The Atlanta Hawks didn’t just survive Monday night without their three most impactful summer league players - they rolled the Boston Celtics anyway.
Kingston Flemings, Asa Newell and standout big Zuby Ejiofor were all ruled out before Atlanta’s third Las Vegas Summer League game, a move that looked like it might finally slow down a team that had been steamrolling through the event. Instead, the Hawks kept right on winning and made the decision feel a lot less risky than it did at first glance.
Atlanta is now 3-0 in Las Vegas and 5-1 overall when its Salt Lake City, Utah games are included. That kind of start changes the conversation. There’s no obvious reason to push those three back onto the floor if the goal is simply to protect them, but the Hawks have also shown enough to make a summer championship run look very real.
That leaves Atlanta with a choice. The team could keep Flemings, Newell and Ejiofor shut down for the rest of the way, or it could decide Monday’s dominant win over Boston was enough evidence to let them finish the job. Either way, the Hawks have put themselves in a strong position.
Kobe Johnson added another wrinkle to that discussion. In a one-game stretch where he handled a major offensive load, he put up 30 points, seven rebounds and four assists on efficient shooting. Atlanta may ultimately benefit from sliding him back into his original role, while still using what he showed in that expanded opportunity.
The three players who sat out have all left their mark this summer, even if the path has looked different for each of them. Flemings has had some efficiency issues, but his impact has still been clear.
Newell started slowly, then bounced back after a rough opener and looked like the best player on the floor in his second game. Ejiofor has been the most steady presence of the group, making noise on both ends and standing out as one of the summer league’s best rebounders.
The Hawks can chase the title or choose caution. For now, they’ve earned the luxury of deciding.
In Other News...
Hawks Seem To Be Sending A Clear Message In Kuminga Talks
Jonathan Kumingas name keeps surfacing in trade chatter, and the latest wrinkle only adds to the sense that the market around him is more complicated than it looks. The Lakers have been mentioned as a possible landing spot, but their limited collection of trade assets has made any meaningful upgrade difficult to map out, especially with the front office still trying to find a path that fits both talent and flexibility.
Atlantas angle is the part worth watching. Sean Deveney reported that the Hawks are looking at the sign-and-trade landscape with a clear preference in mind, while the Lakers also recently added Ziaire Williams, a player with a similar profile to Kuminga, which naturally raises questions about how aggressive they still are in that pursuit. For a team like the Hawks, the message appears to be that they are not eager to settle for just any package, and that could shape where this conversation goes next. [Read more 🡒]
Hawks May Have Finally Fixed The Problem That Crushed Their Bench
Atlanta spent the offseason trying to do something every contender eventually has to do: make the second unit matter. Re-signing CJ McCollum, Jock Landale and Mouhamed Gueye gave the Hawks some continuity, while the draft haul of Kingston Flemings, Zuby Ejiofor and Henri Veesaar added more youth and size to a bench that needed both. On top of that, the front office brought in Aaron Wiggins and Devin Carter through trades, giving the roster a different look and a few more ways to survive the non-star minutes.
The real hope is that the Hawks finally have enough guard play and scoring pop to keep the offense afloat when the starters sit. Flemings is part of that equation at backup point guard, and Wiggins is the kind of under-the-radar addition who can quietly change how a second unit functions. There is still room for the bench mix to shift before opening night, and the Hawks may not be done tinkering, but this is the clearest sign yet that they are trying to solve a problem that has lingered for too long. [Read more 🡒]
Hawks Summer League Disaster Raises An Uncomfortable Question About Their Depth
The Hawks Summer League trip has already been about managing bodies as much as chasing wins, and that approach showed up again against Memphis. After a stint in Salt Lake City, Atlanta sat several of its key players to keep mileage down and protect them for what comes next, leaving a stripped-down group to handle a Grizzlies team that came out with far more juice and quickly turned the game into a lopsided affair.
What stood out was not just the loss, but how thin the Hawks looked once the rotation was pared back. Memphis raced out to a huge first-quarter cushion and never gave Atlanta much room to settle in, a reminder that Summer League depth can be fragile when multiple contracted players are unavailable. For a team trying to balance development with caution, the bigger question is how much more of this roster can be asked to carry the load before the real evaluation begins. [Read more 🡒]