Hawks’ Kingston Flemings gets first NBA test with Monday’s exhibition start

There’s no better way to gain NBA experience than by playing. On Monday, Hawks rookie guard Kingston Flemings got his very first taste of NBA minutes in the team’s exhibition opener against the Grizzlies.

The Hawks ruled out veteran guard CJ McCollum with a nose contusion ahead of Monday night’s game, opening the door for the rookie guard to run with the remaining available starters.

Flemings looked pretty comfortable in his NBA exhibition debut even if he didn’t exactly feel all that relaxed.

“It feels good,” Flemings said about knocking off the offseason rust. “I mean, NBA games are always gonna be a little different than practice.

“Obviously, the first five minutes I was crazy tired. The first wind, but after that, I felt pretty good. But it just felt good being on the court, being in the gym, so it was fun.”

Flemings finished the night with 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting and two assists. He knocked down two 3-pointers and had three turnovers.

“Honestly, when you get on the court, yeah, I’m a rookie, but we’re all just playing basketball,” he said.

“So, open shots to get there. We all shoot him. So, O (Onyeka Okongwu) had pitched back to me. I was pretty open, so I just went out there and shot it ... I wasn’t overly thinking about the hierarchy or anything like that. Just going out there and making plays.”

But Flemings, like the rest of his teammates, knows Monday’s outing against the Grizzlies was far from what the Hawks want as a unit. They fell 132-123 after giving up 49 points to the Grizzlies in the second quarter.

Flemings and the rest of the Hawks sat down and went over the film.

“I liked our communication, both the dialogue they’re having with each other in the film room and then seeing some of that carry over onto the court as the team is kind of finding chemistry,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said.

“That communication is a big thing. At some point, it becomes even nonverbal. We come to know each other, and we’re not there yet. So it’s good to see them understanding the impact of things that we’ve been emphasizing.”

For Flemings, some of that communication has come with McCollum, who he did some extra work with after practice. That partnership has formed with the veteran and rookie reaching out to each other, but also Hawks coach Ashton Smith facilitating some of the early connections.

“I think, CJ, he enjoys that, the opportunity,” Snyder said. “He’s got a good feel for it, particularly in those situations individually, and we try to put guys together in some positional situations.

“Whether (Kingston’s) doing things with CJ or working with (center) Jock (Landale), you know, those different combinations or something. And for us right now, I think those things are really important across our team too, as we get to know each other.”

Four exhibition games remain before the Hawks open their season on Oct. 21 on the road against the Magic. The Hawks have not indicated whether the rookie will play in every exhibition game.

But Flemings welcomes every opportunity to learn and gather information that will take his game to another level.

“I think for me, honestly, it’s best just when (Snyder’s) constantly feeding me information,” Flemings said. Maybe I won’t immediately get it at the beginning, but as time gets on, I’ll start to get it.

Like, I know all the plays pretty much now. The terminology on defense, I still got to get used to. But as the season goes on, I’ll definitely get more used to that.