Hawks give fans a glimpse on eve of exhibition play

On the eve of the their first exhibition game, the Hawks held their annual open practice.

Fans got to see how coach Quin Snyder would run the beginning of his practices, as well as a few treats throughout the night. This year did not have a five-on-five scrimmages that came with open practices of the past but they got the chance to see how the team has gelled since they opened training camp last week Tuesday.

Other observations from the open practice:

-- Snyder has kept the team’s various lineups and combinations close to his vest as he evaluates players in camp. But in a couple of drills, he ran a few combinations that could be seen throughout the season.

It kicked off with third-year forward Jalen Johnson running with the core starters of Trae Young, Dejounte Murray, De’Andre Hunter and Clint Capela. Johnson, along with fourth-year forward Saddiq Bey, are expected to compete for the open starting position at power forward.

Snyder also ran a combination including rookie guard Kobe Bufkin, Patty Mills, Bey, Onyeka Okongwu.

-- The Hawks have encouraged Okongwu to take shots from the perimeter and continue to improve from distance. But with Snyder emphasizing spacing, Capela has also worked on his jumper.

As the Hawks went through shooting drills in their open practice, Capela hit shots not only from the left corner but from above the break as well as the sideline.

During the drill, Snyder made sure to give Capela a shoutout for hitting at least four or five consecutive shots from deep.

“Well, if he’s shooting 75%, like every time I turned around, he was making them,” Snyder joked. “It was fun.”

There is no immediate plan to have Capela to take those shots more but the drill helps the team to simulate situations, particularly those in transition so that they know a shot is coming.

-- The Hawks face the Cavaliers on Tuesday in their first of five exhibition games before they take on the regular season. With four games over the next seven days, Snyder said that some members of the roster who haven’t practiced won’t play on Tuesday. He added that it would give the Hawks coaching staff a chance to experiment so that they can have those combinations on film.