Can Austin Daye Offer The Hawks Anything Different?

Quite a lot has been spoken about who the Atlanta Hawks could add to their roster to help make a title push this season. That’s what happens when you have a good season and find yourself with an open roster spot coming down the stretch. For now anyway, the man the Hawks have brought aboard is Austin Daye.

As per usual, it was Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports who had the news first as rumors began to circulate on Saturday morning:

Daye signed on a 10-day deal in Atlanta, just as Jarrell Eddie had done 10 days previously. Eddie looked in many ways to be an excellent fit for Atlanta, but failed to play a single minute in his first 10-day deal, and his chances at a second were always going to be slim following the news of Mike Scott expected to miss four to six weeks with a broken toe.

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Although they play different positions, not unlike Eddie, Daye sounds a logical fit in theory at least.

Including playoff games, Daye has made 290 appearances in the NBA, so he has the necessary experience to be able to handle the strains and rigors that come with it. He’s also played on good teams during that time, including the Memphis Grizzlies in 2013, and last year’s San Antonio Spurs.

Of course, like most things with this Hawks’ regime, the Spurs connection is a big deal. Firstly, it means that Daye is an NBA champion, and although he played a very limited role, he got to experience first hand the feeling of being in a winning locker room.

Secondly, you can rest assured that Mike Budenholzer had the opportunity to do his due diligence on the 26-year-old just by reaching for his phone. Like the Spurs, the Hawks value character a lot, and they wouldn’t bring anyone in who could disrupt the chemistry they’ve built up, particularly so late in the season.

On top of all of that, and perhaps most importantly there’s the style of play. To begin with, Daye’s time with the Spurs should help him bed into Atlanta’s system quicker than most would. Although Coach Bud has added some different wrinkles in Atlanta, the principles of ball movement, player movement and team defense, cross over between both systems anyway.

Daye is 6’11”, although he plays considerably smaller than that. Due to his ability to knock down three-pointers at a good clip, he has not only played much of his basketball at power forward, but perhaps even more regularly, he has slipped over to the wing and the three spot.

For his career, the California native averages over 35 percent on his long range attempts, but his 2.6 rebounds in an average of 14 minutes per game do little to dazzle for a man of his size.

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In his 26 games with San Antonio this year, Daye posted a negative net rating of -3.1 during his time on the floor, but by no means did the team fall apart when he was on the floor. With both his offensive and defensive ratings pretty close to the 100 mark, it shows Daye to generally be steady if unspectacular.

Taking that into account, it doesn’t seem likely that we’ll see Daye play too often as a Hawk, but there is a very good chance he could be kept around as a guy at the back of the rotation that they feel can be relied upon if necessary.

On the other hand, who knows. The Hawks could just be 10 days away from another new face.

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