2018 NBA free agency grades: Hawks adding Daniel Hamilton

The Atlanta Hawks continue to add depth at the wing position. How do they grade out with the addition of Daniel Hamilton?

Lost in the same day of bringing Vinsanity to the Atlanta Hawks, the team plucked a young forward from the Oklahoma City Thunder, Daniel Hamilton.

The Hawks and Hamilton agreed upon a one-year, guaranteed deal, according to ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski. This gives the Hawks 18 players before training camp, two shy of the league maximum, so, yes, the Hawks can still sign more wings.

Standing at 6’7″ and 195 pounds, Hamilton falls into the category pretty well for a wing in today’s NBA.

As mentioned by Hoops Habit‘s own Albert Dadson in the Thunder’s Summer League update a couple of weeks ago, Hamilton has no problem bring the ball up the court himself and can play coast-to-coast easily. A ball-handling wing checks off even more boxes for the Atlanta Hawks.

Daniel Hamilton hasn’t really had a chance to shine in the NBA yet though, despite some decent pedigree before his college career. He was tabbed as the No. 30 recruit in 2014 in ESPN’s Top 100 and went on to play two years at UCONN.

Hamilton was named AAC Rookie of the Year his freshman year and finished the season with more than 380 points, 267 rebounds and 128 assists, only the second freshman in UCONN’s history to pull off more than 300 points, 200 rebounds and 100 assists.

His sophomore campaign was even better, as he increased his counting stats in every category, posting 12.5 points, 8.9 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.1 steals per game. He was named to the All-Conference second team and was the Most Outstanding Play of the 2016 AAC Championship. He finished with 451 points, 321 rebounds and 170 assists, joining Ben Simmons as the only college players with at least 450 points, 300 rebounds and 150 assists in the 2015-16 season.

However, Hamilton was drafted as a project by the Thunder (via the Denver Nuggets) as he’s had a couple good Summer League appearances, but is still finding his way in the G League. His stats in the NBA’s development league show a lot of promise though.

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/31/2018.

Hamilton has started all but two of the G League games he’s played in his career and he’s definitely stuffed the box score in each of his two seasons. He also improved his points, rebounds and assists per game from his first and second seasons.

The one worry is that he doesn’t have great shooting percentages (and they dropped in his second season) and he is not a great 3-point shooter at all right now. Where he seems to shine though is through his assists, as well as his play on the defensive side of the ball. Hamilton’s 353 assists were fourth in the G-League last year and 7.8 assists per game ranked seventh. He’s also finished in the top 10 in defensive rebounds in both of his seasons.

The Atlanta Hawks have another project in the wings, literally and figuratively, b they just brought in Justin Anderson, drafted Kevin Huerter and just saw an impressive Summer League performance from Tyler Dorsey. Oh, and some guy named Vince Carter will be in the mix too.

We’ll have to wait and see what happens with Hamilton until camps open, but until then you can’t say the Hawks don’t have enough depth at the 2 and 3 spots on their roster.

Grade: B-