De’Andre Hunter is having a really good Sophomore season for the Atlanta Hawks averaging 17.4 points per game and is clearly the Hawks best two-way player. Compared to last season his points, rebounds, assist, field goal percentage, free throw percentage and 3 point shooting have all increased. While I don’t think he is the favorite to land the NBA’s Most Improved player I do believe some votes will be thrown his way.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane.
In the 2019 NBA Draft Travis Schlenk was making moves and rolled the dice to move up to number 4. The Hawks selected De’Andre Hunter and Cam Reddish with their first round picks. The majority of the fan fair immediately went to Cam Reddish over Hunter. This was the #4 pick in the draft we are talking about and a large amount of the fan base was more excited over the guy that was drafted at 10. That’s not a big deal but De’Andre Hunter always deserved more love even last year when folks were critical of his play despite having to guard the opposing team’s best player every night as a rookie.
Hunter is a soft spoken, hard working kid so he could care less about his fanfare, he is about getting better as a player and winning ball games. When the Hawks were starting mini-camp Hunter spoke with the media about improving his game for the upcoming season.
“I watched a lot of film during quarantine. I think I can be a lot better defensively. Offensively, I was a rookie so I worked on everything.
De’Andre Hunter
It is good to see Hunter finally getting the deserved love from the masses. It is tiresome when people ask after each game about his improvements. Listen people, this is who he is, it is time to accept it. People are acting like he wasn’t the number 4 pick in the draft. Here at the Hawksbeat we have always stood tall on the value that we saw in De’Andre Hunter.
Last year we did a Hawksbeat Mock Draft and the number one player on our Draft Board (outside of Zion and Ja) was De’Andre Hunter.
Hunter is the defensive dog that the Hawks so badly need. How many quarters last year did this Hawks team give up 40 points in a quarter? This team needs to start addressing their defensive inadequacy. A defensive guy on the wing would be perfect for this Hawks team.
E-dub / Hawksbeat
We did draft profiles on The Hawksbeat Podcast last year and check out this 5 minute clip on what we had to say about De’Andre Hunter.
We’re hopeful De’Andre Hunter will return from injury sooner than later. Hunter is going to be a very good NBA player for years to come and it makes us feel kind of good that we were the first ones to drive the De’Andre bandwagon. Come on grab a seat, there is plenty of room.
Hawksbeat 