Anka and Porzingis, another team might go small, like go play three or four guards and, you know, have at it, what whatever it might be. So, I do think it’s going to be game to game, match up to match up, context to context, kind of dependent, but offensively, I have no concerns about those two guys fitted together. Zero. Zero at all. Right. Defensively, it is going to be what do we want? like because you don’t want Porzingis at the level of the screen anymore. You don’t want Porzingis in space. You want to keep him back line. You want to keep him weak side corner. All that sort of stuff. Um and I don’t and I think you don’t want a ton of wear and tear on him either. And so defensively, I think it’s going to be more contextualized situationally. On offense, I have no concerns about them working together. Zero. Yeah. No, it’s it’s it’s so interesting because I remember us talking about two big Lance before and it’s not always the case, but most of the time when you’re playing two bigs together, it’s to boo the defense, not the offense. So, it’s so interesting that you said you have no no offensive concerns because that’s usually the exact opposite. When you play two bigs, it’s like you’re expecting to get worse on offense most of the time and you’re trying to get better defensively. Um, but you’re right. I I tend to agree with you. like the offense, especially when you throw in Trey, like for me, I would only I shouldn’t say only, I would primarily want to play those guys together on offense with Trey. Um, because you want to have some, you know, you’re, you know, as much creation, all those things. Um, and then defensively, having two bigs can help you with Trey as well. Like it’s there’s some natural stuff there. Uh, I think it’s going to work. Um, it’s smart, as you pointed out, to note that there are a lot of teams playing two bigs more. Like Houston was doing it a ton last year. It’s a good example in the Hawks game twice in the preseason, for instance. Um, we’ll get an early look at that maybe. But there are lots of teams that are playing two centers or two like real bigs together more and more than they were. Like it’s a for a long time the league was kind of pivoting smaller. It’s getting bigger again. And there’s cycles of this stuff. But even when you play Mo, like if you play a Kongu with Mo Gay, that’s basically like playing two bigs. Like Mo Gay is a combo big, but he’s much more of a traditional big than some. Jayla is a little bit different. But um I think a Kongu was prepared for that. I always want to ask the question because I think a lot of us are planning on it, but we haven’t seen it happen yet. Um last thing I want to say, always, unless you want to tee up anything else you want to, we could definitely do that. Um, Akangu, this is not what we focused on, but he makes very little money. Uh, $15 million this year for Anaka. He is making less than 10% of the cap for three more seasons as a guy that we’ve just described for an hour as a clear starting caliber NBA center. That’s a heist of a contract. I love the deal when it happened. I think it’s proven to be already a really good contract. Um, I just want to say that out loud. I know it’s not really what we talk about when you and I get together that much, but it really matters for team building purposes that you have this guy making not peanuts, but like he’s making the mid-level exception basically, which is crazy. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, and part of that is the way the cap has moved and you know, those sorts of things. But uh uh I think it is a great value. I think it’s just tremendous value and and like I said, I I I think he’s going to have even better season this next year because I just think the roster context is excellent for what he actually means around him. Um, and it’s going to be fun to to kind of see what he see what he can do, you know. Um, I I think he’s a fun player. I I enjoy watching him play. I’ve enjoyed watching the growth and the development. Uh, I know there are Hawks fans that are still like, L, he’s still not tall enough, you know, and I’m going to let you I’ll let you have that. I’m not going to fight you, you know, over that. He’s not like I think if you asked I mean, not him, but he Yeah, if he’s 6’11, it would be easier. and I talked about the fact that that you can’t anchor him to the paint and rim and expect that to be where you’re going to get the best kind of defensive value out of him. And so that’s why the all the weeks out rim protection is really going to unlock him to do more of what he want. And so that’s you me acknowledging like, okay, yeah, he’s not big enough to play just straight drop. He’s not big enough to go deal with Jokic all by himself. He’s not big enough to go deal with Zubach all by himself on and on, right? and and that matters and in that sense a little bit of validation to folks that are like uh they need someone who can deal with those guys. I agree with you, right? Um now there you can cover things with scheme and all sorts of stuff but sometimes you just need a dude who’s big enough to go deal with that and I don’t you know and I’ll say you know over and over I don’t want Porzingis dealing with Jokic. I don’t want Porzingis dealing with Zot, right? And so it’s really really interesting between now when the and the uh season, you know, kicks off in October. Like are they done? Are they adding? Are they going to find, you know, what what are they going to do? It’s going to be interesting to see that. I know there was some I don’t know how reliable the reporting is that the Hawks are waiting to announce the Caleb Houston contract because they’re working on something. I was like, is that real? Is that not real? I have no clue. None at all. you know, um, but everybody gets like, oh, John is, you know, or, you know, you know, and, um, or it’s either it’s either Jonathan or Al