By: Kenneth Harrison Jr.

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The NBA season has recently started. The Atlanta Hawks finished the 2017-18 season 24-58 and earned the third pick in the draft. They drafted Luka Doncic from Spain then traded him to Dallas for the fifth pick, Trae Young.

In his lone season at Oklahoma, Young established himself as a multi-talented scoring threat. Young finished his freshman regular season leading the country in many statistics: assists (271), turnovers (161), points (848), points per game (27.4), assists per game (8.7), and assist percentage (48.6%).

The 811 points scored in the Big 12 would break the conference’s record for most points scored by a freshman player, which was previously held by Kevin Durant and Michael Beasley.

Young has received a lot of hype with some labeling him as the next Steph Curry. So far, he has done well, leading rookies with 19.8 points per game. His season high was 35 points against Cleveland. The Cavs also have a stud rookie point guard, Collin Sexton. The Hawks won the game 133-111 for the first win of the season.

The next game Atlanta played Dallas in the battle of traded draft picks. Kent Bazemore led the way with 32 points. Small forward Taurean Prince scored 24 and Young had 17. Doncic played well for the Mavs and had 21 points. Atlanta won 111-104.

Doncic is averaging 18.7 ppg, 6.2 rebounds per game and 4 assists per game. We are still early in the season so we cannot tell which team won the draft day trade. I felt Atlanta should have kept Doncic but time will tell which player will have the most success.

The last game was at home against Chicago. The Bulls won 97-85. Prince, Young and Bazemore combined for 15 of Atlanta’s 22 turnovers on a night when the Hawks shot 32.1 percent (27 of 84).

”Coming off two games where we played well (and won), it was a lesson in how you handle success,” Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce said. ”Sometimes, we were trying to do too much, and it was evident with our 22 turnovers. … I thought right from the start we were trying to hit home runs.”

So far Prince has been a pleasant surprise in his second year. He’s averaging 20.6 ppg and 5 apg. He forms a solid young tandem with Young.

DeAndre’ Bembrey is also a second year small forward and he’s playing well coming off the bench. He averages 9 points and 5.4 rpg.

The Hawks have some veterans on the team to help. Vince Carter is in his 20^th season. He transitioned from being a great dunker into a three-point shooter.

The team is 2-3 and currently ninth in the East. Time will tell if they can sustain this current pace or be one of the worst teams in the league.

There is some excitement around the team, which has been lacking for quite some time. The stadium underwent a $213.5 million renovation and has been renamed State Farm Arena (formerly Philips Arena).

I know they aren’t going to the playoffs but this team is exciting to watch. Young is a potential Rookie of the Year candidate.