DJ Saddiqi of Casino dot org<\/a> on his meteoric rise, saying:<\/p>\n\u201cWell, I must say he\u2019s a little bit of Scottie Pippen as far as being a point forward,\u201d Wilkins led with. \u201cPippen was a point forward and was very effective at the position. This guy Jalen, he brings even another element, because the way he rebounds, the way he passes, and he flirts with a triple-double every single night. I love Jalen Johnson. The way he plays, man, and he\u2019s so deserving of this honor that he received during All-Star weekend. I couldn\u2019t be happier for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
On his relationship with Johnson and his family<\/p>\n
\u201cI look at Jalen like someone like your brother in a sense,\u201d Wilkins continued. \u201cI have a great relationship with him. I have a great relationship with his mom and dad. I saw the growth in him two years ago, and I said to his parents, \u2018Don\u2019t worry, he\u2019s gonna do very well in this league, and he\u2019s gonna be a great player in this league. Just be patient.\u2019 And now look where he\u2019s at.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Jalen Johnson\u2019s improvement<\/p>\n
\u201cJalen Johnson has developed quicker than a lot of people have given credit for or expected,\u201d Wilkins said. \u201cBut they always say, take care of your business at hand. Don\u2019t worry about too much down the road right now. Worry about what you\u2019re doing now. You take this one game at a time, one month at a time, one year at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s still a young guy, so it\u2019s a few different areas where he can get better, and he will get better,\u201d Wilkins detailed. \u201cHe will get better defensively. He will get better as far as different ways he can score. As a young guy, you can always get better. You can always add new things to your game to make you an even more lethal player. Being 24 years old, he\u2019s still learning right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s clear the Hawks have undergone a whirlwind series of changes to their roster in the past calendar year. As a result of the instability, the team is in ninth place in the East and slightly under .500 (29-21). But Wilkins believe the foundation has been laid, explaining:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you\u2019re trying to do right now in this part of this season is continue to build some chemistry. And once you build that chemistry \u2014 hopefully sooner than later \u2014 we still have a chance to do a lot of damage, because there\u2019s still 30 games left in the season. You have to make up some ground, because you\u2019re right there. The Eastern Conference is very close, and we have a very good young team: Jalen Johnson, you got Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Dyson Daniels. Now you bring over Jonathan Kuminga, and you got Onyeka Okongwu, who\u2019s come along now, and young Zaccharie Risacher, so you got all these younger kids now developing on the job. I think that\u2019s the way it should be done. I look for us to make a move as far as the way we play and try to win games in the second half of the season, because now coming out of this All-Star break, now you really refocus yourself on winning games.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the youth and winning streaks<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have something special and we can be that new young team that makes a difference in that Eastern Conference,\u201d Wilkins explained. \u201cI look for us to make a difference now. Not waiting for next year, because we are right there. In this league, it\u2019ll only take you a month to get hot. You look at the Charlotte Hornets. They won 10 of the last 12, so they got hot at the right time going into the All-Star break, coming into the second half of the season. You need a quick run like that, maybe not eight or nine games, but you get on a five or six-game winning streak, that changes things.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the exit and lasting legacy of Trae Young<\/p>\n
Young was the franchise pillar for the better part of 8 seasons here in Atlanta, and he leaves behind a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 as good as any player since Dominique Wilkins himself. Wilkins can also empathize closely with being traded away from a franchise so key to one\u2019s own identity.<\/p>\n
Wilkins spoke on the trade, saying that, \u201csometimes in life, things don\u2019t work out, and it\u2019s time. We all have been through it. I\u2019ve been through it, and it\u2019s nobody\u2019s fault. It\u2019s just the way the business is running, how it\u2019s done. Trae was a tremendous player in an Atlanta Hawks jersey. No one could ever take that from him. What he did was very special.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dominique Wilkins needs no introduction around these parts. His jersey hangs in the State Farm Arena rafters after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3776],"tags":[676,208,64140,3874,7,677,3175,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-625981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-hawks","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-hawks","10":"tag-atlanta-hawks-discussion","11":"tag-atlantahawks","12":"tag-basketball","13":"tag-hawks","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116137030365788757","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}