The Hawks got CAUGHT...

Hawks fans, Hawks fans. The Atlanta Hawks just got caught. Back-to-back games. I really believe that the Atlanta Hawks had a plan to arrest the rookies, to arrest some of the sensations that we have drafted, and also not to have the chemistry going along because they want to put too many miles, and the Hawks got caught. Welcome back to Hawks Digest, everyone. I am Chris Tiltmore. You know where to put your shoes at. We have a quick update just now. In all fairness, I'm gonna talk about the things that I saw, and not the things that I did not see. Of course, I'm talking about that Grizzlies game. I only saw about half of the first quarter, respectfully, because I was working with the FIFA, and I was eligible, excuse me, talk this morning, to actually watch that game, man. So, I don't have a lot of thoughts on that outside of, I will say, that was an absolute travesty to give up 32 points, and to only be able to score two points in the game. And when I looked and I saw who all was out, who was not playing, I said, okay, Hawks. Now, we've been able to, the weather storms, we've been able to find ways to adjust. We've been able to take leads, come back from leads, and still win these games, finding ways to win. I love that. But, all of a sudden, the Atlanta Hawks, they decide to gamble and rest their guys, which, of course, that's their prerogative, to rest guys and not try to pretty much put too many miles on them too soon. But, guys, before I get any further into this, I have to let you guys know about today's video and today's video sponsor, and that it is good old PrizePix, man. One of our favorite partners we love to work with, personally, I must say. But, PrizePix, guys, is the America's number one sports pick app and the best way to get into the action to, you know, help you get a little extra funds. Now, we're gonna dive into some awesome promos later, but make sure that you guys are downloading the app using the link in the description and pinned comment and use Digest to sign up today. New users get $50 instantly and their lineups instantly by when you play your first $5, but you gotta be new. It helps the channel out a lot and we thank you a ton. And tell them and let them know that, you know, Hawks Digest, Walter, Mike, and Chris Tip, we all sent them over. And, you know, so that's just what it is about PrizePix, but let's talk about what it is about this game, in particular, the Washington Wizards and the Atlanta Hawks do battle. And I just have a couple of takeaways that I wanted to take away from this game. And one thing about it, us, that was a glaring issue. We were shorthanded again, again, like I was talking about and kind of preluding that the Atlanta Hawks wanted to rest their guys. We came in, I believe, again, you know, it's been an eventful couple of days. The journey ended with the lawsuit against the Washington Wizards. And it's the last time that any Hawks fan would get to see these players in action until preseason. Atlanta does walk away from Vegas with a 3-2 record. Something to feel pretty good about, but let's just keep it real. If the Atlanta Hawks had possibly played everyone, including Kingston and Zuby and everything, I really believe that there is a good chance. And it's not just those guys too, you know, the Toppins, Eli, it's more guys that set out the past couple of games. But regardless, you could have possibly had a 5-0 record. Now, I know the NBA championship is not won in summer league, okay? Let's just keep it real about that. You can have injuries and unfortunate things that can happen to your group if you're not careful. And let's keep it real, the Atlanta Hawks were already going through some of those things. Experiencing that with guys like Jacob Toppin having like little injuries here. Everyone getting kind of nicked up here and there. And they looked at that and said, look, we don't have time for any major injuries. We don't have any time to be pushing guys forward too hard, too soon. So we're gonna go ahead and start resting guys, deactivating guys, et cetera, and let some of the other guys who have more so something to prove that still trying to make their way into this league. And maybe that they can actually make some noise. But you gotta give oppos in order to do that, right? So that's exactly what the Atlanta Hawks really did the last two games, giving guys opportunities who most likely are not gonna be playing with the Atlanta Hawks or the Sky Hawks, but possibly to audition for other teams. That's just kind of like the nature of the league when you think about it too. But overall, the Atlanta Hawks, the best quarters to me was probably like really in the second half mostly. I mean, the second quarter was cool too, but it was the second half mostly for the Atlanta Hawks being able to try to come back and weather some of those storms. They still kept their arms length, but overall they tried their best. 16 turnovers for the Atlanta Hawks compared to 18 for the Wizards. Again, that's something that you wanna cut down on, but again, you don't have your best players. Only 20 bench points as again, the Hawks were limited to a certain amount of guys. Same thing for the Wizards though. The Wizards only had about eight guys themselves. Wizards were up by 16. The Atlanta Hawks were able to knock that down a little bit, but ultimately, of course, still losing by eight. Points in the paint, it was even at 48 and 48. And outside of being completely shorthanded, which I feel like led to two of these losses, you don't have Toppin, Asa, Ray J, Keyshawn, Isaiah, Isaac McNeely, all those guys, no Fleming, no Edgecourt. So all those guys were out and those guys were constantly in the rotation. And again, some of those guys that I just said were dealing with a little tick attack injuries here and there, but it was not surprising to see the Atlanta Hawks arrest their best players again. As I was saying, you cannot win in the Summer League as far as being in the NBA Championship or anything like that. Some people just don't have any kind of value on the Summer League Championship. And that's where the Atlanta Hawks are. Second thing I wanna talk about, Henry Vesar. I've talked about it before. I think he'll end up in