The Hawks would really appreciate it if Alex Len could return to his form from last year. They need a center, badly, since John Collins got busted for importing primo Russian steroids through several middlemen and then using said steroids on his biceps (nowhere else, though, babes don’t care about anything other than biceps). Damian Jones can’t be that center, because he has basically no skills. Bruno Fernando is unknown and unproven. Len needs to be the one to step up so that… actually I don’t see why the Hawks want to be winning games, but maybe they think they can make a playoff push or something.
The version of Len from last season wasn’t amazing or anything, but he was a reasonably solid center who could hit threes and dunk on offense, and rebound and block on defense. That’s what every team wants from a modern center, and he was doing it.
This year, I don’t even know what he’s doing. Not much. Taking a bunch of threes and not making any of them, from the looks of it. Not getting much playing time as a result. His season high prior to this game was 6 points, and he started every game. In this one, he came off the bench, and boom, 17 points. I don’t know how that happened, probably something to do with Nikola “Fat” Jokic being really lackadaisy on defense, but maybe this bench version of Len can be something the Hawks can move forward with.