Are there enough minutes to go around?
For the second season in a row, that question pops up when scanning the Hawks’ talented, deep roster, particularly on the wing.
But the Hawks are hoping depth can be an advantage for them, as it was in last year’s mid-season turnaround and deep playoff run under coach Nate McMillan.
“We’re hoping that that is the case, that we can take advantage of our depth, the ability to play two units, 11, 12 guys,” McMillan said Saturday. “If we sacrifice, or commit to that style of play, I think it could certainly help us, and that’s something that we’ve talked about, that with healthy bodies this season going in, you’re going to have to make sacrifices because in order to play that many guys, minutes are going to be cut, attempts are going to be cut. But it can be a strength of this team, and that’s what I’m hoping we’ll get.”
Sacrificing individual minutes or statistics for the good of the team was something McMillan preached last year, too — but it may be even more of a focus this year, if the team can get healthy and stay healthy. Entering last season, with the Hawks returning De’Andre Hunter, Cam Reddish and Kevin Huerter, plus adding Bogdan Bogdanovic, a question emerged – would all the Hawks’ young, developing guys get enough playing time to keep progressing?
Injury after injury hit the Hawks, though, and that question faded into the background. In the middle of the season, Bogdanovic missed 25 games with a right-knee avulsion fracture, then battled through right-knee soreness in the playoffs. Right Achilles soreness sidelined Reddish from late February until the Eastern Conference finals, and Hunter appeared in only 23 regular-season games, unable to play in the conference semifinals or conference finals after an MRI revealed a small tear of the lateral meniscus in his right knee.
Huerter ended up playing the second-most minutes per game on the team (30.8) behind Trae Young (33.7), missing only three regular-season games and playing in every playoff game, plugging in wherever the Hawks needed him.
Per McMillan, it’s too soon to say how much Huerter (who had a procedure after the season to clean up his ankle), Bogdanovic or Hunter will play in the preseason, but all are expected to be fully healthy for the regular season, as is center Clint Capela (right Achilles soreness).
But, if everyone is healthy, the Hawks will have to understand individual playing time or numbers may go down, though the idea is that translates to wins as more players contribute.
“If everyone stays healthy, we’ve got a lot of guys that deserve to play, can play, so it might be one of those things where it varies game by game, whoever’s playing well is kind of going to get more minutes than other guys, and that’s something I’m sure over the course of the year could change up a lot,” Huerter said. “We want to get everyone healthy; obviously I think we’re at our best when everyone’s on the court. Luckily for us as players, we go out there and play and let the coaches figure the rest out.”
It’s a lesson the team started learning last year, with John Collins receiving praise for sacrificing touches as the Hawks incorporated Capela and Danilo Gallinari coming off the bench. But overall, given the injury situation, that concept didn’t come into play as much as expected.
“The injuries turned out to be somewhat of a blessing (last season), because guys were able to get minutes because we didn’t have healthy bodies, and they were able to be productive,” McMillan said. “... We didn’t have to sacrifice as much toward the end because we did have a lot of injuries. When you’re missing Dre, Dre’s a 30-minute guy. Cam is a 25-, 30-minute guy. When you don’t have those guys in your rotation and then you have all these other injuries happening, that’s a lot of minutes that’s available for players. When Bogi did come back, he had a lot of minutes, Kevin got a lot of minutes, so they didn’t have to sacrifice as much as they will this season, because of the injuries.
“So it’s just something that we’re talking about that really the strength is in our numbers, and if we can take advantage of that by allowing each other to play minutes, there’s going to be some nights were some guys get more minutes than others, and if you can play that style of game because really, the bottom line is, whatever it takes, if we commit to do whatever it takes to win games, then I think we have something. So really, that’s going to be the message and the mind-set throughout the season.”
Per Bogdanovic, the Hawks are placing the focus on winning, regardless of how individual roles shake out.
“You saw what happened last year, even if you have maybe a smaller role, but it’s not about role at the end of the day, it’s all about wins,” Bogdanovic said. “Even the little things you do for your team, everyone sees that and everyone appreciates it. Especially in our locker room and our team. We don’t care what anyone says outside, because we know already there’s a lot of guys who can be leaders on other teams as well, but we are here to try to do something bigger than that, bigger than individual awards, and trying to build that chemistry between each other.”
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