College Park. I think the last two games kinda illustrated it even more. Yes, I'm happy about the blocks and you wanna see that he has that ability to go out there and be a rim protector, but let's also keep it real as well, guys, that Henry needs to work on some defense. And also to me, the offensive side is Henry's best attribute, but he didn't give you a lot. He was one for eight from the field, that's 12%. He missed all three of his threes. Now, he did make his free throws as well, so I'm happy about that. He only played 23 minutes as well, but he gave you four rebounds, three on the defensive end, taking away extra possessions. Of course, you always love that. But overall, I just don't think it was a good game for Henry Vesar. You have bad games, so you don't wanna hold that against him. And of course, he is a rookie, still working his way into the NBA game. So you shouldn't fault him for that. But at the same time, you can tell that there are definitely things that he needs to work on. Even though he was a plus 16, he still needs to be plus in other areas as well. And I'm not gonna be super critical on Henry because I know he has things he has to work on. He has attributes that he has that are good that you can build off of, but we still need more. We're still gonna need more. So it's not bad to send Vesar down to college park and let him get some extra reps with that. I will say guys that I want to keep in the Hawk system is a couple of guys though. Mr. Higgs, Devon Higgs, he went eight for 17, 47%. Now he was one of seven for three, but I mean, the Atlanta Hawks, they were trash at the three-point line anyway, five of 31, 16.1. Now, when I say trash, I'm just talking about the shooting trash. I'm not calling anyone trash, okay? But at the end of the day, like I said, five of 31, that's just a bad percentage of 16%. You never want to see that. I did like, you know, some of the foul shooting. We did miss three, but they were 80%, 12, 15. You love that because it's free and you want to get even better at that. But overall, Higgs, he had a great game. He had the best game. Only guy that was able to get into 20 points for the Atlanta Hawks. So he had the best game in 30 minutes. I would like to keep Higgs around, see if we can possibly, you know, get him on the college park, the Skyhawk squad. Also, I like Isaiah Wong. I don't know how you guys feel about Wong. Y'all let me know in the comments, but I like Isaiah Wong. I wouldn't mind having him in college park as well. Vasar, I already expect him to be there for a little while. As I also said, there's a good possibility he'd go down for like maybe half a season and be brought up or however the Atlanta Hawks want to do it. It all depends on Vasar and his development. But moving next after that, you think about Kohar. Why not, you know what I'm saying, bring him to college park as well? The kid, I look at him and I'm like, okay. And I look at the situation, not just him, I look at the situation. I'm like, Atlanta Hawks, go ahead and start developing more bigs. So I would not be mad at CeCe for getting the eight. He could be the new CeCe, I guess. And he can get in there. He was four for four, got a couple of rim runs. And honestly, you know what I'm saying, played pretty good overall. The one thing that was bad, and this comes from all the bigs, even to the point to where Higgs had to get over there and knock a ball out of the air as far as those lobs. Man, that pick and roll, the Hawks had a lot of troubles with the pick and roll, especially with the bigs, Vasar and Kohan. So, but Kohan, you know what I'm saying, he, again, I like Kohan to a degree as well. I think he can go down to the college park and why not start developing some bigs? It couldn't hurt. We've developed forwards, we've developed guards. Why not develop some bigs? So Vasar and Kohan, I can definitely see down at college park. I like Isaiah Wong. I like Higgs as well. Colby Johnson, he has been playing well. I fully expect, as long as the trajectory is going the same way and as long as the effort is there, the patience is there, Colby Johnson and Jalen Johnson could end up on the Atlanta Hawks playing together and how beautiful that would be for those two brothers to be able to play on the same team, on the same court, at the same time, together professionally. It'd be similar to what AJ Terrell and Avion Terrell is gonna be experiencing this season as well. So you would have two sets of brothers in the A doing their thing, but Colby Johnson, I like Colby. Definitely not getting rid of Colby at all. The defense is there, but he talked about how he wanted to show his offensive side and I believe in this summer league, he did show more of the offensive side. He showed more poise, patience, and growth as a player. So I like Colby Johnson to end up being one of those Hawks guys that end up getting called up along with like a Jacob Toppin. I like Jacob Toppin as well, ever since last year. Love his ability, so that's another guy that I'm rooting for as well to make this squad or make it be in the College Park roster or just the Atlanta Hawks organization all the way together. But guys, those are my quick thoughts, to be honest. The Atlanta Hawks, they got caught. They tried to arrest the guys. It was a gamble to do it, but at the end of the day, like I said before, you can't win the NBA championship in the summer league and the summer league championship may not have just been important to the Atlanta Hawks. Health and getting guys acclimated in other areas outside of just on the court was important to them, but you already know in order to get better, you always gotta play. So regardless, you guys let me know how you guys thought about these two games, really, between the Grizzlies and the Wizards, but specifically the Wizards, because I know that's the game that I was able to check out the most. 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Again, thank you so much, guys, for watching and also being a part of the channel. And until next time, peace and blessings to you all. Go Hawks. Let's look forward towards training camp and what could also remain with the rest of the off-season for our Hawks. Until next time, peace and blessings, guys, and I will Hawk.