Hawks struggling with injuries, defense and 4th Q woes

[Jamaaliver]

5 Dark-Horse NBA Teams That Can Still Contend This Season

Atlanta Hawks



The first point to make on the Atlanta Hawks' sneaky contender status is a glib one, but: they've been there before.

Last season, Atlanta heated up at the right time, surging down the stretch of the regular season under Nate McMillan (getting healthy helped) and making it within two victories of the Finals. The eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks dismissed that upstart Atlanta team, but all the principals are back and a year wiser for the experience.

The Hawks have underwhelmed so far, sitting ninth in the East and sporting a .500 record through 28 games. Injuries have again been a factor, with De'Andre Hunter sidelined by wrist surgery 11 games into the season and Bogdan Bogdanovic out nursing a sprained ankle since Nov. 27.

Hunter is Atlanta's best defensive option against top-tier wings, and Bogdanovic's secondary playmaking has been key to the team's attack. The Hawks' offensive rating is 8.4 points per 100 possessions better with him on the floor this year.

Atlanta also owns a plus-2.5 point differential that indicates its record ought to be closer to 16-12. If not for some tough luck in tight games, the Hawks would be much closer to that coveted top-three status in the East than they are right now.

Don't forget about Trae Young's ongoing adjustment to this year's officiating points of emphasis. It shouldn't be a surprise that a player of his talent is finding ways to score without relying on the foul-baiting tricks he perfected in years past. Young's free throws are down, but he's shooting better than ever from three-point and two-point range. Despite fewer freebies, his scoring average is up nearly two points per game this year.

Add all that up, and the Hawks, currently ticketed for the play-in, have a real chance to replicate last year's postseason run.

Bleacher Report

[Jamaaliver]

Why are the Atlanta Hawks falling apart at the end of games? Everything for them leading up to the fourth quarter looks extremely positive. They’re one of the better first-half teams in the NBA. They’re a very solid third-quarter team. Then the fourth quarter comes around, and the Hawks just evaporate into thin air. Their clutch numbers are especially alarming, and it’s mostly centered around Trae Young just not getting it done right now. For as good as he’s been most of this season, he’s just 7-of-25 shooting the ball in the clutch. He has more shot attempts than clutch points (23). Even more baffling? He has five turnovers to just one assist. His teammates aren’t helping him out when he passes it, and he’s just not the same playmaker right now in this situation. It’ll get better, but it’s a big reason this team isn’t better. The Athletic -- 12/13

The Atlanta Hawks really need Bogdan Bogdanovic back on the court. When he’s out there, the Hawks are so dominant on offense. The combination of him and Trae Young as multiple playmakers on the floor puts the Hawks at a level that rates just below the league-leading Utah Jazz (117.2) in offensive rating (117.0). Since Bogdanovic went down with the ankle injury, the Hawks are just 3-5. They’re 3-6 on the season when he doesn’t play, and their offense falls by over 8.0 points per 100 possessions. Young has been fine in leading the offense without Bogdanovic (112.7) on the court, but the team is left a lot more vulnerable to not being able to outscore its opponents, while they struggle defensively.

The Athletic -- 12/20

[Jamaaliver]

The [Hawks] have a minus-37.2 net rating in clutch time, defined as games that are within five points with less than five minutes remaining. It’s the second-worst mark in the league, ahead of only the New Orleans Pelicans. The Hawks have the third-worst net rating, minus-9.6, for the entirety of fourth quarters. For the most part, the Hawks are a good team for three quarters, then it’s like they freeze up and forget what they’re supposed to do in the final 12 minutes.

And that’s the thing. There doesn’t seem to be a consistent reason this continues happening. Some nights, the offense can’t score in the fourth. Some nights, as was the case against the Rockets on Monday, they can’t stop anyone. Some nights, it’s a mixture of both. It’s a problem that needs to be addressed and fixed quickly.

A few issues are weighing down the Hawks.

• For one, they are missing Bogdan Bogdanovic and De’Andre Hunter, two players who can create their own offense.
• There’s very little shot creation on the floor with Young right now, and if teams are scheming to try to take the ball out of his hands, there aren’t many players who can be a consistent safety valve.
  
• Backup point guard was thought to be a strength as the season began, but it hasn’t turned out that way.
  
• Defensively, the Hawks are a mess.

What’s befuddling about the way this team defends is how many open shots the Hawks allow without a hand in the shooter’s face. That simply comes down to a lack of effort.

The Athletic

[Jamaaliver]

Report Card Grades for the First 1/3 of the Season

Atlanta Hawks: C-



Crappy defense has dented the Atlanta Hawks' tis season, though there has been some improvement of late. They're 13th in points allowed per 100 possessions, and despite ranking second-to-last in the share of field-goal attempts surrendered at the rim, they're holding opponents to a 56.5 percent clip around the hoop—the third stingiest mark during this span.

