What will Hawks offense look like under Quin Snyder?

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A fantastic article written months ago by Adam Spinella.

Trae Young is going to soar in Quin Snyder’s offense

More off-ball movement and exquisite spacing will help the Hawks point guard maximize his impact



Quin Snyder’s teams in Utah were known for their defense (mostly thanks to Rudy Gobert) but were also some of the most potent offensive groups in the league. They had star players like Donovan Mitchell, but their success really came through ball movement. Under Snyder, the Jazz played a selfless brand of basketball that was unlocked by their pristine spacing and the willingness of each player to move the ball.

Nobody should benefit more from this style than his new point guard, Trae Young.

Watch the Hawks play and you’ll see that Young is very ball-dominant, operating out of ball screens more than anyone in the NBA not named Ja Morant. Yet Young, a dazzling shooter in his own right, hasn’t been featured as an off-ball sniper in ways he excelled at in college, even with a new co-star in Dejounte Murray in town. What Trae needs is a coach and a system that can keep up his volume of touches [while] easing the burden on him to create everything.

Ball movement is a great place to start. Snyder’s teams have been lauded as some of the best passing teams in recent memory, even with All-Star players and high-scoring guards. Many coaches will refer to Snyder’s principle of ball movement as the 0.5 rule, where offensive players have 0.5 seconds to decide what they’re going to do with the ball as soon as they catch it.

Spoiler:

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Under Lloyd Pierce and McMillan, the Hawks offense has seen the ball stick in Young’s hands far too often. This season, Trae is third in the NBA among qualified players for average seconds per touch, holding the ball for an average of 5.99 seconds per touch. That’s down from his league-leading 6.3 seconds last year, but still concerningly high.

If Young is willing to give up some of those touches, the offense (and he) can benefit as a whole. Right now, the Hawks are dead last in the NBA in three-point attempt rate. Much of that is due to playing Clint Capela and John Collins together, and the sudden shooting regression of Collins this season. But part of it is how much easier the Hawks offense is to defend when Trae is trying to create from a standstill.

Under Snyder, the Jazz led the NBA in three-point attempt rate each of the past two seasons. His deep playbook, modern spacing, and team-based tendencies helped unlock easy catch-and-shoot looks for his group.

Regardless of skill level, creation against a set defense is challenging. Teams can blitz Young and force the ball out of his hands, change coverages up on ball screens, and simply load up to protect the paint from the weak side. So many Hawks possessions stall out after a Young ball screen, whether his teammate gets run off the line on a kickout or if Young simply cannot separate against strong defense.

In theory, adding a second All-Star and potential creator in Dejounte Murray would address this and relieve Young from such a ball-dominant usage. Ultimately, a systems coach like Snyder who is opinionated and won’t bend to his stars will reveal more clearly whether the issues in Atlanta’s underachievement are caused by an inflexible Young or a lack of asset maximization by the coaching staff.

The fact that the Hawks have had a top-11 offense each of the past three seasons is a testament to how talented Trae is and how much offensive personnel they have on their roster. But it does feel like they could be unlocked more with a super-charged, team-based approach that doesn’t see so much of a burden placed upon Young.

Spoiler:

One simple starting point might be with a common motion system that the Hawks flow into with their early offense. Watch the video below with the Utah Jazz: whoever starts the possession passes, cuts through, and then gets the ball off a Zoom action (dribble handoff) on the second-side. If this is Young, it’s a cheap and easy way to get him the ball on the move more often:

Watch on YouTube

Young and Murray play the roles of Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley, respectively. Trae can still put up superstar numbers and get the ball throughout the flow of offense, but be less stagnant and predictable as he gets the ball on the move. The key will come down to their trust in one another, and in their teammates.

While the long-term future of this roster could use some re-shaping, there are plenty of floor-spacing wings in Atlanta to take advantage of this system. Saddiq Bey is tailor-made for something like this, with his dependable spot-up stroke and theoretically-strong decision-making off the dribble. AJ Griffin’s overall scoring blends well, Bogdan Bogdanovic is versatile enough to put the ball on the deck, and De’Andre Hunter provides value spacing the floor.

While surface-level numbers indicate their offense is working and defense needs to be fixed, the Hawks could cobble up an elite scoring unit if they buy into embracing Synder’s eventual changes.

SB Nation

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Absurdly low assist totals from the front court:

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Absurdly low assist totals from the front court:

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I'm hoping more OO in lieu of CC and JJ helps with that.

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Will this continue to be in Trae's shot diet?

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PnR Offense 101

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From Hawks 1st Pre-Season Game in Oct 2023:

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Encouraging signs from Game 2 of Preseason

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Glen the Great!

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Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young expects the group’s young players to make a significant impact this season. (via atlhawksfans): Reporter: “Jalen [Johnson], AJ [Griffin], Kobe [Bufkin], how excited are you about the young guys that are going to play a role?” Young: “I’m excited about seeing them play, they’re going to play a lot more minutes for us. We’re a young team again, and guys are going to have to step up and play a lot of minutes. But we can use that to our advantage: Play fast, play scrappy, rebound the offensive glass. There’s a lot of things we can do and use to our advantage by having Jalen, AJ, Kobe, young guys out there playing a lot of minutes for us.”

 

– via Paul Terrazzano Jr. @ TalkBasket

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Real in game footage of Hawks early offensive sets.

Trae is a maven in Quin's offense.

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