Breaking down every Eastern Conference rookie as the 2016-17 NBA season comes to an end
As we continue our two-part series breaking down every NBA rookie, we jump down the Eastern Conference rabbit hole.
Atlanta Hawks
DeAndre’ Bembry, Malcolm Delaney, Taurean Prince
DeAndre’ Bembry is a small forward who has played in 34 games. He logged most of his minutes in February and in that time period, he wasn’t too effective. Against the Magic on February 4th, he played over 20 minutes without scoring a single point. That’s not something most teams want to see. He likely received more time in that month due to injuries or rest for other players.
Malcolm Delaney, however, has contributed in most of this season’s games. It was only recently that he was getting DNPs. He only started twice and is more of a role player than anything else. He still needs to work on being a more consistent player, but he’s been contributing to the team. As a point guard, he won’t be raking in the points like Russell Westbrook does, but he also doesn’t have to. That said, his shooting could definitely improve. He’s only 22.8% from three and that’s less than stellar for a guard.
Taurean Prince has the highest PER of the rookies, coming in with a 10. Like Delaney, he’s played in more than half of the games for the season and only has a handful of starts. Prince and Delaney are the most likely to develop into solid bench players for Atlanta. An upside to Prince is that he seems to have quick hands and can steal the ball with relative consistency from game to game.