Hawks draftees struggle but bright sparks remain despite loss to Spurs

The Hawks move to 0-2 in Summer League.

The Atlanta Hawks’ Summer League adventure continued on Sunday night against the San Antonio Spurs, but they fell in a 79-76 defeat, moving to 0-2 on the summer.

E.J. Liddell led the Hawks with 22 points with Rob Baker II adding 13 points. For the Spurs, with number four overall pick Stephon Castle ruled out, they were led D’Moi Hodge’s 13 points, with Jamaree Bouyea adding 12 points in what was a ‘by-committee’ effort from the Spurs.

As for the game itself, it was a narrow loss for the Hawks after recovering from a double-digit deficit in the first half, but it’s never really about the final result at Summer League — and it certainly wasn’t about the quality of play last night, reflective in both teams shooting under 35% from the field with neither team hitting 80 points.

Despite that, Hawks Summer League head coach Ronald Nored was pleased with the connectedness of his group and noted the development opportunity last night represented.

“I loved our effort tonight,” said Nored. “I hate it for our team that we didn’t win the game because our guys played connected and they played hard, exactly as we coached them. Unfortunately we didn’t get the result we wanted, but this is the development opportunity for our guys and I thought they took advantage of the opportunity, we just didn’t get the result we wanted.”

We’ll talk some of the other elements from the Hawks’ side here, starting with Zaccharie Risacher. Risacher struggled offensively in this one, scoring 11 points on 4-of-12 shooting from the field, 1-of-7 from three to go with five rebounds and two assists.

Risacher scored some solid baskets underneath the rim, but his outside shot hasn’t quite fallen for him yet, and he took some difficult, contested threes last night. The Hawks eventually ran some plays for Risacher later in the game, and they got him a good look at a three late on in the game, but things were slow at times for the number one overall pick.

I would’ve liked to have seen Risacher take a rebound or demand the ball in the backcourt and take off as he did when he was in France, and let him hunt in transition and utilize his pace in the open court. Risacher seemed to float through this game, and that isn’t really a surprise. He’s not one to go hunt or demand the ball and go make a play, and that’s frustrating in the context of ‘he’s the number one pick.’ But this was always the story with Risacher, this is the type of player he is.

That’s not to say Risacher didn’t have some good moments; he had those catches near the rim:

Risacher got this tip-in to go right at the end of the game too:

His movement looked good (unfortunately with the team being very new together, it usually involved Risacher/his teammates running into the same space), and he had a very sweet lob to Baker II.

Risacher also had this moment where he dropped his man but couldn’t convert on the three:

Add to this some good contests on the perimeter, and Risacher had some good moments on this game, even if he couldn’t hit from the outside/struggled to score last night.

Nored was pleased with the step in Risacher’s defense from the first game to this game, noting the improvement on and off the ball.

“I think he took a step tonight (defensively),” said Nored of Risacher. “One of the things is recognition off the ball and presence on the ball, two things we’ve been coaching all camp. The first game was solid and he took a positive step tonight.”

Elsewhere of the Hawks’ draft selections, it was a short night for Nikola Djurisic who played just six and a half minutes before being ruled out with a vague ‘left foot’ injury and would not return to the game. Djurisic was seen in a walking boot afterwards, which obviously wouldn’t lend itself to a ton of optimism.

“It’s tough,” said Nored of the Djurisic injury. “I liked the guys who came in and played, Jarkel played more minutes tonight. He brought some great energy, we sustained that injury throughout it. We’ll rally around him (Djurisic), stay with him and we’ll have an update for him.”

We’ll see what the Hawks’ injury report says and if indeed Djurisic is done for the week or if he’ll play again. It would be disappointing if this was the end of the action for Djurisic in Vegas, with the Hawks having already lost one of their more notable players in Kobe Bufkin prior to the week.

E.J. Liddell was arguably the most impressive Hawk from last night’s action, scoring 22 points on 6-of-14 shooting from the field, 2-of-6 from three and 8-of-10 from the free throw line, the majority of his output coming in the second half. Liddell’s sheer strength and physicality was overpowering for the Spurs and he used this to great effect to muscle his way to the rim or draw fouls on drives. He was really impressive, and looked a cut above the competition physically last night, and produced four blocks on the game too.

“I think as far as Summer League is concerned he connects us,” said Nored of Liddell. “He does small things — it showed up in the stats because he was getting to the free throw line — but he connects us with his ball movement. The ball found him back because he moves the ball for other guys and that’s what we want to see offensively.

Mouhamed Gueye looked really positive to start this game, especially in the first half where he connected on a couple of threes, had a big block — he was impactful. He was…a little less impactful in the second half and arguably chased his shot a little too much in some cases, but was still plus-13 in over 26 minutes.

Nored spoke to the leadership role that Gueye is presented with making a step in, and that so far he’s doing a good job in this regard.

“It goes back to our physicality, our presence, our energy, and Mo is a big part of that,” said Nored of Gueye when asked of his defense. “The way he talks and communicates, this development piece for him in Summer League is an opportunity for him to be a leader. He just had a year playing experience, played in the G League, played in the NBA at the end of the season. Now, this is an opportunity for him to take another step as a leader, to bring the guys together. I think he’s doing that well.”

Rob Baker II I really enjoyed last night; he was active defensively, confident offensively, I just thought he was making an impact last night. He provided great energy, good defensive contests, stretched the floor, I loved what he brought last night. He was second in scoring with 13 points to go with six rebounds and four steals — he was active.

Jarkel Joiner had a highlight moment in the second half as his defensive intensity helped force a turnover and lead to a basket on the other end:

I enjoyed Joiner’s energy and activity defensively, I’d like to see more of him throughout the week.

Outside of that, there’s not a ton else to highlight. A lot of players really struggled shooting the ball, Keaton Wallace shot 2-of-9 from the field, Moses Wood got some game-time last night but was 0-of-3 in 16 minutes, Dylan Windler shot 2-of-7 but did grab 12 rebounds and was aggressive on the glass (an aspect of the game he was strong at in the G League).

The positive from this game is that it would be difficult to play a whole lot worse, so that’s worth bearing some optimisim heading into the Hawks’ next Summer League game, Wednesday against the Los Angeles Lakers.

…Should be a hoot as always at NBA Summer League!

Until next time…