The Hawks just got bigger.
Much bigger.
The Hawks agreed to a multi-year contract with 7-foot-3 center Edy Tavares Thursday. He was a second-round pick (No. 43 overall) of the Hawks last season and spent the year playing in Spain for Gran Canaria of the ACB League.
Tavares, 23, is expected to play for the Hawks’ Las Vegas Summer League team and will come to training camp now that he was signed. The team needed to sign Tavares for him to play in the summer league as he was being courted with lucrative deals by several Euroleague teams.
Tavares acknowledged the agreement on social media Thursday afternoon. He posted on Twitter: “I’m very excited to announce that next season I’ll part of the @ATLHawks Can’t wait to get started Let’s go Hawks! #TruetoAtlanta”
Tavares, a native of Cape Verde, is still considered a prospect as he has been playing basketball for just six years. Playing for Gran Canaria last season, Tavares averaged 7.8 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 22.4 minutes in 34 ACB games. He also averaged 9.0 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in 21.7 minutes in 23 EuroCup games.
In six games in last year’s summer league, Tavares averaged 6.0 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 16.8 minutes.
