Lou Williams not cleared for Atlanta Hawks training camp

Lou Williams tore his ACL Jan. 18, but the Atlanta Hawks’ key bench scorer is still not medically cleared to practice. From Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Hawks training camp begins in 11 days - on Oct. 1 - and the team has no timeline on the return of Lou Williams from a torn ACL. According to team officials, Williams is progressing well with his right knee injury. However, he has not yet been given medical clearance by doctors to participate in training camp.

Vivlamore reports that Williams could still be ready to go for the start of training camp, but “he most likely will not be ready to immediately assume the role he had last season.”

Williams scored 14.1 points per game off the bench for the Hawks, shooting 42.2 percent from the field and 36.7 percent from deep. The Hawks will sport a different look this year under first-year head coach Mike Budenholzer, with Paul Millsap playing power forward instead of Josh Smith. Williams’ role, when he is healthy, might be in the starting lineup, depending on how Budenholzer chooses to use the combo of Jeff Teague, Williams, Kyle Korver, Dennis Schroder and John Jenkins.

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