Atlanta Hawks

Atlanta Hawks: What Will Mike Dunleavy Jr.'s Role Be?

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 6:48 p.m. ET

Fansided, Andrew Snyder/FanSided via Soaring Down South

The Atlanta Hawks take on the Boston Celtics Friday night. Will Mike Dunleavy Jr. factor into the rotation tonight and for the foreseeable future?

Despite trade rumors about every player with an expiring contract on their roster, the Atlanta Hawks only made one trade in the last week. The team sent Kyle Korver to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Mo Williams, Mike Dunleavy Jr., and a protected first round pick in 2019.

The prize of the deal is the first round pick. Atlanta turned a 35-year-old impending free agent into an asset that will either be a trade chip, or eventually a young, cost-controlled player. Anything else they would acquire is just icing on the cake.

Mo Williams is not that icing. Williams is essentially retired at this point, and he won’t be joining the Hawks. They’ll either waive him or trade his contract to someone else in a salary dump. I assume it will be the former.

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Then there’s Dunleavy. He could actually factor into Atlanta’s current plans. It didn’t always look like Dunleavy would join the team. The start to his Hawks career was less than ideal.

At first, Dunleavy refused to report to the team. The consensus was that he preferred to play for a contender, not a team selling off all of their productive players.

Then things changed. A meeting with Mike Budenholzer seemed to quell his fears. On Tuesday, Dunleavy reported to Atlanta. He will be in uniform Friday night against the Celtics.

What will his role be with the Hawks? He will obviously come off the bench, but he won’t exactly slot into the role Korver vacated. In his 13 games off the bench, Korver played 26.5 minutes per game.

After the trade, I expected those minutes to be split between Tim Hardaway Jr., Taurean Prince, and maybe even DeAndre’ Bembry. That’s what has happened in the last few games. For example, against Brooklyn Hardaway played 22 minutes, Prince played 20 minutes, and Bembry played three minutes. How will that change when Dunleavy is availble to play?

My only worry is that Dunleavy’s presence on the roster will hinder the development of Prince and Bembry. These guys need minutes if they’re going to get better and become impact rotation players in 2017-18.

If Dunleavy’s playing 12-15 minutes per game it might not be an issue. If he’s playing 20-25 minutes per game he might bump the rookies out of the rotation completely. Unless Dunleavy’s minutes come from somewhere else.

There’s the chance that Budenholzer could get funky with his rotations by bumping Kris Humphries from his backup center role, shifting Mike Muscala to center, and playing Prince, Bembry, or Dunleavy as a small-ball power forward. There are plenty of options. We won’t know how things will shake out until Dunleavy actually plays.

If he recovers from his slow start in Cleveland, Dunleavy can definitely help the Hawks this season. He’s a good shooter in a league where you can never have enough shooting. He’s a career 37.6 percent shooter from three-point range and he’s still shooting 35.1 percent from outside this season, despite his struggles.

Last season he shot 39.4 percent from three-point range and in 2014-15 he shot 40.1 percent on three-point attempts. When he gets an open look he usually knocks it down. The question is, what exactly does he have left in the tank?

Dunleavy is 36, and only played 15.9 minutes per game in Cleveland. The Cavs don’t appear to think he has much left to give, considering they attached a first round pick to him to trade for an upgrade in Korver.

After all that he’s accomplished in Atlanta, there’s no reason not to trust Mike Budenholzer. If Dunleavy can help this team, Budenholzer will find a way to make it work. If Dunleavy struggles, and his minutes are negatively impacting Prince and Bembry’s development, then Bud will hopefully pull the plug.

There’s no harm in giving Dunleavy a chance to prove he deserves minutes.