After a solid third season for the Atlanta Hawks, DeAndre’ Bembry could see his future in Atlanta, depending on what his next contract will be.
For the Atlanta Hawks, it’ll be interesting how they work with the young players on the roster and the veterans.
Outside of buying out Jeremy Lin, Atlanta maintained some of its veterans, like Vince Carter and Dewayne Dedmon, to work with the young kids, Trae Young, Kevin Huerter and Omari Spellman. Even guys like Kent Bazemore stayed on for the entire season before, presumably, approaching free agency.
However, we have yet to see what their approach will be for some of their younger players approaching restricted free agency. We’ve discussed Taurean Prince earlier, but DeAndre’ Bembry is a different case. After two lackluster seasons, Bembry took a step forward and showed some interesting skill on both sides of the ball in 2018-19.
With one season left under contract before restricted free agency in 2020, what should the Hawks do with him?
The biggest issue for Bembry is his long-range shooting. While he’s taken 172 attempts this season with one game remaining — easily a career-high — he finished shooting 29.1 percent from 3-point range. In an era where pace-and-space thrives in the league, Bembry’s lack of shooting could be a concern as he continues to move forward to a second contract. At the very least, it creates the question of how much you want to pay him moving forward.
But even with question marks on his shooting, Bembry brings other things to the table.
He’s a great all-around player. Defensively, he works well alongside the likes of Huerter. With Young on the perimeter, having a smart team defender like Bembry could cover some of his weaknesses. Bembry’s 2.0 steals per 36 minutes also suggest that he isn’t above making a play or two defensively. At 6’6″ with a wingspan near 7’0″, Bembry is a perfect wing to defend multiple positions.
The other positive trait in Bembry’s game is his ability to create. Averaging 3.8 assists per 36 minutes, he’s shown the ability to be a valuable secondary creator. A primary creator at St. Joesph’s, Bembry has developed and crafted his ability to find shooters in the corner and even work well in the pick-and-roll. It gives Atlanta another wrinkle offensively in short bursts.
For a wing player, the ability to defend and create are valuable secondary features. The lack of shooting from Bembry is a concern, but he’s on the best team to hide that weakness. Both Trae Young and Kevin Huerter are two high-level shooters that could cover for his lack of shooting in several lineups. In turn, Bembry’s defense could cover for both players.
The Atlanta Hawks will have to figure out what they want to do with DeAndre’ Bembry and monitor his 2019-20 season closely.
On the surface, he doesn’t seem like a valuable player. This was his first full season playing over 1,000 minutes and he finished with a 10.7 Player Efficiency Rating. He doesn’t space the floor and is largely a negative on offense. At 24 years old, there’s a legitimate concern that he may not get much better than what we see now.
However, there are some underlying traits that make Bembry an interesting player. He’s a good defender who plays the passing lanes well and could play a decent role as Atlanta looks to fix its defense. He’s a fine ball-handler and creator, which is valuable for wing players. He doesn’t seem like someone who could be a starter, but as a reserve, who could fill several holes in various lineups.
For the Atlanta Hawks, it’ll come down to what they want to pay Bembry moving forward. They’ll have one more season of control before he enters restricted free agency, and if Atlanta gets good lottery luck, it’ll have a chance to judge him in both the regular season and the postseason.
But for now, DeAndre’ Bembry got some minutes in a down season and flashed some interesting traits. It’ll be up to the Atlanta Hawks to see just how much further he has to go as a rotation wing player.