Former UConn star Jordan Hawkins‘ NBA career had been off to a terrific start.
The New Orleans Pelicans rookie earned a start in just his third career game, scoring 14 points while chasing around Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors. About a week later, he hit seven threes and racked up 31 points against the defending champion Denver Nuggets. A few games after that, he scored 19 points in the first half, finishing with 25 in a win over the Dallas Mavericks. He hit for 25 again ten days later against the Utah Jazz on the road.
Through his first 11 games of his career, Hawkins had made 32 threes– more than any player in NBA history at that point. UConn fans were crowing about him, Dan Hurley making hawk motions in postgame pressers, and NBA.com had him third in their weekly rookie rankings.
But lately, Hawkins has found himself sitting on the bench.
Since the return of veteran guards CJ McCollum, Trey Murphy III and Jose Alvarado, all of whom missed significant time at the beginning of the season, Hawkins has seen his minutes dramatically reduced. He played just 15 minutes in Murphy’s return, a 121-106 win over the San Antonio Spurs, then got a DNP against the Sacramento Kings in the In-Season Tournament quarterfinals, played 12 minutes in a blowout loss to the L.A. Lakers in the semifinals, and got on the floor for exactly one minute against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night.
Pelicans head coach Willie Green told reporters on Monday that the reduction in playing time wasn’t Hawkins’ fault.
"Those are some of the tough decisions… My message to him is 'Stay working, your opportunity is gonna come around again."
— Willie Green on Jordan Hawkin's recent reduction in minutes pic.twitter.com/B9qsVlKI32
— Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) December 12, 2023
“Those are some of the tough decisions that I have to make. I’ve had some talks with Hawk, and he’s been fantastic. It’s nothing he’s done. It’s more about can I play 11 guys, can I play 12 guys, and that’s tough to do sometimes,” Green said.
“My message to him is stay working. Your opportunity is going to come around again, and we can all see that he has a bright future with us, and that’s just the deal. It’s a long season, I’m sure we’ll have some guys in and out and he’ll get another opportunity to come in and impact this team.”
It’s understandable that Hawkins’ minutes would be reduced in the wake of McCollum’s return, as the borderline All-Star averages 19.8 points per game and is one of the league’s better guards. Alvarado is a pesky yet diminutive (listed at 6 feet) defender and fan favorite who has made a name for himself in two NBA seasons since arriving from Georgia Tech. Murphy, a 6-8 wing in his third year out of Virginia, is a terrific 3-point shooter, has more experience and is at this point a better defender. He was a regular starter for New Orleans last season.
But after such an impressive start, it’s got to be a little disheartening for Hawkins, the 14th overall pick in last year’s draft, to be spending so much time on the bench lately. He’s also seemingly fallen behind 6-6 wing Naji Marshall, a fourth-year player out of Xavier, and Dyson Daniels, a second-year guard from Australia who was the eighth pick in the 2022 draft, in the rotation. Both of those players have different skill sets than Hawkins, a three-point specialist, and Green has favored them as the 13-11 Pelicans look to stay in the playoff mix.
For the season, Hawkins is averaging 11.9 points on 38.7 percent shooting and 36.6 percent from 3-point range in 26 minutes per game. If he is going to see more playing time any time soon, it could come in the next four games, when New Orleans faces bottom-feeders Washington, Charlotte, San Antonio and Memphis.
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