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State of the Hawks: Thoughts and observations through 11 games

Young is a no-doubt All-Star candidate

I don’t know what else we can say about how incredible Young has been. He ranks in the top 10 in points and assists per game and has almost single-handedly willed the Hawks to a 4-6 record. Young has played at an All-Star level so far and almost certainly will be there if he continues the tear he has been on.

The Hawks need a reliable center

Imagine how good the Hawks would be if they had a center who could ease the pressure on Young when opposing teams blitz him. Instead, the Hawks have Alex Len, Damian Jones and Bruno Fernando.

Len has been horrible on offense. Jones has been fine on offense but has been a liability on defense. Fernando has looked lost more times than not and just isn’t ready to contribute at a high level. Especially in John Collins’ absence, the Hawks just don’t have a go-to option at the 5 right now, and it shows.

One of the quickest ways the Hawks can take a leap is to have a force at the 5, and that option isn’t currently on the roster.

A secondary initiator would do wonders

Imagine what this team could look like if Young had another initiator on the floor with him so he could run around and create catch-and-shoot opportunities for himself. If you want to talk about spacing and the dynamics of what the future Hawks offense looks like, it’s scary to think about when this happens.

The Hawks do have Huerter and Cam Reddish, who can grow into that role of secondary playmaker, but neither is at that level yet.

Reddish is a work in progress

It shouldn’t have been surprising to see Reddish struggle offensively after his only year at Duke, where he also struggled offensively to get anything going, but it has been disastrous on that end of the floor. Synergy ranks Reddish in the third percentile in points per possession. Out of 365 qualified players, Reddish ranks 355th.

On the positive side, Reddish has been great defensively. He ranks in the 75th percentile on that end of the floor and has been an excellent spot-up defender.

Jamaaliver wrote:What's caught my eye and is a bit perplexing...

Our pace is much slower than last year's.
And our 3-pt shooting is much worse.

Why? How do we fix it? Is it even worth fixing?

Jamaaliver wrote:What's caught my eye and is a bit perplexing...

Our pace is much slower than last year's.
And our 3-pt shooting is much worse.

Why? How do we fix it? Is it even worth fixing?

After the game, it took Pierce over an hour before he addressed the media, delayed by a team-talk in the locker room.

“Learning how to compete,” Pierce said about the post-game conversation, via Sarah Spencer of the AJC. “(That’s) kind of it. Learning how to compete, learning how to communicate, and what it takes to win in the NBA, what it takes to be a pro. ... If one of us isn’t there, then none of us are there. It’s all about us. We have to hold each other to a higher standard. One player being great and one player being poor means we’re poor. That’s just the way it is. That’s what ‘team’ is.”

NBA Power Rankings

28. Atlanta Hawks: Previously 25

The Hawks rank in the bottom five in both offensive and defensive efficiency, and no, this isn't one of those situations in which they're actually half-decent with their best player on the floor and awful when he's not. Atlanta's net rating is actually lower in the minutes Trae Young plays.

With such a reliance on youth (rookies Cam Reddish and De'Andre Hunter have started since the jump, and Atlanta's top seven rotation players by minutes per game are 24 or younger), ugly numbers should be the expectation. But we've already reached the point at which long-term concerns are cropping up.

For example, Reddish is on pace to post a true shooting percentage under 40 percent on over eight field-goal attempts per game, which is practically unheard of in the modern era. The ball didn't go in for him enough at Duke, either, and we're seeing virtually all his predraft weaknesses manifest themselves during the first month of the season.

Atlanta has lost nine of its last 10 games.

27. Atlanta Hawks (Previously 24th), 4-12 (-9.6 net rating)

Youth rears its losing head for the Atlanta Hawks. It was already asking a lot of this team to be good before John Collins was popped with a 25-game suspension. The Hawks got off to a great start and Trae Young was setting the world on fire. But the league has adjusted and the Hawks have fallen back down to earth. They’ve won just one of their last 10 games, and that was an overtime victory over Denver on the road. That was basically a coin flip for them and it just happened to come up tails for them. Everything else has been a disaster since they started that road trip. Their showing in Los Angeles was truly pathetic. Maybe it was just two of the best teams in the NBA imposing their wills on a young group of players without the tools to counter the greatness.

Maybe it was the Hawks enjoying the town that weekend with it being their only shot being in Los Angeles for the next five months. Whatever it was, they gave up over 270 points in two regulation games in LA, then followed it up with a competitive loss to Milwaukee and Toronto sandwiching an embarrassing loss to Detroit. The Hawks are really bad right now. They’ve been extremely sloppy with the ball, and they can’t seem to knock down a 3-point shot. I don’t know whom you put the onus on either. Lloyd Pierce has to be frustrated because everybody on the roster just needs to tighten up defensively, stop giving the ball away and make a jumper. The Hawks will find a groove again but it feels like all that early goodwill is long gone.

Why did the Hawks fall this week? They’re in a really bad way right now. The Hawks still have all of that glimmer and potential we love to project. But this is why the Hawks simply can’t be trusted when everybody on the court outside of Vince Carter and Evan Turner are so young and inexperienced.

VCfor3 wrote:This sucks, but maybe these early losses are how you guys barely miss the playoffs later and win a high enough lottery pick to get Wiseman. Then good luck to the other teams having to deal with Trae/Huerter/Hunter/Collins/Wiseman.

CP War Hawks wrote:

VCfor3 wrote:This sucks, but maybe these early losses are how you guys barely miss the playoffs later and win a high enough lottery pick to get Wiseman. Then good luck to the other teams having to deal with Trae/Huerter/Hunter/Collins/Wiseman.

Thx for the well wishes. Not sold yet on Wiseman, I know some of you in Mem have been keeping tabs on him, but he has to show me during conf. and tourny time.

It's been ugly but not that hideous. Schedule eventually evens out and two core guys return in a few weeks. Both teams don't meet until March, no telling how hard each team would be tanking by then unfortunately.