Hawks unveiling new offense this season?

[Jamaaliver]

After falling to bottom five in Offensive Rating last season, there are whispers that Budenholzer has revamped the offense to take further advantage of Dennis' skillset. (And the improved spacing without D12 on the floor.)

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Thoughts?
Predictions?

Concerns?

Is Dennis a shoo in for 20+ ppg?
Can we get back to middle of the pack offensively?
How long will the newbies and rookies need to accommodate themselves to this line of attack?

[jayu70]

Like Bud said in order to do that they have to practice harder.

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The guys have young legs so I don't see why not.
On the break, I'd like to imagine Taurean and Collins running hard for a dunk while Belli and Illy spotting up from 3.
Turnovers may be an issue.
As long as their is improvement throughout the season..cool.

[Jamaaliver]

“This year I would say there is going to be a slight shift to even greater pace, even greater space and even more pick-and-rolls,” Budenholzer told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “But not losing the movement we have away from the ball and the cutting and screening and opportunities for everyone to participate in the offense, much like you’ve seen for the last four years.”

The Hawks’ pace increased from 93.9 in 2014-15 to 97.1 in 2015-16 and 97.4 last season. But the numbers suggest that the ball didn’t move as quickly within those possessions and there weren’t as many catch-and-shoot chances created.

Hawks AJC Blog


So, what I'm hearing is faster with more movement away from the ball.

I'm foreseeing lots and lots of turnovers.

Copious turnovers.

SO. Many. Turnovers.

[MaceCase]

Don't see how this is a surprise, playing fast is a ploy by many bad teams. After all, the Nets, Suns, Sixers, and Lakers were in the top 10 of pace last season with the Nets and Suns leading the league. It's an attempt to evening the playing field by forcing up more buckets hoping that the increased volume mitigates the poor efficiency. The turnovers are meh as long as they only serve as a set percentage of attempts, the Hawks were 3rd in turnover volume last year despite being 11th in pace. If Bud and co. can create an inverse on that then consider it an improvement.

[macd-gm]

Sounds like the Boston offense from the past few years. Problem is that Dennis' pull up jumper isn't nearly as effective as IT, and his interior passing has been a little suspect. The latter may have been a lack of good receivers though.

[Jamaaliver]

A glance at the new-look Atlanta Hawks offense

We’ve heard that they intend to play faster on offense, but what other changes have we seen at this point in the preseason?


When Coach Budenholzer took the reins of the Hawks, he implemented a Spurs-like system on offense...to operate in the pick and roll from the top of the key.

it is not insignificant that Schlenk was part of a team that won NBA championships running the fewest pick and rolls and the most off ball screens in the league.

[T]hese are my observations regarding what I am seeing that is different on the offensive end so far in the preseason:

1) The Hawks are operating with far more frequency at the edge of the offensive formation as compared to all if the high pick and roll action we have seen the past few seasons. This stresses the defense in different ways

2) When they are operating at or near the top of the key, it is more likely to be a big man in dribble hand off (DHO) action as opposed to the guard dribbling into the screen. The significance of this adjustment is that the offense can threaten DHO opportunities with two and sometimes three different players from varying different angles.

3) They are using more three-man interactions (in tighter space) than the typical two-man interactions like the high pick and roll.

4) They are moving further away from traditional offensive positions and instead focusing on presenting multiple offensive threats in a given half court set. We are seeing a lot of “2 point guard line-ups” and “3 guard line-ups”. They are even spotting the center at times in the weak side offensive corner which is the spot traditionally occupied by the small forward.

5) It often looks like they are struggling to adjust to the timing and rhythms of the new actions.

6) When Atlanta looks like they are running last season’s playbook, it is usually following a few unsuccessful offensive possessions.


the results don’t look great possession to possession, but there is evidence that the Atlanta Hawks are adopting and trying to execute the new things that are expected of them.

Peachtree Hoops

[jayu70]

The mark of a great coach is the ability to adjust his offense to his personnel, their experience, their youth etc.
Al Horford made the PnR at the top of the key work easily. Good hands and a great passer from than spot. We don't have that anymore.

[Jamaaliver]

Didn't we have a bottom 5 offense last season?

[jayu70]

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[Jamaaliver]

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The Atlanta Hawks had the league's worst offense after the All-Star break last season, scoring just 101 points per 100 possessions over their final 26 games.

In 2015-16, the Hawks regressed to being a below-average offensive team.

Last season, with the league having its most efficient season of the last 40 years, the Hawks were one of only four teams who scored fewer points per 100 possessions than they did the season before. They ranked 26th offensively before the All-Star break and were 1.9 points per 100 possessions worse after it.

They had the league's second biggest drop-off in effective field goal percentage (-1.2 percent), and also the third biggest increase in turnover rate. Their 16.4 turnovers per 100 possessions were the league's worst mark after the break.

