The Hawks, as expected, have picked up their 2019/20 team options for three players on rookie scale contracts, per Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter link). Taurean Prince and DeAndre’ Bembry have had their fourth-year options exercised, while John Collins‘ third-year option has also been picked up.
Prince and Collins are two key pieces of Atlanta’s young core. Prince, who averaged 14.1 PPG and made 38.5% of his three-pointers last season, will now have his $3,481,986 cap hit guaranteed for 2019/20 and will be eligible for a rookie scale extension as of next July. Collins, who emerged as Atlanta’s starting center down the stretch in his rookie season, recorded 10.5 PPG and 7.3 RPG in 74 games (24.1 MPG). His ’19/20 cap charge of $2,686,560 is now locked in.
As for Bembry, he has struggled to make the same impact as some of his fellow first-rounders so far, having averaged just 5.2 PPG in 26 games last season, but the cost of his fourth-year option ($2,603,982) is barely more than the minimum salary, making it an easy decision for the rebuilding Hawks.
The full list of rookie scale option decisions for 2019/20 can be found right here.
John Collins is gonna be a player