Sam and Greg spoke to Senior Analyst and writer for NBA.com, Sekou Smith about the NBA restarting at the end of July and the state of the league in the midst of COVID-19 and protesting police brutality on African Americans. 

The NBA is to resume in Orlando on July 30, 2020. Only 22 teams will be present in Orlando, excluding eight teams, including our Atlanta Hawks. With the league projected to start next season in December, this means the Hawks and the rest of the seven teams will not have competitive basketball for nine months. 

Sam asked Smith what would this group do now that they have a lot of time until the next season starts. Smith said that two things need to happen. The first thing he said that the team needs to dig deep on their player development program to develop the physical skill set of the young players. He thinks that players like Cam Reddish and Kevin Heurter need specific training that they need to work on. He did not exclude players like Trae Young and John Collins. 

Smith also said "this is where your leadership comes into play." Players will need to get together in the off-season on their own for workouts. Clint Capela was a late season acquisition, and due to his injury has yet to play with this team. It will be imperative that Trae Young, as well as the other team leaders and coaches, to get with fellow teammates to build that cohesion that will be lost due to this long and unusual off-season. 

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