Bryson Graham has already made one familiar New Orleans connection part of the Chicago Bulls’ roster build, but Jordan Hawkins is a different case.
Graham’s tendency to reach back into his Pelicans past has shown up early in his time with the Bulls. The clearest example came when Chicago brought in Buddy Hield, a 10-year NBA veteran shooter who began his career in New Orleans after the Pelicans picked him sixth overall in the 2016 NBA Draft. Hield spent his first 57 NBA games with the franchise.
That backdrop made Friday’s development worth noting when the Memphis Grizzlies waived guard Jordan Hawkins, according to Spotrac. Hawkins, like Hield, was selected by New Orleans while Graham was still in that organization, going 14th overall in the 2023 NBA Draft.
Even with that connection, Hawkins does not look like a Bulls target. His NBA career has not tracked the way his college résumé suggested it would, and there is little evidence that a Chicago stop would change that.
Hawkins built a major part of his basketball reputation at UConn, where he was a sophomore starter on the Huskies team that won the program’s fifth NCAA Division I national championship. But the college version of Hawkins has rarely shown up in the NBA.
That gap matters because New Orleans drafted him expecting movement shooting to carry over. Instead, through 174 career NBA games, Hawkins is shooting 34.8% from three on 4.4 attempts per game.
The shot that was supposed to be his calling card never really took off as a rookie, and without that trait popping, Hawkins has struggled to offer much else. He does not get to the line often, and his game has not included playmaking or defense as meaningful answers.
If there is a path back, it likely starts somewhere smaller. A two-way contract would make more sense than a standard roster spot, and a run in the NBA G League might be the place where he can try to rebuild enough of a case to return to an NBA bench later.
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