This season has not gone to plan for Atlanta, by any means. A brutal start to the season lands the Hawks a top ten pick at the midway point of the NBA season, but one would assume they will be back in the playoff mix eventually. Regardless, with the tenth pick Atlanta looks to help their defensive woes as well as finding someone to come off of the bench behind Trae Young.
Daniels, set to turn nineteen in a little over a month, has impressed during his time with the Ignite through distributing & defending. His scoring package is nothing to write home about, & might never be, but at six foot six he could be an enticing project player for someone late in the lottery.
Knocking down the deep ball will be the most important improvement he will need to make to his game, as we have seen of late that lead guards who cannot shoot hold little value in today’s NBA. With plenty of offensive weapons around him, though, Atlanta is a situation where Daniels could play to his strengths & not be asked to do a whole lot, as far as scoring is concerned.
Portland seems to be in a lot of trouble right now, with a middle-of-the-pack roster when healthy that hasn’t had such luck in 2021-2022. The Blazers’ future is without a doubt up in the air, but the one thing we do know is that they appear willing to take whatever steps needed to retain the services of Damian Lillard going forward.
Defensive struggles have been well-documented during the Lillard-McCollum era in Portland, and though Jusuf Nurkic is a very solid starting center, his contract is set to expire this Summer & he simply adds to the problem on the defensive end. Perhaps a shake-up in the frontcourt is what is needed in Portland.
Duren is a physical, big-bodied center who likely won’t provide much outside of interior defense & as a screener/roll threat. With a lot of the Blazers’ offense coming from the perimeter, Duren likely wouldn’t be asked to carry much load at all on that end, rather utilizing his skills as a shot-blocker & rebounder.