Emergency Podcast: Atlanta Hawks forward Saddiq Bey to miss rest of 2023-24 season with torn ACL

Emergency Podcast: Atlanta Hawks forward Saddiq Bey to miss rest of 2023-24 season with torn ACL

You are locked on Hawks your daily Atlanta Hawks podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day Hello friends welcome to an emergency episode of the loton Hawks podcast I am your host Brad Roland coming to you on a Monday afternoon in

Audio only fashion I am not set up right now to talk on camera uh just logistically speaking but wanted to get you something in your audio and video feeds to break down what was a unfortunate piece of news on Monday afternoon word broke earlier today just as I’m recording this podcast within the

Last hour or so from Adrian wowski VN first reporting that news then I was able to confirm it pretty quickly after that that sadique bay who left the game on Sunday evening with what was originally described as a hyperextended left knee after he suffered it in that

Fourth quarter he’s not going to be out for the season and Beyond with a torn ACL in that left knee uh this is not a huge shock if you watch the play um it was kind of a somber tone after the game last night um you we did not certainly

Did not know this was going to be the reaction and certainly we were hoping for the best on this because everybody seems to like sadik and um you know you never want anybody to be down for as long as he’s probably going to be down with his injury but torl is the

Diagnosis that I have been told is correct that certainly rules him out for the rest of this season as I’m recording this podcast at about 1:10 p.m. eastern time on Monday the Hawks have not officially announced anything but again I was able to confirm this is actually

Going to be the case and you know he’s had kind of a weird season which we’ll talk about in a second but sadik has been a key contributor to this Hawks team all year long he’s averaging 13.7 points per game a career-high six and a half rebounds per game this year and

About 33 minutes per contest he’s also um basically just been exceedingly durable in his career I don’t this last night on the show but if you missed it and just just as a plug I did a full breakdown episode on the game on Sunday that you should listen to as well and

Part of that is my reaction to sadik in the moment but he has appeared in all but eight games in four NBA Seasons he has been extremely durable this is his first major injury of any kind of course not quite as dire as this but Trey young

Similarly had not suffered any sort of long-term injury until his current ailment with his thumb now sadik has only missed one game this year he played a full season without missing a game earlier in his career as well and again eight total games that he has missed in

Fact he’s up in the top 10 of the league in games played over that sample size he’s in the top 25 this year in minutes played in the NBA despite not being a star or not even necessarily being a starter all year long he’s been a huge

Part of what the Hawks have done this year and there’s a lot of impact which will’ll talk about in a second both on the team and also on sadik’s future but that is what I wanted to make sure we lead with is that this is just brutal for all parties involved especially the

Player I mean obviously Hawks fans are worried about the Hawks and I totally get that but this is a guy that um has you know a High character guy by all accounts a durable guy who likes to play he’s very tough and uh just brutal news

Um for sure at that point in time so couple different aspects here that we’ll talk about one is the rest of season for the Hawks and then also into next year potentially and then also the other looming factor is that unfortunately for sadique he is a pending free agent

You know there were discussions between the Hawks and sadique Bay and his agent in particular about an extension before the season of course it went down to the very end on both sadique Bay and Ana kongu who are both in that same draft class they ended up giving a kongu

Extension they agreed on one there they did not do so with sadik they did talk but you know I I had heard the whole time that sadik was asking for a lot of money and there’s no there’s nothing wrong with that whatsoever um and I think he’s always been he’s been more of

Like a rotation forward than an actual full-fledged starter but he’s started for the a a lot this year he’s a key piece so the timing is just it’s never good to have a year-long basically injury and people were asking this question as well immediately after I

Can’t tell you how long he’s going to be out essentially though acl’s are um generally ballpark about a year in general I mean it could be less than that it could be eight nine months you know he’s have he’s had this injury in the middle part of March it would

Surprise me if he played before Christmas that’s you know that’s n and a half months from now that’s not the whole time of next year it could be longer than that for sure um but you know we’re all guessing including even right now he hasn’t had surgery yet it’s

An initial diagnosis but it’s going to be a long time unfortunately for sadik and it would be shocking to everyone I think involved if he played opening night next year which which sort of factors into that free agency so it’s really brutal news no matter when it

