Hawks Have a BIG Question to Answer

The Atlanta Hawks have a big question to answer this summer. After drafting Zuby Ejiofor at the number 23 pick this summer, he adds to the backup power forward room with Asa Newell and Mohamed Gueye. Now it's up to Quinn Snyder to decide which of these backup power forwards is going to get the lion's share of the minutes. Welcome back to Hawks Digest. My name is Michael Kabrinski and as we head into today's video, we're going to be breaking down who is most likely to get the power forward minutes between Asa Newell, Mohamed Gueye, and Zuby Ejiofor. The Zuby obviously the pick this summer, Asa Newell two summers ago, and Mohamed Gueye a couple summers before that. But all three of these guys have the potential and have some skill set that can help the Hawks behind Jalen Johnson. Which one's more likely to, that's what we're going to get into today. But before we get into that, I've got to tell you about this. You know what can ruin a really great outfit? 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But we've actually seen Zuby Ejiofor do that in summer league and be successful with it. And with Ejiofor, he's only, he's really only played center. He's played some next to Henry Vezar at summer league at the power forward position. But the bulk of his minutes have come at center. But at the NBA level, I do think he's more suited for the power forward position right now. Now, offensively, I think his game yields more center. But defensively, I think he can really play the four, the four or the five. It's just that he's not seven foot. That I know, I know that seven foot is a lot of, there can be some contention there between if he's tall enough to be a center. But for me, honestly, look, Zuby plays so physical that he was able, he was able to push around and out physical, if you want to use that word or make up that word, out physical, Adai Mara in the summer league, who many Hawks fans thought was the best big in this draft. Zuby had a 19.15 rebound double double in that game and a win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in summer league in Salt Lake City. So that was, that was really impressive. Now we've talked about some of the summer league context with Zuby here, but let's go to the Hawks context, the main squad coming up later this fall, because I think we'll see some competition between Zuby, Asa, and Mohamed Gueye for the power forward minutes behind Jalen Johnson. I'm sure Quinn Snyder during preseason is going to really be testing lineups to see who is best fit and what lineups, what combinations really work here. But for me, I think Zuby-Ejiofor kind of combines the best of both worlds between Asa Newell and Mohamed Gueye. Because for me, Ejiofor is a much better defender than Asa Newell. Asa is probably better with the ball in his hands, but we've seen Zuby be able to drive and be able to make some passes that Asa has been able to make as well. And honestly, the swing skill for Ejiofor is this three-point shot. Just like Asa Newell in his rookie season, he demonstrated that he had a better shot coming out of college than a lot of people expected. So far in summer league, while it's not a great percentage, Zuby hasn't been afraid to take them. And he didn't take a lot at St. John's, but he stepped up in that department volume-wise in Las Vegas. So who knows? If Zuby can shoot some threes here, and he already provides that tough, hard-nosed defense like we know he can, there definitely is a chance that I think Ejiofor could be in the rotation sooner rather than later. Now is he in there day one? I'm not sure. I think it may surprise me, even though, in my opinion, I think Zuby-Ejiofor is probably his skill set is best suited at the four behind Jalen Johnson between Asa Newell and Mohamed Gueye. I think Zuby, even with how good of a defender Mohamed Gueye is, I think that Zuby's strength, he has more strength over Mo, Mo has more length. But look, Zuby's ability to play physically, his ability to box out, his ability to grab offensive rebounds, give this Hawks team more possessions in the half court, I think all of that combined with him, on paper at least, might be the best option at that backup power forward spot. It's just, will Quinn Snyder do that? And for me, I have kind of a tough time thinking he would right away. But let's say Zuby impresses during practice or impresses in college park, he might force the coaching staff's hands and have to play him over Asa or over Mo if he continues to play this way. So I really do think Zuby Ejiofor has a high ceiling here and can impact the rotation sooner rather than later at the backup power forward position. But the next guy I want to dive into is going to be Asa Newell. So we've seen Asa Newell throughout this summer league playing with Zuby Ejiofor. And honestly, for me, Asa, I don't think Asa has had the greatest summer league. Now he's had some moments where he's taken the ball, he's taken the ball from the top of the key, drove to the rim. That's a really good sign. We didn't really see him do that much with the Hawks. He did it with the Skyhawks last year in the G-League. But the way he's doing that in this summer league has been pretty good. His three-point shot seems to be a little better as well. His three-point shooting kind of tailed off a bit during his rookie season and eventually he fell out of the rotation, went to the G-League. But he played really well in college park and still shooting the three ball with confidence. But the main thing for me with Asa is defensively, I don't think he's looked good in summer league. And