Some Atlanta Hawks fans may tell you that the team hasn\u2019t made many moves this offseason, but if you check the transaction list, you\u2019d see several things they did. No, it was Jaylen Brown, or trying for LeBron James, but they\u2019ve made moves that will keep them financially flexible, while also competitive now and in the future.<\/p>\n
One of the several moves they made that may have gone under the radar was acquiring Devin Carter and a second-round pick from the Sacramento Kings.<\/p>\n
Carter is going into his third year in the league after being selected with the No. 13 pick by the Kings in the 2024 NBA Draft. At the time, the pick was seen as a good move for Sacramento, but through two seasons, it\u2019s obvious things just didn\u2019t work out. With the recent selection of Darius Acuff Jr., one of their several guards was going to be on the outside looking in, and it happened to be Carter.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t see many minutes until the final two months of this past season, and he showed that when given the opportunity, he can make an impact.<\/p>\n
The first thing that stands out about Carter is his athleticism and his ability to get to the rim. His upper body is sturdy, and he uses that to his advantage when attacking the rim against smaller opponents, or even stronger defenders. Either way, he\u2019s shown that he has a knack for being physical, and that\u2019s special at the guard position.<\/p>\n
The closest person that the Hawks have at guard who can get to the rim with his type of skill is Dyson Daniels, and Quin Snyder has always praised his ability to get two feet in the paint. If Carter can do that, he\u2019ll be a good piece off the bench if they need him.<\/p>\n
Before coming into the league, Carter\u2019s 3-point shot was something that seemed promising for his career. Through two seasons, he\u2019s shooting a combined 27.4% from the 3-point line, and he shot 26.3% this past season. Whether it\u2019s a change of mechanics or simply needing to improve, Carter is going to have to get that part of his game fixed, especially on a Hawks team that loves to shoot 3s.<\/p>\n
The good news is that he showed a little more consistency down the stretch of last season, and the hope is that he can carry that into the upcoming season. The best way to put him in the best situation to succeed is by surrounding him with shooters when he\u2019s on the floor.<\/p>\n
Just like Carter uses his athleticism and frame to make plays on offense, that\u2019s what he uses on defense as well. For a guard, he also rebounds better than most, which shows he isn\u2019t afraid of doing the dirty work when he\u2019s on the floor. His energy on that side of the ball could be what the Hawks need off the bench.<\/p>\n
Carter isn\u2019t seen as a primary ball handler, so putting him on the floor alongside someone like CJ McCollum or Kington Flemings would be key. He may still have a long way to go as far as playing time, with several Hawks being interchangeable, but if Carter brings the energy that he showed at the end of last season, things could look good for him.<\/p>\n
If things don\u2019t work out, the Hawks can say that it was a low-risk, high-reward move, and it didn\u2019t cost them much to see if he could pan out on the team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some Atlanta Hawks fans may tell you that the team hasn\u2019t made many moves this offseason, but if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[4687,355,99],"class_list":["post-771980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-analysis","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}