Takeaways from the Hawks opening night win over the Magic

The NBA offseason is often a five-month soap opera, and this year’s could have won an Academy Award with how many superstars jumped from team to team.

The Hawks weren’t a part of that, despite being pegged as an under-the-radar team lurking for the right opportunity to strike. Atlanta had the roster flexibility to do just about whatever it wanted, but instead the front office stayed the course with its young core and added on the margins in the form of Lu Dort and Aaron Wiggins — who on opening night highlighted one of the things that makes this year’s Hawks team so intriguing.

The Hawks Depth Is Real

Look at Atlanta’s bench against the Knicks in the playoffs a season ago: Jonathan Kuminga and really not much else. Now it features two guys who played pivotal roles on an NBA championship team with the Oklahoma City Thunder a couple of years ago, with Dort and Wiggins combining for 24 points as a part of the Hawks’ second unit.

Jock Landale, who missed last year’s series with the Knicks due to injury, added 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting to go along with three assists and two rebounds. The Hawks used a nine-man rotation, with rookie eighth overall pick Kingston Flemings seeing the floor for 15 minutes as well. But even the guys we didn’t see — Dorian Finney-Smith, Zuby Ejiofor, Corey Kispert, and Asa Newell — all bring something to the table that will prove valuable over an 82-game season. That’s the kind of depth the Hawks haven’t had in a very long time.

Don’t Forget About Nickeil Alexander-Walker

Sometimes players win Most Improved Player and then fall off a cliff, never to be heard from again. Nickeil Alexander-Walker put everyone on notice from the jump that won’t be the case for him. He was the best player on the floor for the Hawks on opening night, knocking down five of his eight threes and finishing with 31 points — including back-to-back threes in the final 90 seconds that essentially put the game on ice.

Is it possible we see another step forward from him in year two with the Hawks? That’s the kind of development that would have this team’s outlook looking much different later in the season.

Rookies Play Sparingly

The Hawks added two first-round picks this offseason in Kingston Flemings and Zuby Ejiofor, who combined to play just 15 minutes and scored a whopping zero points. Ejiofor didn’t even see the floor, and Flemings finished 0-for-5 from the field.

It’s fair to say their impact was underwhelming, but this is a playoff-caliber team with a ton of depth. Both will have to earn their minutes, and it takes time to adjust at this level — just look at the career arc of Trae Young, who struggled early in his rookie season before blossoming into one of the best point guards in the game.

Luckily for these two, the Hawks don’t need them to carry the load. They’ll ease their way into things, and hopefully by midseason both are playing pivotal roles on a team with aspirations of being a legitimate contender in the Eastern Conference.

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