{"id":133379,"date":"2025-08-10T03:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T03:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/133379\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T03:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T03:36:11","slug":"former-illini-coleman-hawkins-adjusts-to-nba-style-of-play-with-golden-state-warriors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/133379\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Illini Coleman Hawkins adjusts to NBA style of play with Golden State Warriors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Illini<\/a> forward Coleman Hawkins<\/a> has been on quite the journey over the past few years. He first entered the NBA Draft back in 2023 but decided to return to Illinois for his senior year. That season, he became one of the best players on an Illini roster that won a Big Ten tournament championship and made a run to the Elite Eight<\/a>. Soon after, Hawkins entered the 2024 NBA Draft<\/a>, but once again, he withdrew<\/a>, opting to transfer to Kansas State<\/a> for a fifth season.<\/p>\n

In 2025, however, Hawkins had no choice but to go pro after exhausting his college eligibility. Despite finally making the transition to the next level, he was not selected in June\u2019s NBA Draft. Instead, as an undrafted free agent, Hawkins agreed to join <\/a>the Golden State Warriors<\/a> for NBA Summer League. Although his name was not called, being with Golden State was an ideal situation for Hawkins to\u00a0begin his pro journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just knew I wanted to at least be with the Warriors because what they do kind of fits my style of play,\u201d Hawkins said. \u201cYou know, kind of small-ball five stuff, passing, moving the ball, playing fast. So that\u2019s where I knew I wanted to be. So when the opportunity came, I was excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hawkins made his professional debut<\/a> on July 5 against the Los Angeles Lakers at the California Classic Summer League<\/a>. He had a solid outing, scoring seven points on 2-for-2 shooting and grabbing five rebounds in just 12 minutes. Hawkins followed that up with<\/a> a strong nine point (4-for-8 shooting), three rebound and four assist performance in his second game in California before heading to Nevada for the main event: Las Vegas NBA Summer League<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although he spent some time in college playing as a small-ball center, Hawkins mostly thrived on the wing as a stretch four, with his ability to both shoot the ball and get to the rim making him a versatile offensive player. In Summer League action though, Golden State had him almost always playing center, and Hawkins was ready to embrace his role.<\/p>\n

\"\"Warriors forward Coleman Hawkins cheers from the bench on July 17 at the 2025 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. (Sahil Mittal<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u201c(My focus is to) just play hard, rebound,\u201d Hawkins said. \u201cI\u2019ve been playing the five for the most part for the whole time, so just doing what fives do, clogging the paint, testing out the rim, rebounding and running.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Vegas, Hawkins played four games for Golden State. He continued his strong early play from California in his first game, recording seven points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals. However, his last three games of Summer League did not go as well, with Hawkins shooting a combined 2-for-8 from the field en route to only 9 total points.<\/p>\n

The ups and downs are expected for most players transitioning from college to the pros, and Hawkins is no different. He is still adjusting, and six Summer League games are not enough to make any judgement on.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver time, I\u2019ll start becoming more confident, becoming more trusting my vision, my plays, my feel for the game,\u201d Hawkins said. \u201cBut right now, I just got to get used to the pace and different spacing and where everyone\u2019s at on the court. I kind of had an offense down the last four four years, five years of my career, and now I have to get used to a whole different system and everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only is the offensive system different for Hawkins, but the defensive challenges NBA basketball presents is also something he is focused on adjusting to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to get used to being in the gaps and overhelping and protecting the paint,\u201d Hawkins said. \u201cA lot of the times in college, it was more so worrying about open threes, keeping everything two on two. So I just got to get used to different verbiage, different coverages, different style of play.\u201d<\/p>\n

NBA Summer League was just the start of Hawkins\u2019 pro career, and soon, fans should see him back out on the court. Players start to report to NBA training camps in late September, and Hawkins is reportedly expected to stay with the Warriors into training camp. While Hawkins said that he has not yet officially signed an agreement, his repost of the report on X,<\/a> combined with his response to the question being posed, all but indicate that he will end up back with the Warriors in the fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know (about contract specifics or training camp situation),\u201d Hawkins said. \u201cI haven\u2019t locked in anything officially. But I think at least I\u2019ll get that (training camp).\u201d<\/p>\n

If Hawkins does indeed end up staying with Golden State in training camp, it will likely be on a non-guaranteed Exhibit-10 deal. Hawkins would compete to have his training camp deal converted into a two-way contract, or he could be waived and spend time in the NBA G League<\/a> as an affiliate player with the Santa Cruz Warriors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No matter where Hawkins plays next season though, one thing is for certain: Illini fans now have another familiar face to cheer for when watching professional hoops.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

@sahil_mittal24<\/p>\n

[email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Illini forward Coleman Hawkins has been on quite the journey over the past few years. He first…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":133380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1260,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-133379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115002381685308402","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}