Horford. No one in between. It’s just one of those two things for sure. No, I’m kidding. Yeah. Yeah. And of course, I mean, we know what Golden State’s doing. They’re just waiting on the Camino situation to play out, right? And then everything else is going to stack. We know what’s going on in Golden State. Um, but but for me, it’s, you know, I think he took a big step forward last year. I think the Hawks coaching staff halfway through the season started really pushing him into his strengths and I I I think he looked more and more confident as the even though the Hawks, you know, had trouble winning games down the stretch and, you know, all that sort of stuff, you know, I thought individually he just was building more and more and more confidence and I think that’s going to be apparent coming into this season and I think the Hogs and Hawks fans should be excited for that. Yeah, I’m intrigued as well. And um you know, to bring it full circle, I don’t know if he’s going to do exactly what he did in the last half of last season. Like I I generally don’t want to project the best half season of his guys’ career to be repeated or improved on. But also like I think I think it was pretty real. I mean, everything we just talked about, I think it all kind of makes sense and he might he’s probably going to play less than he did as long as Bringing is playing. But look, we’ve talked about it. We’ll talk about it again. Bringing is not going to play every game. like it’s there’s gonna be plenty of nights when the Kong was the guy in capital letters at center and we’ll see what that looks like versus when the whenas is playing but all the scheme stuff all the way they built the roster I think the roster in general makes more sense but for a Kongwoo if I’m with him I’m thrilled with the way this has all gone I know that they brought in a center so that might seem count they might that might seem counterintuitive but I’ve been saying for years they were they were never they were not just gonna punt back up center like regardless Did I think they’re going to get Porzingis? No. I think I thought it was going to be somebody lesser than that. But like because he can play with Porzingis, I I wouldn’t worry about if I’m his agent, if I’m him, I’m not worried, but he’s he’s going to suddenly play 20 minutes. Like he’s going to play plenty and he’ll be good and gives opportunity gives him opportunities and all of that. So, I’m excited about him as well. Interesting guy. And look, he’s still pretty young. Like I said at the top, he’s he’s 24 still. He turns 25 in December. That’s a pretty young player. like there are I think because he’s been around forever. He was drafted at 19. Uh people have kind of maybe forgotten that he’s still really he’s young. He’s he’s one of the young guys on the team even with all of what’s going on. Yep. Yeah. I’m I’m looking forward to watching him play this year. All right, Glenn. Well, we’ve done another one. I appreciate you doing this. Um as I always do when we sign these off, I want to encourage you to share all the places that you produce Hawks content and other content. So, what’s going on in the Glenn Willis universe right now? Yeah. So, you know, it’s been a couple weeks since we did ATL 29. I think that’s going to happen in the next couple days. I will call I will call Kevin right now. Hold on. Let me let me call. Hold on. Kevin, I’m kidding. Uh Kevin and Tyler, I think, have been watching some of the your European play. I have not. I I haven’t either yet, but it’s my my day job is not leaving room for that at all. So, I’ll have to uh let them carry that part of the conversation. uh and stuff that we’ll we’ll be having on one of those. And then um a Patreon, you can find the link to that in both Twitter and Blue Sky. Um I put out a video on Inka. I put out a video on Alexander Walker. I think the next one up the next day or two will be uh Risha. Uh and I’m going to do some Canard and uh Porzingas as well and and stuff like that. But between now and say, I don’t know, early October, it’s going to be kind of video breakdowns uh that are that are coming along and and they will come at the pace the day job uh kind of allows allows to happen. But appreciate those that are supporting me uh over there and and if you like if you’re like Glenn, I can’t, you know, do $3 a month that everything I produce eventually gets to everybody. So if you know, so that I don’t want to have this, you know, velvet rope kind of that’s not what I do, you know. If you can support me, great. If you can’t, you’re still going to get the content and I love having you having you over there. So, come find me over there if you want. Absolutely would encourage people to do that. If you are Hawks fans or just want to learn more about basketball, Glenn knows a lot about basketball and you will learn things. I promise you, if you follow his content anywhere and ATL29, as I always say, is a show that I am subscribed to, listen to every episode of, even if I have a mortal enemy situation with Kevin. Um, Glenn, thank you once again for being here. As for everybody else, please subscribe. I don’t know when this is being posted. I will give it a caveat at the beginning of this conversation when it goes up. But stay tuned, subscribe to the podcast, and we’ll see everybody next time.

Brad Rowland (@BTRowland) hosts Episode 2040 of the Locked on Hawks podcast, and he is joined by Glen Willis of ATL and 29 for Part 2 of a 2-part conversation. The show begins with a brief acknowledgement of the addition of N’Faly Dante before continuing a 2025 Atlanta Hawks player capsule series with a deep dive into big man Onyeka Okongwu. The discussion includes his strong end to the 2025-26 season, his top-tier touch, rebounding prowess, overall versatility, role for the upcoming season, fit with Kristaps Porzingis, and much more.

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