Hawks' Henri Veesaar immediately looks like NBA player after leaving UNC

Hawks' Henri Veesaar immediately looks like NBA player after leaving UNC originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

As far as No. 52 overall picks go, there were a lot of eyes on Henri Veesaar in his NBA Summer League debut on Thursday.

Playing for the Atlanta Hawks, Veesaar already looked like he belongs.

In 19 minutes, Veesaar scored 14 points.

He was 5-for-8 from the floor, including 2-for-5 from 3-point range, and went 1-of-2 at the foul line.

Veesaar added six rebounds, an assist, a steal, a block and a turnover.

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In his 19 minutes against the Spurs in Las Vegas on Thursday, Veesaar was a plus-17.

He certainly looked like a guy who should've gone much earlier.

That's easy to say in retrospect, of course, but it was also a take at the time. Veesaar was a better prospect than his draft spot, but he had also turned down a lot of money from UNC to stay in the draft in the first place.

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Many wondered if he simply should've found a loophole to go back as his draft slide continued.

The Hawks eventually traded into that 52nd spot to make sure they were the team that got Veesaar.

He'll still have some limitations to work out at the NBA level, and the fact that the Hawks drafted a different big, Zuby Ejiofor, before him makes it even a bit tougher.

But if Veesaar keeps filling it up like this, he'll play. Guys that get buckets always do.

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