Happened but because he has does not have a deal from next year they didn’t find an extension he’ll hit the market as a free agent this summer with this lingering over him now at the same time NBA teams understand that like he’s not going to be out forever acl’s are not

This you know career um ruining injury the way they might have been 30 40 years ago modern medicine all that stuff and sadik should be hopefully fine and back to his old self within a year or so but it should I mean I want to say should

But could limit his Market as far as what he’s going to sign for ETC part of that also he he wasn’t having the best season which we’ll talk about I guess a little bit more I feel bad even mentioning that but people have been asking me that he didn’t shoot the ball

Well this year you know he was certainly playing better in other aspects again career high and rebounds his defense has gotten better as The Season’s gone along he brings his physicality he’s actually done a great job this year getting to the rim his drives have been really more

Uh up sort of up ticking throughout the course of the season so all that’s thrown into the same pile but um as far as like what’s next for the Hawks and what’s next for sadik it’s a TBD like you know on one hand I got questions about whether this is actually more

Likely to keep him in Atlanta I don’t know the answer to that I do think that unfortunately it’s going to impact his Market if I had to guess right now I think that whether he signs in Atlanta or somewhere else he’s probably going to be signing as a six seventh Man versus

Being a starter Etc we’ll have more time on that I don’t even want to talk about it anymore it’s already too much probably at this point in time but that’s where we are on that aspect and uh just again just brutal news and I wish the timing was better for I

Obviously just wish it didn’t happen but the timing is awful for sadik I wish he had that long-term security right now but you know hopefully he will still be able to secure a big deal in free agency somewhere whether it’s in Atlanta or somewhere else before we get to the haw

Side I should just insert a a break to here from our sponsor on today’s podcast we’ll we’ll kind of talk about the uh the rest of uh The Fallout here because of course Atlanta has all kinds of injuries it’s been a brutal time for the Hawks in general but we’ll have more on

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Supply all right so coming out of that first half of it you know just the logistics of the injury the fact that it’s just again just awful news I feel I feel terrible for Sadi I’m gutted by it the Hawks do have this situation now where they’re not only

Replacing his minutes but just the fact that they have they have so many injuries right now and I said last night and I still maintain this because of the situation and the teams around them the Hawks are still favorites in my opinion to make the playin um that’s not always

The biggest priority of course but certainly the logistics here there’s some uncertainty with Jo and Johnson’s ankle um he could be back soon I’m recording this podcast Monday afternoon the Hawks don’t play against on Wednesday night it would not blow me away if Jaylen played Wednesday I

Wouldn’t project that but it’s at least conceivably possible at the moment though the Hawks are just in a situation where they have so many injuries of course number one on the list being Trey young jaylen’s been out but ao’s been out for a while he’s going be out for a

While longer now s’s out for the season um that is essentially four of their top seven guys from this year at least four of their top eight conservatively guys um that are already out and and out for a little bit of time on at least three

Of those four with Trey Ana and sadique with Jaylen coming com back in the near future then you don’t have Kobe buffkin right now for a little while longer who had been their backup point guard for the time that Trey had been out and of course their first- round pick from this

Year high upside guy in the future Etc they also have injuries in the G league right now which might sound like it doesn’t matter that much but these are real guys that they are banking on for the future like for instance Seth Lundy who I’m a big fan of second round pick

This year has missed I believe it’s the last six games in College Park with some sort of back issue I’m not ex I’m not entirely sure what that is because College Parks injury reporting um the g- league does not have the same restrictions and specifications for how

Much you have to be um you know clear on your injury reporting so we don’t really know what’s going on there but he’s missed six games AJ Griffin is still working back into his old form but he’s actually missed the last two games with a knee issue of some kind in College

Park so those those are two guys who are not the same position of sadik but who are Wings siiz players with some bulk and some physicality and they’re not available right now if they weren’t the the last couple of games moay who they drafted this year as well uh with a top

40 pick has missed the vast majority of the year he has come back in College Park but even then in recent days he’s only been limited to 16 minutes or less in College Park he’s missed I think like three of the last six games with College Park for that management of that back