Taking these strides without De'Andre Hunter (wrist) and Onyeka Okongwu, who just returned from shoulder surgery, is a big deal. So is the Hawks offense. They're third in points scored per 100 possessions, with a top-two turnover rate. Trae Young is having a career year, and John Collins, Kevin Huerter and Danilo Gallinari are offsetting the absence of Bogdan Bogdanovic (ankle) with incandescent shooting and finishing.

This doesn't read like the profile of a team struggling to play .500 ball. That's exactly what the Hawks are, though. No single issue is ever solely at fault, but their fourth-quarter haze comes pretty damn close.

Atlanta has the Association's worst offensive rating in the final frame and places 28th in point differential per 100 possessions during crunch time. Better decision-making is a must; too often the Hawks' attack seems to bog down in the fourth. More diligent boxing out and smarter transition defense would also go a long way.

Any way you slice it, this team shouldn't be working so hard to stay mediocre. It may be time for the front office to consider a consolidation trade on the wing.

Bleacher Report

[shakes0]

tl:dr = the Hawks suck.

[jayu70]

Why are the Atlanta Hawks falling apart at the end of games? Everything for them leading up to the fourth quarter looks extremely positive. They’re one of the better first-half teams in the NBA. They’re a very solid third-quarter team. Then the fourth quarter comes around, and the Hawks just evaporate into thin air. Their clutch numbers are especially alarming, and it’s mostly centered around Trae Young just not getting it done right now. For as good as he’s been most of this season, he’s just 7-of-25 shooting the ball in the clutch. He has more shot attempts than clutch points (23). Even more baffling? He has five turnovers to just one assist. His teammates aren’t helping him out when he passes it, and he’s just not the same playmaker right now in this situation. It’ll get better, but it’s a big reason this team isn’t better. The Athletic -- 12/13

The Atlanta Hawks really need Bogdan Bogdanovic back on the court. When he’s out there, the Hawks are so dominant on offense. The combination of him and Trae Young as multiple playmakers on the floor puts the Hawks at a level that rates just below the league-leading Utah Jazz (117.2) in offensive rating (117.0). Since Bogdanovic went down with the ankle injury, the Hawks are just 3-5. They’re 3-6 on the season when he doesn’t play, and their offense falls by over 8.0 points per 100 possessions. Young has been fine in leading the offense without Bogdanovic (112.7) on the court, but the team is left a lot more vulnerable to not being able to outscore its opponents, while they struggle defensively.

The Athletic -- 12/20

Bogi was a game time decision for the postponed game. So hopefully he is good to go next game.

[Jamaaliver]

tl:dr = the Hawks suck.

Bogi was a game time decision for the postponed game. So hopefully he is good to go next game.

I wouldn't say we suck; there's clearly room for improvement. We may have had too high expectations coming into the season. Just because we made the ECF last season never meant we were destined to just walk back to the 3rd round of the playoffs without making adjustments to roster and scheme.

Getting Okongwu and Bogdanovic back will help immensely.

Moving some combination of Gallinari, Delon Wright, Gorgui Dieng for a useful backup or two seems like the way to go.

But it's also on the coaching staff to address some of the rotation issues amid the collapses we keep having in the 4th quarter.

Ultimately, there are a number of issues to address, but they aren't huge.

Backups I'd like us to see us pursue in trade

• Jakob Poeltl
• Andre Drummond
• Mo Bamba
• Devin Vassell
• Derrick White
• Keldon Johnson
• Obi Toppin
• Kemba Walker
• Marcus Smart

[shakes0]

tl:dr = the Hawks suck.

Bogi was a game time decision for the postponed game. So hopefully he is good to go next game.

I wouldn't say we suck; there's clearly room for improvement. We may have had too high expectations coming into the season. Just because we made the ECF last season never meant we were destined to just walk back to the 3rd round of the playoffs without making adjustments to roster and scheme.

Getting Okongwu and Bogdanovic back will help immensely.

Moving some combination of Gallinari, Delon Wright, Gorgui Dieng for a useful backup or two seems like the way to go.

But it's also on the coaching staff to address some of the rotation issues amid the collapses we keep having in the 4th quarter.

Ultimately, there are a number of issues to address, but they aren't huge.

Backups I'd like us to see us pursue in trade

• Jakob Poeltl
• Andre Drummond
• Mo Bamba
• Devin Vassell
• Derrick White
• Keldon Johnson
• Obi Toppin
• Kemba Walker
• Marcus Smart

none of that stuff matters if guys aren't even trying on defense. Standing around in the lane looking at each other rather than running out to contest 3s. This team is disgusting to watch.

[D21]

I wouldn't say we suck; there's clearly room for improvement. We may have had too high expectations coming into the season. Just because we made the ECF last season never meant we were destined to just walk back to the 3rd round of the playoffs without making adjustments to roster and scheme...

