The Atlanta Hawks Will Soon Boast Best Small Lineup in East

Measurements:

Height:6’8  Weight:227  Wingspan:7’2

2018 Stats:

Pts:15.2  REB:5.1  APG:2  STL:0.6  BLK:0.6

FG%:52.0  2P%:55.0  3P%:43.8  FT%:78.3

The Positives of De’Andre Hunter

De’Andre Hunter is a defensive specialist. Particularly on-ball defense, is the area in which he excels most. Hunter prides himself on guarding the opposing teams best scorer, rather it be a wing player near his size, a post player that is much bigger, or a smaller, quicker guard. He uses his long wingspan and the tactic of bumping opponents with his chiseled frame, to consistently disrupt scorers that he faces. He also has improved tremendously as a shooter. De’Andre was already a solid shooter as a freshman, making 38 percent of his tries from downtown on 1.7 attempts per game. Yet he worked hard on his jumpshot and thus improved his percentage to 44% from beyond the arch last season on 2.8 attempts. He also exercises great shot selection from outside, rarely launching a contested three-point shot. Though I would not call De’Andre Hunter a pure shooter, he can certainly make shots. If he is able to make threes at a high clip when being a focal point of opponent’s game planning, he should certainly be able to make NBA teams pay, for trapping Atlanta Hawks stars Trae Young and John Collins.

De’Andre Hunter is a strong player that uses power more often than finesse to overwhelm opponents, when he attacks on offense. He is a good finisher when running the lanes in transition. Hunter is a mature player with a good attitude. He is not afraid of the big moment, scoring 27 points and pulling down nine rebounds in the biggest game of his life, the NCAA championship game. It is obvious that De’Andre was very important to his team. Even though he was just the team’s sixth man as a redshirt freshman, his Cavaliers became the first number one seed to lose to a number 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament, when he missed the game due to an injury. With Hunter deciding to return for his sophomore season, the Virginia Cavaliers won the entire NCAA Tournament this past season.

Concerns About De’Andre Hunter

One of the main concerns about De’Andre Hunter, is his lack of a strong isolating game. Combine that with him being nearly 22 years old and not being a super explosive athlete and he projects to be a very good role player, as opposed to a perennial All Star level prospect. Though Hunter is a very good one on one defender, he must improve on his team defensive concepts. Learning the proper defensive rotations, should help give him better steal and block percentages in the NBA, than the low rates he posted in college. He will also have to adjust to the faster pace in the NBA. He is going from one of the NCAA teams that plays at the slowest pace, to the NBA team that plays fastest. De’Andre Hunter is also not a fluid athlete. In fact he can sometimes look robotic in his on court movements. Regardless of the aesthetics, Hunter was effective and efficient as a scorer, posting a true shooting percentage of 61.8 and scoring15 points, on only ten shot attempts per game.