NBA Free Agency 2017: 5 offseason needs for the Atlanta Hawks
By John Buhler
3. Competence at backup point guard
Give Atlanta some credit for trying new things this year. Schroder got better at playing point guard in his first year with the starting role. He does seem to have the higher ceiling when compared to his predecessor Teague. Dwight Howard brought bite on the defensive glass that Al Horford never could. Prince looks to be a high-end starter out on the wing at small forward.
That being said, Atlanta did make to big gaffes in the offseason: 1.) Re-signing Kent Bazemore to an absurd contract to come off the bench and be inconsistent. 2.) Not really having an answer to who is backing up Schroder at the point.
Atlanta had former Georgia Tech standout Jarrett Jack battle it out with Delaney for the backup role. Since Jack was still nursing an injury, Atlanta took a gamble on Delaney and it didn’t pan out. He would play okay some games, but Delaney wasn’t the backup floor general Atlanta needed to win with the second unit. Atlanta must win with the second unit to keep up with the better teams in basketball.
Bringing in Calderon later in the year was a huge plus. On a one-year deal, Calderon would not be a bad fit to backup Schroder in 2016-17. He seemed to pick up Budenholzer’s offense very quickly and made big plays in the NBA Playoffs.
In short, Atlanta cannot treat its backup point guard job as the 10th man in Budenholzer’s rotation. While Atlanta could draft a point guard late in round one of the 2017 NBA Draft, finding a veteran that the Hawks can go steady with would be huge for Schroder’s continued development and improving the Hawks’ ceiling for 2017-18.