LAS VEGAS — The Hawks want to build winning habits, and new general manager Onsi Saleh has done a lot of work to position the team as one that could win.
In the three months since he has taken the reins, Saleh has added several players with playoff experience, which raises the team’s expectations.
But with Summer League underway in Las Vegas, Saleh and the Hawks’ top brass — with Bryson Graham as senior vice president of basketball operations and Peter Dinwiddie as senior vice president of strategy and analytics — are looking to build those winning habits with the younger players on the roster.
The Hawks have won their first three games of the tournament and could be poised to head to an unexpected spot in the Summer League semifinals.
Saleh spoke briefly with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday, and here are his thoughts on his tenure so far, as well as the Hawks Summer League team.
(Note: Some questions and responses are edited for length and clarity.)
Q: How do you feel you have adapted to this job, especially over the last three months?
A: Yeah, I think just going into it, I feel like I was prepared for everything, given my background, my experience. We obviously had some changes in the front office, and Bryson and Peter, too.
So, I just feel super thankful and happy about our group, like, makes it a lot easier when you have good people around you. So just super excited about our front office, our scouting group, everybody in our organization.
Q: What are your thoughts on how the Summer League roster has performed?
A: I couldn’t be more happy with our guys. We were down, what, 16 (Monday) and they come back, and they just continue to fight. And in the meantime, when you play meaningful games where guys care about the game and care about the outcome of the game, that’s development. And that’s important for our group to understand what winning basketball looks like.
Especially guys like Asa (Newell), who’s really young; Kobe (Bufkin), who’s really young. We have these dudes that are figuring it out, and it’s fun. You could see them after the game being super excited and ready for the next one. So I couldn’t be happier with the winning aspect of it, but also the development of our guys already.
Q: How important is it for the young guys to take Summer League seriously?
A: I think it’s super serious, because you don’t really get to play a lot of 5-on-5 in the offseason, right? And then when you’re doing it in a more controlled environment against some of these guys across the league, a lot of these teams, they’re not just like young guys. They’re guys trying to make it. Guys that are going across the world playing and guys that are fighting and scrapping for their livelihood, their jobs. And to do that against those types of dudes in this environment, I think it’s incredibly good for one — just development and understanding how to win games.
Like, how to win games is a lot trickier than people think. It’s not as simple as you make a bunch of 3s or you do X, Y and Z. There’s times where you got to dive on the floor. And seeing Kobe do this and Eli (Ndiaye) do that, seeing Niko (Nikola Djurisic) do his thing, just being ultracompetitive, it translates to winning.
Q: How do you envision Kobe kind of evolving and taking what he’s learned from Summer League into the regular season?
A: I think the biggest thing for Kobe is just playing. I believe he’s only played 27 NBA games. So, he’s had some bad luck with injuries and trying to figure that out and get back. But he just needs to play. And I wouldn’t really position him for (backup point guard). That’s not my job to determine minutes and things like that for anybody.
But I think he’s done a good job of just playing and competing and doing things. People look at the points and things like that and the assists, but he’s playing winning basketball again, and that is biggest thing that we look for this Summer League. And I’m really happy with his development.
Q: How was it for you to see so many of the Hawks veterans in Las Vegas supporting the team’s younger players?
A: It’s always great seeing our vets and our new guys kind of mesh together. It was really cool seeing, like, guys sit all together courtside and spend some time at different events that were going on in Vegas. So, it’s just fun. We got a good vibe about us, and everybody’s in a good place. I just feel like that will translate over to the season, hopefully.
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