{"id":263755,"date":"2025-09-29T12:15:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T12:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/263755\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T12:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T12:15:09","slug":"onsi-saleh-reveals-trial-by-fire-approach-to-hawks-frontcourt-in-training-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/263755\/","title":{"rendered":"Onsi Saleh reveals trial-by-fire approach to Hawks’ frontcourt in training camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hawks are absolutely stacked in the frontcourt after a few key moves this offseason. The headliner of signing Kristaps Porzingis<\/a> offers the most immediate impact, but Atlanta quietly signed a handful of other young and talented big men to flank KP and the existing core.<\/p>\n

This may come as a surprise to Hawks fans, who not only lost Clint Capela over the summer, but also were bereft of a 2nd round pick. In his recent presser, GM Onsi Saleh noted that “we didn’t have a second round pick this year… one of the things we’ve talked about for a long time is having a developmental big.”<\/p>\n

If not the draft, where did Saleh look to find such talent? Shockingly, it worked out perfectly for Atlanta that two skilled young bigs fell through the clasps of rival teams.<\/p>\n

N’Faly Dante<\/a> and Charles Bassey<\/a> were recently signed on non-guaranteed deals leading into training camp, where the two will have an opportunity to showcase their skills against one another, and vie for ever-fleeting fully guaranteed NBA contracts.<\/p>\n

Onsi Saleh was recently asked in a press conference what his true schemes were behind signing the two behind what is already a loaded frontcourt – if Porzingis, Okongwu, and Gueye remain healthy this season, it appears rather unlikely the two young studs will see much burn this year.<\/p>\n

His response was simple, and cleanly reflected a core belief of his as a GM: talent development.<\/p>\n

“The idea there is to create competition in camp… let’s evaluate both these guys, see how they do with the offer sheet. It was really… a talent acquisition piece.”<\/p>\n

Charles Bassey will light a fire under N’Faly Dante.<\/p>\n

Onsi Saleh was keen to identify another young, talented big in Charles Bassey to add to his training camp. Not only is Bassey an underrated prospect, but his emphatic, positive presence is contagious in the locker room.<\/p>\n

As he did in San Antonio so well<\/a>, Bassey will certainly light a fire under N’Faly Dante during training camp. Their similar playstyles will no doubt clash, allowing the two to build off one another and sharpen their respective skills.<\/p>\n

While it is likely that the two will receive at least a two-way offer sheet by the time the season rolls around, there is a limit on the number of fully guaranteed deals. As such, Dante and Bassey will have extra motivation to impress Saleh and the Hawks’ front office.<\/p>\n

If all goes according to Onsi Saleh’s plan, Bassey and Dante will begin to challenge each other during training camp, and bolster an already stacked frontcourt with youthful legs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hawks are absolutely stacked in the frontcourt after a few key moves this offseason. The headliner of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":263756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-263755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115287538050056870","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263755","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=263755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}