Injury so TBD there as well so maybe those guys can help in the near future but right now they are not available to play at the NBA level that we are aware of so that’s even three more guys in addition to all the injuries so they

Have so many guys out that it is a real challenge for what they’re going to do especially you know let’s just say for Wednesday and then this on this on this road trip again ideally Jaylen Johnson’s back in the near future that wouldn’t cover up everything because sadique Bay

Again has played more than 2,000 minutes this year that a lot of that has included games where they’ve had Jaylen and DeAndre Hunter and he’s still played that many minutes so I’ve ragged on this before this year the Hawks has essentially had a situation where they only had three NBA rotation High

Rotation caliber forwards on their roster this year that was a roster construction problem from the very beginning this season the fourth guy on Kong Wu has played a lot of four minutes he’s still a center in my mind but he was the only Center on the team that

Could play some power forward and he has but he’s also out right now the rest of their guys they’re at least their regular rotation players are they have some Wing siiz players you know bonovich Garrison Matthews Wes Matthews etc those guys are all six6 or shorter um it’s not

All about height necessarily but bogie is a is really a two3 Garis Matthews is really purely a shooting guard West Matthews is a forward but certainly a size limited offens limited forward so right now the reality is the Hawks have one forward that you trust like fully

Trust to play at a high level and start and play you know top six on a team kind of minutes at the forward spot and it’s DeAndre Hunter again they could have Jaylen back soon but at this very moment Hunter is the only guy that you know you

Can pencil in for 30 plus minutes of good high level NBA contributions at the forward spots that is not where you want to be obviously um and Hunter’s been limited minutes wise recently he played 35 or 36 last night that’s hopefully what he can do moving forward but there

Is some uncertainty with the need that they’ve been trying to manage for the last several weeks um but anyway if you even if you were to assume Hunter plays 34 35 36 minutes a game that’s only three quarters of one forward slot you know what I mean they have a lot of time

They have to fill clearly you know Bogie’s playing a lot right now already because he’s playing a lot of two guard but bogie Garrison Matthews are the and are really the guys they definitely want to play as much as possible right now v c has started the last two games he’s

Not a guy that you would have said A week ago would be a huge part of their plan but he’ll be playing minutes I think right now especially until jayen comes back they have Dylan Windler on the team team who they signed recently to a 2-way contract he’s not played yet

He is much closer to a power forward sized player than someone like Garrison or V CRA Haven Windler is at least a good rebounder has played some four at the professional level mostly in the g- league but has played there a little bit I think he’ll probably play a little bit

Moving forward Wes Matthews is not a high upside guy but he can at least plug some minutes for you but they have not wanted to play West a lot of minutes this year he’s an older guy I can’t imagine him playing more than 20 minutes

In a game and maybe he will but I don’t that’s going to happen and offensively he’s very limited at this point so they have depth in the g- league if those guys can get healthy I’d love to see Seth Lundy healthy and playing some small forward minutes in a bigger

Picture sense they’re going to probably have to play dnre Hunter as a full-time power forward for as long as Jaylen is out in particular because sadik is not gone for the season and Hunter while he’s still more of a small forward in a lot of ways he can play the four he’s

Going to have to play the four extensively when aamu comes back maybe he plays more at the four than he has so far because you could play him him and Clint at leas together a little bit and they’ve had some reasonable success with that they could qualify I’ll just say

This now for some clarifications people ask about the hardship exception um for the Hawks which basically allows NBA teams if they are just battered by injuries to add players um the Grizzlies in fact who the Hawks played on Friday had a couple of hardships that they’ve

Been able to use to add in 10day contract guys to just stop the bleeding a little bit but it’s kind of a tricky criteria you have to match to in order to get a hardship exemption you have to have at least four players out at the

Same time for at least three games which right now they have not quite qualified for only three guys have missed that many time U Trey Ana and Kobe and Baye has not gotten there yet U maybe Seth Lundy would qualify but he is technically on a two-way he’s in the g-

League so I don’t know if he qualifies from there they have to project to be out at least two at least two more weeks is the wording that’s in the uh the official outline there and I’m not sure that Kobe and Ana will definitely match that the Hawks might know that

