The loss of De'Andre is significant for a Hawks team that has had a disappointing start to the 2021-22 season.
Follow Us
Atlanta Hawks forward De’Andre Hunter will miss approximately two months after undergoing wrist surgery, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania. The injury is the latest in a series of issues Hunter has dealt with since last season, when he played only 23 games. Knee issues were the culprit last season, and though he managed to return briefly in May, he was ultimately ruled out again midway through Atlanta’s surprising playoff run.Â
When he did play last season, Hunter emerged as one of the NBA’s best young wings. He is a strong defender who shot well collegiately, but his improvement as a ball-handler and individual shot-creator made him look like a future All-Star at points a season ago. He hadn’t managed to improve upon his sophomore campaign this season, though, as his scoring dipped from 15 to 10.8 points per game. Now, he’ll have to wait a few months to try to right the ship.Â
The loss is significant for a Hawks team that has had a disappointing start to the 2021-22 season. They are just 5-9 after coming two wins short of the NBA Finals last season, and prior to Sunday’s win over the Milwaukee Bucks, had lost six games in a row. Their defense, of which Hunter was a key part, has struggled in particular, ranking 28th thus far this year.Â
But the Hawks have a deep roster, even with Hunter now out. Kevin Huerter stepped into Hunter’s starting role on Sunday, and Cam Reddish can take on more forward minutes for Atlanta now that Hunter is out. Atlanta has the personnel to survive this absence, but after such a poor start, this is the last thing the Hawks needed as they try to get their season back on track.Â
To say Scottie Pippen wasn’t pleased with the Michael Jordan tribute documentary otherwise known as The Last Dance, from the way he was portrayed as “nothing more than a prop” to the fact that Jordan made 10 million dollars while Pippen and his former Bulls teammates “didn’t earn a dime,” would be an understatement.Â
Pippen’s memoir “Unguarded” was released this week.Â
And suffice it to say, he didn’t hold much back.Â
Pippen launched an immediate attack on Jordan, whom he calls a hypocrite, in the Prologue, and the first thing that really jumped out at me was his saying he was “a much better teammate than Michael ever was.”
“In the doc, Michael attempted to justify the occasions in which he berated a teammate in front of the group. He felt these guys needed to develop the toughest to get past the the NBA’s more physical teams. Seeing again how poorly Michael treated his teammates, I cringed, as I did back then.”
“Michael was wrong. We didn’t win six championships because he got on guys. We won in spite of his getting on guys. We won because we played team basketball, which hadn’t been the case my first two seasons, when Doug Collins was our coach. That’s what was special about playing for the Bulls: the camaraderie we established with one another, not that we felt blessed to be on the same team with the immortal Michael Jordan.”
