Sunday evening at 7:00, the Atlanta Hawks, fifth seeds in the Eastern Conference, face the fourth-seeded New York Knicks in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. There is a chance that this game will be the first game in NBA history to feature a player from William & Mary. But even if he doesn't get into a single game during the Hawks' playoff run, Nathan Knight proved he belongs in the league. And ain't that something?
W&M's greatest all-time player signed a two-way contract with Atlanta as an undrafted free agent, meaning that he was only eligible to be active for 50 of the team's 72 games. Ironically, the pandemic helped Nate, because normal NBA rules only allow a two-way player to spend 45 days with their NBA parent club and the majority of their time with a G-League affiliate.
I'm not such a homer that I'd overstate Knight's impact on the Hawks in the 33 games in which he appeared, but he did make his mark on a couple of occasions. In his second professional game, with the Hawks' roster depleted by injury, Nate dropped 14 points, making two of three from deep and rocking the rim on a pass from Trae Young as the Hawks beat Memphis (the dunk is at the 1:19 mark in the video below.
On back to back nights in March, Knight scored 16 and 15 in Atlanta's wins over Cleveland and Houston. Then, in the team's final game of the season, he went for a double-double, scoring 13 points and grabbing a career-high 10 boards in 26 minutes of action.
All told, Nate finished his rookie season averaging 3.8 points and 2.2 rebounds in 8.5 minutes per game. He didn't shoot the ball particularly well from the field (37%), but he did make 80% of his 55 free throws. In game action, he demonstrated an offensive explosiveness that we didn't see that often in college.
In our unbiased opinion, the Knighthawk showed enough to get another season in the league. He's got work to do on both ends of the floor, and we're not yet ready to argue that he's a starter. Yet. We reached out to the Atlanta front office for comment about Nate's future with the team, but they declined comment. Which, obviously, means that they don't want the rest of the league to know what they think they have. Smart, right there.
Our crystal ball says Nate's back with the Hawks next year, potentially bouncing up and down between the NBA and G-League. But we haven't seen the last of him, and that's a hell of a thing for a W&M product.
Posts