I wouldn't say that I had too high expectations, I had higher, but mainly because I thought they would start the season with all players healthy. Instead, several were not ready, and added to the hardest schedule of the league at the beginning, it's certainly why we got several injured players.
I still have high expectations, but I hope that they get all healthy before the playoffs, because they need to learn how to play with a full roster, something that almost never happened last season

[Jamaaliver]

Hawks basking in afterglow of last season, playing lazy on defense



While you’re celebrating the talents of Trae Young and the coolness of John Collins and the high-fun-factor of a young team that last season flattened the Knicks and Sixers in the playoffs before falling in six games to the eventual NBA champion Bucks, think about this: Atlanta is among the nine worst teams in the league in defensive rating, and all nine — Pistons, Knicks, Pelicans, Hawks, Rockets, Magic, Trail Blazers, Kings, Hornets — have losing records.

There are your Hawks today: High on fun at one end of the court (No. 2 offensive rating), uninterested and sloth-like at the other.

They average out to mediocrity.

On too many nights, they appear to still be basking in the afterglow of something that happened months ago, apparently not realizing the shelf life in sports is short. Because while there are some great defensive players in the NBA, team defense is about effort … sacrifice … mindset. And right now, the Hawks are falling woefully short in all three.

They’re playing lazy.

“We’re a young team, and we think we’re good, and we feel like if we show up we’re going to win, and that’s not the way it works,” general manager Travis Schlenk said. “We’re on people’s radar this year as a good team, so we get better efforts, and quite frankly our effort collectively defensively hasn’t been there as a group. You can’t just go outscore people, you’ve got to play defense, and we’re not doing that. We’re not near the bottom in the league defensively because of one player. That’s a team effort.”

There are several layers to this. It’s more difficult for young teams to win with the weight of expectations that weren’t there a year ago. It’s more difficult when opponents don’t take you lightly, as they often did a year ago. It’s more difficult to give maximum effort in a regular-season game against the Rockets after playing games in the Eastern Conference finals. And a lot of things have to go right for a team to string together wins in the postseason.

The perimeter defense is beyond horrible. The Hawks aren’t built to be a great defensive team, but they don’t have to be. They just need to be average. They finished 18th in defensive rating last season and were 12th after the All-Star break. Take the average of those two: 15th. If the offense plays at this level and the team is healthy, 15th again makes the Hawks contenders.

Right now, this is not even a playoff team.

The Athletic

[wco81]

Zach Lowe and Kevin Arnovitz discuss the Hawks in the latest Lowe Post podcast.

Hawks #25 in defense. Lowe says if they improved their transition defense, a lot of their defensive woes would go away.

Arnovitz says they may have too many good players.

Great offensive efficiency, low turnovers.

Yet struggling, 9.5% from 3-point range in clutch possessions.


Lowe says he can't think of a consolidating trade which would help them. No available players who'd help the team. Not the Pacers centers, not the Portland guards, not Bradley Beal, who's not having a great season.

[Jamaaliver]

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Atlanta's leaky transition defense

The Hawks are 24th in points allowed per possession -- the main reason (along with laughably bad clutch shooting) they are under-performing at 15-16. They are 4-7 since a seven-game winning streak compiled mostly at home against bad teams.

There are a lot of variables at play, but one common theme: porous transition defense. The Hawks are rickety at every phase of transition defense, but they are dead last in points allowed per possession after steals, per Cleaning The Glass.

Atlanta has the league's fourth-lowest turnover rate, but a disproportionate number are live-ball steals on bad passes -- pick-sixes the other way.

Some bad transition defense is baked into how Atlanta plays offense. The Hawks spam spread pick-and-roll with shooters in both corners, meaning any shot at the rim might end with four Hawks below the foul line: two corner shooters; Atlanta's rim-running screen-setters; and Trae Young. Misses at the rim are jailbreaks. Atlanta struggles to defend after made layups.

Some pain is unavoidable, but those corner shooters need to loop back toward half court earlier.

Even in five-on-five semi-transition, Atlanta's collective first step is slow. They have weird issues matching up. Some of that is due to cross-matching; the Hawks hide Young on defense so that he is rarely guarding the same guy who guards him. In searching for the perfect matchups, the Hawks often leave one enemy player unmarked.

Once whole, the Hawks have the goods to be an average defense. The first step is erasing some easy points.

ESPN Insider

[Jamaaliver]

Are we getting close to a consensus that a roster adjustment needs to happen?

Or just waiting for Bogdan, Collins and Hunter to come back and right the ship?

Do we believe adding those three makes us contenders again?

[jayu70]

Are we getting close to a consensus that a roster adjustment needs to happen?

Or just waiting for Bogdan, Collins and Hunter to come back and right the ship?

Do we believe adding those three makes us contenders again?

Bench Lou, reduce Gallo's minutes and get a backup PG...another year saying we need a capable backup PG to Trae

[Jamaaliver]

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[D21]

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Starting this video, I was asking myself "will they they said four major players were out?"

[Jamaaliver]

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