Last night, the Atlanta Hawks got a nice win over the Washington Wizards. After a string of bad performances, even in wins, the Hawks put together one of their more complete efforts of the season.

A few things were notable about this win for Atlanta. They were able to beat a healthy Wizards team when they did not have Jalen Johnson, Jock Landale, Mouhamed Gueye, and Asa Newell in the frontcourt. Newell did play seven minutes last night, but left because of an injury in the second quarter. He did not return and all the Hawks had in their frontcourt was Lu Dort (who started the game at power forward), Onyeka Okongwu (starting center), Zuby Ejiofor (rookie), Corey Kispert (not really a power forward), and Dorian Finney-Smith (did not play).

The fact that the Hawks won the rebounding battle the way they did last night and defend as well as they did given those shortcomings says a lot about this team and one notable change they made last night was giving Zuby Ejiofor plenty of minutes as the backup center and I think that is something that Snyder might want to lean into more.

Snyder has this reputation that he does not like to play rookies in substantial roles and does not trust them on the floor, but the start of this season has been the opposite. Last night, he took CJ McCollum out of the starting lineup and inserted rookie point guard Kingston Flemings into his place. While it was easier to put Ejiofor in because of the roster limitations that the Hawks had last night, that does not mean that it should not be more of a thought for this team going forward and it might be time to consider Ejiofor playing over Jock Landale.

Why Ejiofor should see the floor more

Last night, Ejiofor scored 11 points, pulled in three rebounds, had two assists, and two steals. He finished as a +18 in his 17 minutes of action.

One thing the Hawks can't do is overreact to a small sample size, but I don't think they would be given Landale's struggles shooting the ball and on defense this season.

Let's look at the numbers for Landale when he is on the floor compared to when he is off (courtesy of hoopsjunkie):

• Hawks are a -20 in his 107 minutes
• Offensive rating is 8.7 points worse
• Defensive rating 9.3 points worse
• Overall net rating is -18 worse when he is on the floor.
• The DREB% is -7.6% worse when he is on the floor

Compare those numbers with Ejiofor's last night:

• Hawks were a +18 in his 17 minutes last night
• Offensive rating 35.5 points higher when he was on the floor
• Defensive rating was 20.8 points lower when he was on the floor
• Atlanta had a +50.0 Net Rating when Ejiofor was on the floor
• EFG% was 16.2% higher
• OREB% was 13.3% higher
• Overall REB% was 11.1% higher
• STL% was 7.3% higher

Again, this is a small sample size and Ejiofor is going to go through his ups and downs as any rookie will, but there is just a different look this team has when he is on the floor and it might be time for Atlanta to start embracing that.

We will see later today if Landale is going to come off the injury report, but the longer that he remains on it and Ejiofor plays like this, he is going to make it hard for Snyder to keep him on the bench.

Snyder had a lot of good things to say about his rookie after the game last night:

"We're a young team and we're a new team you know and Zuby is one of those guys so we're we're trying to you know forge an identity and the way that Zuby plays fits that identity that we're working towards. And when I say that, the competitiveness, the toughness, the focus defensively. And for a coach, anytime you have a player that you can put out on the defensive end, it makes you comfortable. And he was able to do that. He did it without fouling.

One time he was in front of our bench and I kept yelling at him because he was poking. I always thought he was going to. He ran the court, like all the plays that require energy, just playing hard. He provides that. So he's got a really bright future ahead. And I think it's always important to recognize that and then recognize also the growth process. And you can do both at once. But tonight, for him to step up against a team that has the players they do inside was big for us."

Ejiofor might have a chance to show his skilset against the Wizards once again tomorrow night in Atlanta.