in the rookie season, everybody kind of, you kind of expect rookies not to be great defensively. Honestly, I do expect Zuby to be pretty good defensively though. But Asa, Asa was a different story. At the 5, he was not a great defender and even at the 4 in this summer league playing next to Zuby, I've not been impressed with his defense really. And I think on fast breaks, there are some times where he hasn't gotten back. And I think Asa, I think Asa offensively is ahead of Zuby, is ahead of Moge. But I'm not sure if Asa's, Asa's jump offensively is enough to bridge the gap between Zuby and Mohamed Gueye's defensive upgrades compared to Asa. Because both of those guys are better defenders. Moge, better weak side rim protector, offers some athletic shot blocking there. And Zuby Ejiofor, I think, is a better on-ball post defender. And he's able to really keep guys out of the paint from bullying inside. Whereas Asa, Asa's more that offensive guy. And I do think there's some room for growth here with Asa. He's athletic. He's fast at his size. And he's got, I think he got much better at handling the ball and going downhill throughout this summer league. But if last year was any indication, Quinn Snyder seemed to go more defense than offense in that position and played Moge over Asa. And if that's the case, it might continue again. My only thing is, I think both Asa and Zuby Ejiofor have more upside than Mohamed Gueye. I think, I think, sorry, yes, yes, that's correct. Asa and Zuby have more offensive upside than Mohamed Gueye. And I think Zuby has the highest ceiling out of this list, especially if he can figure out that three-point shot because that's a huge swing skill for him. So if I was to make a prediction here, I do think Asa's probably the most likely to play at the backup power forward position. But if Asa, if Asa's there on day one and Onyeka Okonwu's backup is Jock Landale, defensively with Asa and Jock at the four and five, that's not a lot of rim protection. That's not the rim protection the Hawks probably want. So the lineup might need to change a bit. You definitely want some perimeter defenders on the floor with Asa Newell and Jock Landale if that was the case. But with that, let's move to the final backup power forward candidate and that is going to be Mohamed Gueye. So the Hawks, the Hawks earlier a few weeks ago picked up Mohamed Gueye's $2.1 million to $2 million option, which was a club option for the 2026-27 season. And I honestly think it was a no-brainer. Even if Mohamed Gueye is out of the rotation, it's valuable to have a guy on a contract like that who has NBA experience, a proven NBA defender. Look, I've already talked about Zuby Ejiofor a lot in this video. I think he's going to be a great defender. But we don't know, he hasn't played against NBA level competition yet. Mo Gueye has and we've seen Mo Gueye thrive as a weak side rim protector, as a versatile defender who at 6'11 can really cause some havoc in the paint and in the passing lanes as well. Now when he plays the center position is where things get a little iffy because a lot of the stronger forwards and the stronger centers are able to bully Mo Gueye. That's where Zuby Ejiofor can come in and help the Hawks in this way. But for Mohamed Gueye, offensively, it was not great last season. He did not shoot the three-ball yell well and the offensive processing, it got a little bit better. But there were definitely some moments of hesitation with the ball in his hands like do I shoot this, do I pass this, do I take one dribble, do I try to slash to the rim as the guy's closing out. There were some moments of hesitation there for Mo Gueye. And I think just like Mo and Zuby are ahead of Asa defensively, I do think Asa and Zuby are ahead of Mo offensively already. And they're younger as well, which to me yields that if the Hawks really do want to focus on development, play their young guys a lot this season, I think Asa and Zuby stand more of a chance to get some minutes. But any injury to the frontcourt, whether it be Landell, Okonwu, Zuby, Asa, Jalen Johnson too obviously, if that's the case, I think Mo Gueye is going to step into a rotation role. But I think out of all three of these guys, if I was predicting how the Hawks should run their backup power forward position, I would take a chance with Zuby and see how he's done based on his play at Summer League. So I would go Zuby, then I would go Asa, and probably then I would go Mo. Just because of that upside, you want Zuby, you want Asa to try to figure stuff out offensively more for Zuby, and defensively more for Asa. Because we know that this Hawks team, even though they had a great season last year, 46-36, first round of the playoffs team, I think they're still in that development mode. They're not one player away, as Ansi Saleh said earlier this summer. So if they're still in that development phase, then they should be giving their young guys some run. And I think that's why Asa and Zuby, in my opinion, should be playing over Mo. But that is my opinion on how the Hawks should focus on that backup power forward position. Definitely let me know in the comments below, who do you think should start the season as the backup power forward position between Mo, Asa, and Zuby? And who do you think has the highest ceiling out of all three guys as well? So let me know in the comments what are your thoughts on those two questions. Before we get out of here, I appreciate y'all subscribing to the channel and all the support you got on our videos for Hawks Digest. Like the video, subscribe, and we'll see you in the next one. Peace!