Caleb Houstan Signing Fills Out the Hawks Roster

Caleb Houstan dropped a career high 35 points against the Hawks as a member of the Magic. He officially signed with the Hawks on a league-minimum deal (Image via Kim Klement Neitzel/USA TODAY)
By: Lucas Kochevar

The Hawks have officially signed a couple rumored guys to fill out their 15-man roster. They announced N’Faly Dante as an official signing and followed it with Caleb Houstan. Houstan has been rumored as a guy for the Hawks for a couple weeks, but wasn’t announced for unspecified reasons. Houstan is a forward, who will likely provide depth for the Hawks. To make it easy, he’ll likely be a swing forward that fills the Garrison Mathews role from last season's team. His calling card is three-point shooting as he is a career 37.2% shooter, including 40% last season. 

Houstan is entering his fourth year in the pros. He was drafted by the Orlando Magic in the second round in the 2022 NBA Draft. There’s a number of reasons why Houstan hasn’t stuck in the pros as a consistent player, namely his athleticism. Houstan is big at six-for-eight, but he’s not your traditional three-and-D wing. His lack of athleticism leads to problems on defense. He’s not a horrible defender, but he’s far from being a plus player on that side of the court. A fun fact about Houstan is that he’s played 2,415 minutes over 168 games and he’s never recorded a dunk in a game. 

The Houstan signing being announced officially seems to mark the end of the transaction period for the Hawks, at this point. They have officially filled out their 15-man roster and all three two-way spots are filled. The Hawks roster going into training camp will feature Trae Young, Kobe Bufkin, Luke Kennard, Dyson Daniels, Keaton Wallace, Vit Krejci, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Nikola Djurisic in the guard room. The forward room consists of Zaccharie Risacher, Jalen Johnson, Mo Gueye, Caleb Houstan, Eli John Ndiaye, Asa Newell and Jacob Toppin. Finally, the centers are Onyeka Okongwu, Kristaps Portzings and N’Faly Dante. There will be a few things to talk before training camp with a couple of Hawks players in Eurobasket 2025