Starting DeAndre Hunter Is Still A Risk for the Hawks

It's only one preseason game, but Hunter's performance should raise serious consideration of whether he needs to be coming off the bench in 2024-25.

Mar 13, 2024; Portland, Oregon, USA; Atlanta Hawks forward De'Andre Hunter (12) dribbles the basketball during the second half against Portland Trail Blazers center Deandre Ayton (2) at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images / Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images

In a mostly positive pre-season opener for the Hawks, the role of DeAndre Hunter continues to be a question Atlanta needs to answer.

To be blunt, it was a rough performance for Hunter against the Pacers. He tied for the team lead in minutes with 23, but finished with only four points, four assists and three rebounds. He started the game by missing his first five shots and three of them were on fairly open looks. They were shots that a wing of his theoretical floor spacing ability should be able to convert on a regular basis and those struggles continued for the rest of the game.

Now, it should be noted that his four assists is significantly above his regular output. If he can take a leap to be more of a connective passer, that will be extremely helpful for the Hawks' overall cohesion. However, it is not enough of a plus skill for him to be a starter when he is missing the shots designed for him to convert on.

On defense, it's hard to take away much since the Hawks' defense as a whole was rather poor. They gave up 130 points to Indiana and that cannot be attributed to the performance of a single player. However, he was not making an impact on the game with his defense at a high-enough level to justify his heavy workload.

Things become even more dire for Hunter's status as a starter considering that Risacher looked so comfortable in his first game for Atlanta. Even though it was not a perfect debut, the young wing looked much smoother and ready for NBA action than expected. He showed a clear comfort with working off of others and capitalizing on the chances created for him.

I expect Hunter to have better games going forward. There is something to be said about players having an off night. However, Atlanta has real options to play over him in the starting lineup. Between Risacher and Vit Krejci, who also looked great against Indiana, there are options for Atlanta to turn to if Hunter is off on the majority of nights.

The optics of relegating Hunter to coming off the bench become a little trickier when you consider the 4-year, $90 million dollar deal he is signed to. Still, I think this is a move that would not only help the Hawks, but Hunter himself. He had one of the best stretches of his career when he was coming off the bench during the end of the last season. Although he still missed 25 games, he looked better in the games he did play and set a career-high in three-point percentage by hitting 38.5% of his 5.3 deep attempts a game.

It would be worth it for Atlanta to find out exactly what they have in the maximized version of this lineup. To me, that is Young, Daniels, Risacher, Johnson and Nance/Okongwu with Bogdanovic as the hyper-effective sixth man. Hunter and Krejci would fill in as capable backups. Atlanta is a deeper team than last season and should use that depth to its advantage.

Hunter is in his age-27 season. At this point, he is what he is. He is not the most consistent 3&D wing, but can go on stretches of good play. The Hawks are better served using him as a rotation wing so that they can maximize his good stretches, keep him healthy and minimize the negative impact of his tougher stretches.