Last season, they also had the league's worst offense in the first half of games (100.4 points scored per 100 possessions).

With all the turnovers and bad shooting, the Hawks scored 3.9 fewer points per 100 possessions than the league average last season. That made it their worst offensive season since they went 13-69 in 2004-05.

[jayu70]

The Dwight effect.
Bud is an awesome coach, just not a magician.
Baze was shooting something like 17% from 3 to start the season.

[macd-gm]

Offensive efficiency wasn't great the year before either. On that stat there was a bigger drop from our 60 win season to the next than from Horford > Dwight seasons. Not the only thing that matters of course.

[Jamaaliver]

Offensive efficiency wasn't great the year before either. On that stat there was a bigger drop from our 60 win season to the next than from Horford > Dwight seasons. Not the only thing that matters of course.

YES!!! Bud is a good coach. That can't be disputed, but only once on four seasons has his offense been above league-average.

And since then it's gotten consistently worse.

And now we've lost every top offensive player from that 2015 team with no viable replacements.

This season could get ugly with only one above avg scorer on this team.

[macd-gm]

Offensive efficiency wasn't great the year before either. On that stat there was a bigger drop from our 60 win season to the next than from Horford > Dwight seasons. Not the only thing that matters of course.

YES!!! Bud is a good coach. That can't be disputed, but only once on four seasons has his offense been above league-average.

And since then it's gotten consistently worse.

And now we've lost every top offensive player from that 2015 team with no viable replacements.

This season could get ugly with only one above avg scorer on this team.

We have better shooters though which is the thing that Bud and Wilcox carelessly overlooked. Teague / Korver / Demarre / Sap / Horford were all good shooters. We tried to replace Demarre with Thabo who is not a good shooter and then it kept going downhill as we lost Teague, Horford, Korver and replaced them with guys who didn't shoot consistently. At least we have some guys now who can knock down shots (hopefully).

[Jamaaliver]

Offensive efficiency wasn't great the year before either. On that stat there was a bigger drop from our 60 win season to the next than from Horford > Dwight seasons. Not the only thing that matters of course.

YES!!! Bud is a good coach. That can't be disputed, but only once on four seasons has his offense been above league-average.

And since then it's gotten consistently worse.

And now we've lost every top offensive player from that 2015 team with no viable replacements.

This season could get ugly with only one above avg scorer on this team.

We have better shooters though which is the thing that Bud and Wilcox carelessly overlooked. Teague / Korver / Demarre / Sap / Horford were all good shooters. We tried to replace Demarre with Thabo who is not a good shooter and then it kept going downhill as we lost Teague, Horford, Korver and replaced them with guys who didn't shoot consistently. At least we have some guys now who can knock down shots (hopefully).

Very valid points.

It all comes down to Dennis now.

[macd-gm]

YES!!! Bud is a good coach. That can't be disputed, but only once on four seasons has his offense been above league-average.

And since then it's gotten consistently worse.

And now we've lost every top offensive player from that 2015 team with no viable replacements.

This season could get ugly with only one above avg scorer on this team.

We have better shooters though which is the thing that Bud and Wilcox carelessly overlooked. Teague / Korver / Demarre / Sap / Horford were all good shooters. We tried to replace Demarre with Thabo who is not a good shooter and then it kept going downhill as we lost Teague, Horford, Korver and replaced them with guys who didn't shoot consistently. At least we have some guys now who can knock down shots (hopefully).

Very valid points.

It all comes down to Dennis now.

The good news is that Dennis played 20 minutes a game our 60 win season and his per 36 stats were almost exactly the same as Teague's. So he has some evidence that he can be a share the ball PG. He needs to trust his teammates.

[jayu70]

Everything went well that 60 win season (until it didn't). Korver was shooting an historic percentage, DMC was playing for a contract, etc.
Players rallied around each other in the midst of the Ferry scandal - the stars were in alignment for those 19 straight games.
Maybe, just maybe that was an outlier and not the norm.

[jayu70]

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[Jamaaliver]

Everything went well that 60 win season (until it didn't).

Maybe, just maybe that was an outlier and not the norm.

Bingo!

Budenholzer has spent the better part of 2 years attempting to recreate that season. When, it's fairly undeniable at this point,it was an outlier.

Hard truth: everything Bud's done outside of that outlier of a season...has been average to sub-par.

[Jamaaliver]

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I've been telling you guys this for years, Budenholzer wants his Centers shooting threes.

Thus far, Pero, Horford, Muscala all saw decreases in rebounding and FG% as they moved further away from the hoops.

I reitierate that I'm not a fan of this tactic.

A 15-20 foot jumper would be great. But Dedmon camped out at the 3-pt line for a dozen possessions each game...seems like a bad idea.