Atlanta Hawks: 5 goals for Taurean Prince in 2017-18
2. Carve out consistent minutes
The 2016-17 season was essentially a tale of two halves for Taurean Prince.
Over the first 59 games of the regular season, with two stints in the G League playing for the Long Island Nets, Prince spent an average of 11.8 minutes per game for the Hawks. The limited time on the court yielded limited production from the rookie small forward, resulting in just 4.0 points per game on 38.4 percent shooting from the field.
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Once the Hawks began preparing for their postseason run, Prince started receiving extended playing time and even closed out the regular season by starting 10 consecutive contests.
From the beginning of March until the final game of the regular season, Prince spent an average of 24.1 minutes per game on the court, including a run of 25 or more minutes in 12 out of 13 games. Prince even logged a career-high 41 minutes against Boston on April 6, resulting in 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field, seven rebounds and four assists.
The extended time in the lineup produced dramatic increases in his productivity, with his scoring more than doubling to 8.3 points per game along with 3.1 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.1 steals per game.
Landing the starting job for the Hawks simply isn’t enough for Prince, he needs to be among the team leaders in minutes played for a successful campaign in 2017-18.