Hawks Rookie Kingston Flemings Has Two All-Star Blueprints in Mind for His Game

The Atlanta Hawks went into draft night with the eighth pick and a lot of uncertainty around them. Other teams kept flipping picks and shuffling boards. But when their turn came Tuesday night, they went with Houston Cougars guard Kingston Flemings. He’s now the fourth first-round pick to come out of Houston in the last five years, joining Quentin Grimes, Jarace Walker and Marcus Sasser.

Flemings is a true point guard by nature, and he knows that label doesn’t carry the same weight it used to. The game has changed. You have to score or defenses won’t even bother guarding you. But the Hawks’ rookie thinks he can thread that needle.

The two players Flemings watches closest

In an exclusive interview with ClutchPoints, Flemings said he studies two veteran guards when he thinks about mastering the point guard position. Both are known for their ability to read ball screens and control tempo.

“I think I would say ball screen reads on offense,” Flemings said. “I mean, I want to be able to make reads like Chris Paul. You know, Chris Paul comes off a screen and he reads the whole defense. Tyrese Haliburton comes off screens and reads the whole defense. Both of those guys are great assist-to-turnover ratio guys. So I want to be like, ‘that’s something I mastered.’”

Paul is 39 now and still running an offense. Haliburton is in his prime and just led the league in assists per game two seasons ago. For a rookie, those aren’t bad guys to have as your mental film room.

Flemings averaged 16.1 points, 5.2 assists and 4.1 rebounds last season at Houston. He also grabbed 1.5 steals per game. The assist-to-turnover numbers weren’t flashy — about 2.2 to 1 — but Houston’s system asks a lot from its primary ballhandler.

What the Hawks are getting

Flemings described his game as having two sides. He can score and he can set up teammates. He can also grab boards and push in transition. But the thing he keeps coming back to is getting downhill and putting two feet in the paint.

“It’s the best thing I do,” he said. “I can consistently do that.”

The Hawks backcourt already includes Nickeil Alexander-Walker, CJ McCollum, Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson, who plays a point-forward role. Flemings probably won’t start right away. But Atlanta didn’t use a top-eight pick on a guy they plan to stash on the bench.

Over the next four or five years, Flemings wants to be the kind of player who can read a defense after a screen the way Paul and Haliburton do. He also knows he needs to improve his three-point shooting and his floater game. But the ball screen reads are where he wants to be elite.

That’s a solid long-term goal for a guy who just turned 20. The Hawks have time. Whether Flemings has the same kind of time to develop in a win-now league is another question.