The NBA is a “young man’s” game, make no mistake about it. The Oklahoma City Thunder are the youngest team in the league with an average age of 23.14 years old. The Atlanta Hawks aren’t too far behind, with the roster clocking in at an average age of 25.23 years old. The Hawks are also the 8th least-experienced team with an average of 3.69 seasons of experience per player.
NBA Insider Deshaun Tate was on with Eric Slaughter on Sunday night and was asked about his thoughts regarding what avenue the franchise should head down this summer and Tate thinks that the Hawks would be better served if they shifted their focus away from the NBA Draft and went after an older, more mature presence on the roster.
Given the inconsistency and perceived lack of leadership with the Hawks last season, one of the questions going into this offseason has to center around whether the franchise will take a run at a seasoned NBA veteran to bring some direction and stability to the locker room?
“I think they need an adult, I’ve said it multiple times; I’ll say it again between now and Thursdays draft,” Tate said. “I don’t know if that player – that edgy player, somebody with some experience, somebody with a winning pedigree, somebody with some defense – I don’t know if that player is Draymond Green?”
After a tumultuous year in Golden State, the general feeling around the Association is that the former 2nd round-pick out of Michigan State will opt out of the final year of his deal and the Warriors could choose to move on from him. Green would definitely fill a void that the Hawks desperately need.
While Deshaun thinks that the talent pool in this year’s draft is a lot deeper than what most are giving it credit for and there is a slight possibility that a “diamond in the rough” could be found just outside of the lottery at the 15th pick currently held by Atlanta, if he were in the shoes of Hawks’ GM Landry Fields, he would get rid of the picks (No. 15 & No. 46) with the goal to “get a little bit older and get a little bit more experience.”