Hawks Schedule Announced for Summer League Tournament

May 16, 2013; Chicago, IL, USA; Mike Muscala is interviewed during the NBA Draft combine at Harrison Street Athletics Facility. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports

Early Wednesday morning (or late Tuesday night, depending on where you are), the dust settled on the “round robin” portion of the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. This is the first year that the league has gone to a tournament-style format for the conclusion of the league, and the Hawks were awaiting confirmation of their first match-up of said tournament.

As it comes down, the Hawks will take on the Portland Trail Blazers at 8:30 pm ET on Wednesday night in the “first round”. The Blazers have one of the most interesting teams in all of the tournament, as they feature lottery pick CJ McCollum (who has averaged 21.3 points per game thus far) and a favorite of mine in former Kansas/Sacramento/Houston forward Thomas Robinson, who is averaging 12 rebounds per game in Las Vegas after being stolen from Houston to set-up for the arrival of Dwight Howard (a double whammy).

Again, the win-loss component of this league isn’t exactly top priority, but it will be interesting to see how the young guys respond to some additional urgency. The match-up to watch will be Dennis Schroder and CJ McCollum, and that is one that the entire league will have their eye on this evening.

If the Hawks win on Wednesday, they will advance to take on Phoenix at 8:00 pm ET on Thursday. If the Hawks fall to Portland, however, they will still play at least 1 more game, and that will be a 6:00 pm ET tip-off on Friday against the loser of Minnesota/Sacramento.

That is a lot to take in, but the moral of the story is that the Hawks will play 2 games over the next 48-or-so hours. Tune in to see the (potential) future of the organization on display.