More than we do um B of course does Trey of course still is going to be out for at least two more weeks but um even if they were to get cleared for hardship exception that’s going to be a guy that you’re going to sign on a 10-day contract and generally speaking players

Who are uh let’s just say players players who are available in mid-march post the deadline when you can be eligible to play in the postseason and eligible tode a two-way contract guys who are still out there right now are not great that that’s kind of the reality um could they

Help could they just get some more size in there could they sign Chris Silva to a 10-day contract sure and that would help you just with physicality and just with some overall depth because right now let’s say for Wednesday’s game if they don’t have Jaylen back if they

Don’t have Seth back if they don’t have AJ or Bay which I’m assuming they probably don’t the Hawks are essentially down to playing every minute of a game at the forward spots with Hunter Cree Windler West Matthews unless you want to sprinkle in a little bit of Garrison or

Bogy at the three that isn’t where you want to be and by the way that doesn’t even get into the fact that if you get an injury at center right now to either capella or Bruno or even foul trouble to one of those guys but you know especially an injury there’s no

Mechanism you know Jaylen Johnson is their only forward siiz player who can really play center at all DeAndre Hunter cannot play center in a realistic way Dylan Windler can’t play center in a realistic way um maybe moay gets there but moay they’re all also believe moay is a forward like they’re not really

Treating him as a center any meaningful way either so yeah the death is really rough right now and this is again this is not a team that’s not trying to win right now this is a team that’s trying to get into the play and they’re treating every game like they’re like

They’re trying to win it they’re playing guys you know you watch that even on Sunday in a game they lost they were certainly trying to win that game they were playing their guys real minutes uh Murray played 41 minutes in that game H they pushed minutes wise so of course

The hope is that Jaylen is able to return soon that would certainly help things but even if Jaylen is back you still only have two guys you trust and you’re still filling in guys filling in minutes with guys like wiler with guys like Ki who were not at all in your

Plans even two or three weeks ago so the drop off even no matter what you think about sadik and I’ve heard different opinions mostly before the before the injury was I think most people are not cold enough to talk about you know bay struggles this year but no matter what

You think about sadik and is shooting all that stuff sadik is a proven NBA top seven player on a pretty good team sadique Bay is a rotation player at the very least on an NBA team and the drop off from sadik Bay to someone like V

Cree or Wes Matthews or AJ Griffin right now or Mo gay right now or Dylan wiler right now Seth leny right now is huge CID Bay is much much better than all of those guys much better and uh so yeah I’ll stop ranting now and stop rambling

Now but this is my quick emergency reaction to this it’s awful news hopefully we’ll get some POS posi news with regards to how the surgery went and uh maybe some more timelines that are rough from the reporting the Hawks probably won’t put any sort of timeline other than after the season it’s awful

Uh want to certainly Express that and I I wish sadique the very best no matter what happens at the end of the season as far as where he ends up signing whether it’s in Atlanta or not um but he could he can help the Hawks shortterm longterm

All that stuff and I think that he has been a a really valuable piece of the organization Quinn loves sidik Bay that’s not a secret he’s a big fan um you know Community stuff he’s always really really high and a character guy so it’s brutal news the Hawks are in a

Tough spot right now we’ll see what Wednesday’s roster looks like I’ll have much more I’m planning on doing a podcast tonight that’s not really about the current roster but if there’s any more news I’ll add to that episode hopefully um in the meantime and I’ll

Have a my sort of normal show after the game on Wednesday so please subscribe to the podcast if youve not already done that but um yeah an awful awful result worst case scenario unfortunately for everybody involved and uh se’s going to be out for a long time so that’s the

Reality of the situation right now for the Hawks tell a friend about the podcast subscribe to the show my apologies for this sort of lowii Audio Only edition if you are usually a YouTube subscriber but we’ll have back to video with our next episode and without any further delay I appreciate

You listening and we’ll see you all next time

Brad Rowland (@BTRowland, DIME on UPROXX) hosts an emergency episode of the Locked on Hawks podcast. The show reacts to the news that Atlanta Hawks forward Saddiq Bey will miss the rest of the 2023-24 season with a torn ACL in his left knee.

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