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Look no further than the last five games. During the span, the Hawks have failed to score more than 96 points in any game and compiled a 1-4 record. In the first 11 games of the season, the Hawks scored more than 100 points nine times and compiled a 9-2 record.

The recent struggle was epitomized by Friday’s 95-68 loss at the Jazz. It was a defeat that had much of the Hawks’ postgame locker room in stunned silence.

At one point this season, the Hawks had the No. 2 offense in the NBA. Today, they're in the bottom 10 in offensive efficiency (101.2), points per game (102.1) and field goal percentage (33.7). They are seventh in 3-point field goal percentage (45.9).

There is some good news. The Hawks defense is No. 1 in the league in defensive efficiency (96.5).

The Hawks are clearly having issues on offense. The pace and space system predicating on ball movement has bogged down. Turnovers have been an issue all season.

Over the past five games, each Hawks starter is scoring less than his season average (with the exception of Korver).

a players-only meeting couldn’t help Hawks fix offensive woes

The Hawks held a players-only meeting to discuss the recent stretch of poor play, which now stands at five losses in six games. While the Hawks have the top-rated defense in the NBA, the offense has been the issue. After the first 11 games of the season, the Hawks averaged more than 107 points per game. They have failed to score more than 96 points in any of the past six games.

The meeting appeared to work early as the Hawks had 11 assists on 13 field goals in the first quarter. They would have just 14 assists the rest of the game. The Lakers started to switch on screens and it affected the Hawks’ ball movement.

The Hawks had another troublesome second quarter. After scoring just 11 points in the second period of Friday’s loss to the Jazz, the Hawks had just 16 points in the quarter against the Lakers. The Lakers outscored the Hawks 35-16 in the period and led by as many as 11 points. The Hawks were 7 of 20 (35 percent) from the field and that included Kent Bazemore’s 28-footer with 1.4 seconds left.

“After a good first quarter, I think we weren’t able to sustain it,” Budenholzer said. “Offensively, our ball movement and our people movement needs to be better from the start of the game to the end of the game.”

Coach Bud wrote:After a good first quarter, I think we weren’t able to sustain it. Offensively, our ball movement and our people movement needs to be better from the start of the game to the end of the game.

Coach Bud wrote:At some point you might what to at least, maybe, try to suck them in and find some guys for open shots – and then you’ve got to make them...

Kent Bazemore wrote:He has an outstanding playbook for us. He’s done a tremendous job of tailoring our sets to our players’ strengths. We have to execute. We got away with it early in the year. As teams start to lock in on us and turn up the pressure, we’ve struggled. We’ve just got to continue to trust coach and buy into what he wants us to do.

Dwight Howard wrote:No, I think we didn’t shoot that well. We didn’t have the correct energy on both ends of the floor. I don’t think it was anything special they did. They just played harder than us. They made shots. They got stops when they needed to and got a good win for themselves.

Paul Millsap wrote:The concern has been the same. We’ve got to get better offensively. I think even in the wins our offense hasn’t been that great. We’ve got to get better at that. We have to get better at reading what defenses are doing to us and denying, back-dooring, learning how to get easy baskets. I think we can get better at that.

Holding an NBA team to 68 points is always going to be an impressive feat, but holding the versatile Atlanta Hawks to that total is ridiculous. The Jazz allowed 31.3 percent shooting overall, had a nine minute period where the Hawks scored just three points, and then had two quarters when they scored just 25 combined. That will win every time.

So what did they do well? Let's break it down:

First, they went under on Dennis Schroder screens. At first, it looked like Schroder was going to make the Jazz pay for this strategy, going 5-6 in the first quarter, including 2-3 on pick and roll threes left open by Utah. But the Jazz largely stuck with it, and Schroder shot just 1-13 for the rest of the game. Ouch.

Jamaaliver wrote:I think Horford's floor spacing and varied game in the pick and roll is also a huge part of our struggles.

Graham wrote:Here, Dennis completely ignores the obvious Muscala-Lou Williams mismatch.

Graham wrote:Here, Dennis gets switched onto Larry Nance, directs traffic away to set up the isolation with the mismatch but decides to just chuck a three instead and it misses. Absolutely horrible. Come on, Dennis.

jayu70 wrote:

Jamaaliver wrote:I think Horford's floor spacing and varied game in the pick and roll is also a huge part of our struggles.

The overall team spacing is off. No pace to the play - not enough ball and player movement.
Al also set a ton of screens for our 'catch and shoot' players. Dwight not so much. He stays glued to the paint.

Chris Vivlamore wrote:The Hawks have lost six of the past seven games and offense has clearly been the issue. In the six games before Monday, they failed to score more than 96 points in each. Coaches and players were clearly frustrated.

the Hawks have lost five of their last six games, scoring a paltry 92 points per 100 possessions over that stretch. The starting lineup continues to struggle...

The loss to the Lakers Sunday has them dropping five of six, mostly due to struggles with the starters and the offense (the Hawks remains a good defensive team).

afectar wrote:Hawks really need to swing a trade for either a scorer or good shooter. In the playoffs not having legit shooting is going to kill us.

afectar wrote:1)To me Baze is taking a lot of stupid shots.
2) Millsap is going one on one a lot more.
3)Kyle can't seem to catch fire.

Every time Thabo takes a shot I'm afraid. Hawks really need to swing a trade for either a scorer or good shooter. In the playoffs not having legit shooting is going to kill us.

Jamaaliver wrote:

afectar wrote:Hawks really need to swing a trade for either a scorer or good shooter. In the playoffs not having legit shooting is going to kill us.

Agreed. Any thoughts on Tim Hardaway, Jr. filling in that role moving forward?

Any other likely trade or Free Agency targets come to mind?

I like Gordon Hayward as the SF of the future or Danilo Gallinari as the PF of the future.

ATL Boy wrote:We don't have shooters that can hit open 3 point shots as a consistent enough clip.

Y'all wanna see something cool? And by cool I mean absolutely infuriating and borderline terrifying.


The Hawks had by far the highest percentage of wide open 3 pointers in the NBA last season (wide open meaning that the defender was 6+ feet away). But they had the lowest percentage of wide open 3 pointers made.

I will never doubt Coach Bud's genius or his system, all of this was a result of that system. Our players just couldn't get it done on wide open shots last year, and I don't see how any of that is changing this year.

afectar wrote:

Jamaaliver wrote:I like Gordon Hayward as the SF of the future or Danilo Gallinari as the PF of the future.

I actually like those two you mention, but what are the chances of either landing with the Hawks. I think Gallinari can be have. I'm not to sure the Jazz would let go of Hayward.