Kingston Flemings has already done something only a tiny group of college point guards can say they’ve pulled off.
During his lone freshman season with Houston, Flemings put together enough of a résumé to earn consensus All-American honors at point guard, a distinction that has belonged to very few players in NCAA history. For Hawks fans who’ve gotten a glimpse of his game through Summer League, the playmaking has already stood out. What may be less obvious is the company he’s joined.
This century, only twelve players have reached that same milestone as freshman point guards. Three of them are in the league this year: Flemings, Darius Acuff Jr., and Keaton Wagler. Of the twelve, nine already have NBA experience.
That list matters because the track record is hard to ignore. If Flemings’ career ends up looking like the lower end of that spectrum, the Hawks are still in very good shape.
The source material points to Lonzo Ball and D’Angelo Russell as the kind of “worst case scenario” outcomes - and even that level of production would count as a win. Ball, of course, was the anchor of a 2022 Bulls team that sat atop the East midway through the year before his injury.
Russell’s 2019 Nets team, meanwhile, became a memorable dark horse, with his shot creation driving a lot of the excitement.
The broader reason these freshman point guards tend to carry over so well is pretty straightforward. In college, a lot of positions can lean on size and strength to overpower opponents.
Point guard is different. It’s often the easiest spot to translate because the skills that separate the best college guards - handle, vision, and feel - still matter at the next level.
The source makes the contrast clear with players like Chris Paul, Derrick Rose, John Wall, and Trae Young, all of whom were undersized and didn’t rely on raw physical advantages in college that wouldn’t travel to the NBA. Bigs, by comparison, can dominate in college simply by being bigger than everyone else, only to run into a very different reality once they face the 7-footers of the league.
That’s why Flemings’ profile stands out. A freshman point guard who already checked the consensus All-American box has a much shorter leap to make than a college big who was mostly overwhelming people with size. And while expectations aren’t sky-high after he went eighth overall, the possibility is right there: the rookie from Houston could arrive and lift the Hawks far faster than people expect.
In Other News...
Hawks Caught In A Jonathan Kuminga Trade Standoff That Wont Budge
Jonathan Kumingas name keeps surfacing in trade talk, but the path to moving him has not gotten any cleaner. The Los Angeles Lakers have explored a sign-and-trade idea built around Jarred Vanderbilt and draft picks, a package that would give them a swing at adding the young forward while reshaping the rest of their roster in the process. For the Hawks, it is the kind of domino chain that matters because any move involving extra players and picks can ripple across the leagues already tight roster math.
The problem is that the deal has not found a landing spot, and the obstacles are the sort that stop conversations cold. Other teams have not been eager to absorb Vanderbilts contract, and Atlanta is among the clubs dealing with its own roster-limit squeeze, which only makes the mechanics harder to solve. Until someone figures out how to clear the space, the standoff hangs there, unresolved and very much still a front-office headache. [Read more 🡒]
Hawks Offseason Changes Face An Early Test Atlanta Fans Will Feel
The Hawks do not have much time to settle into the new season before a stiff early measuring stick arrives, and Atlanta will already have plenty to sort through when it sees Houston in back-to-back games. The offseason reshaping in Atlanta was made with matchups like this in mind, the kind that can show whether the roster changes have actually tightened up the team enough to hang with one of the Wests tougher opponents.
There is real incentive here beyond a good early result. Atlanta wants to put last seasons struggles in the rearview and prove the new-look group can handle a demanding schedule without stumbling out of the gate, especially against a team that exposed them in both meetings a year ago. If the Hawks can turn these games into something more competitive, it would say plenty about where this group stands before the calendar gets crowded. [Read more 🡒]