Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor and senior NBA writer Dan Devine discuss the number one overall pick's early impressions in the preseason for Atlanta. Hear the full conversation on “The Kevin O’Connor Show” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

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The number one pick in the draft.

I don't, I can't remember a time in my life watching the NBA where number one pick has been talked about less for good reason.

I mean, he's an international prospect.

He wasn't like in the college basketball limelight.

He isn't a traditional, you know, high volume scorer type.

He's projected as more of a role player.

And so that's why Reese as she isn't getting a lot of hype for the Hawks this year, but he was great in his debut at 18 points.

He was used all over the floor.

I watched them all predraft season.

Dan.

I'm curious about your thoughts from an NBA perspective.

What did you see from Reese and his Hawks debut?

Yeah, you're not gonna believe this, Kevin.

I wasn't grinding a whole lot of French tape.

Uh and you know, the lot in the, in the run up to the draft, I I entrust that to folks capable folks like you and Kristen Peak, our colleague.

Um and then I'll, I'll crib their takes for later.

Uh What I saw was, I mean, I, I think his, he, he seemed to play and fit in a lot better than, I think some of the concerns that I had read where it's like, well, maybe a little slight of frame and maybe he won't be able to sort of handle physically.

And he, he looked like he belonged, like, I'm not sure if he's had put on some muscle in the post draft process, but he looked all of like 68, little over 200 pounds and moved pretty well.

Um I thought I was, I, I was surprised and maybe and encouraged.

I thought it was like a pleasant surprise.

They were like he was setting some screens and diving to the rim like he wasn't just, I'm hanging out 28 ft from the basket and hoping, hoping the ball comes to me like he was in the action more often and, and was diving hard to the rim.

He dunked on Enrique Freeman in that, in that game.

Like he looked like someone who could, you know, vary what he was doing on the offensive end of the floor and then like he's gonna be playing off of Trey Young, you know, the ball is gonna be in re Young's hands a ton.

So what do you do when you don't have it?

Look shot ready on the weak side, moved without the ball to try to give, you know, passing lanes or, you know, an angle to get a kick out feed when Trey was working in the pick and roll ran the lane in transition, like was active, you know, aggressive going to the rim, I think as an earl, I mean, obviously every young guy is gonna have a steep learning curve on defense at the NBA level.

He is going to get picked on by, you know, wings that have 40 pounds on him.

And guys that are gonna, they're gonna put him in action and make him make decisions, make him think, which is always death for 18 and 19 year olds in the NBA.

But I think as a again, immediate like first blush introduction, that's the guy that looks like he belongs on an NBA floor.

The jump shot looks fluid.

It was good with his feet set.

You know, there's a couple of times where it's like, all right, you put up like a 18 ft running push shot off the pick and roll and like, all right, maybe you keep that one in your back pocket, you know, don't necessarily bring that one out uh around company too much.

But I think like you, you saw somebody that seemed to have some comfort operating in a lot of different ways right off the rip.

And I think that's pretty encouraging for a Hawks team.

That's like they, they're not gonna, they're not gonna try to be bad because San Antonio Wills their draft for the next three years.

So it's like, how can we be good and how can we put the best kind of infrastructure around Trey Young to elevate 68 wing who can shoot, who can drive, who can dribble, who can run, pick and roll and who seems to fit in on the, like, that's a nice piece to add in that sort of mix in Atlanta.

Yeah.

I mean, I think at Atlanta's not gonna suck, like you said, they're not going to try to suck.

They don't have their picks.

The only place they'd want to trade Trey Young is to San Antonio to get it all back to get.

Yeah, exactly.

So that's the only way that they would end up sucking.

But ultimately, Atlanta's gonna be solid, they're gonna be competitive.

And with Reese, you mentioned it, Dan, the screening, the rolling, he had a nice dunk at the rim.

Uh, I think with Reeche, I'm encouraged by the way in which they used him in that preseason opener.

It looks like they're willing to take advantage of all his versatile talents in the half court because with Resa, the one of the reasons why I was a bit lower on him than clearly Atlanta was I had him, I think ranked 11th on my board, um, is the lack of belief in his shooting ability, reser last season.

It'll be interesting to see the way this develops in the NBA because he shot the hell out of it in this preseason opener.

The shot looks good mechanically, but last season, his 1st 34 games.

He hit 48% of his three pointers over his final 31 games.

He hit only 29.8% of his three pointers.

And then his previous three seasons, it was the latter half of the season that it better resembled.

He made only 32% of his threes over the previous three seasons overseas.

So he had an amazing hot shooting stretch to begin the year at 48% and then he went back closer to his norm in his time overseas.

He's also only a 71.6% guy from the free throw line.

So I think with Reese as she, he's somebody that he needs to hit the shot.

But if he isn't, it's at least encouraging that the Hawks are letting him do a little bit with the ball.

They're letting him do a little bit as a screener.

There's no doubt about his ability as a cutter.

So would that Quinn Snyder offense if they're playing with even more motion than they did last year.

Now, year two with Snyder that could allow Rees to have some value even if he's not, you know, 40% from three.

And that's where I think the encouraging thing is from the Atlanta perspective.

They're gonna be competitive, they're gonna try to make the playoffs, they more than likely hit the play in

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