The Problem With the Atlanta Hawks…

The Problem With the Atlanta Hawks…

Just three seasons ago the Atlanta Hawks were two games away from a finals appearance before losing to the Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals since then they’ve been stuck in a state of mediocrity winning 43 and 41 games in the following two seasons while failing

To make it out of the first round both years now just 39 games into the 2023 24 season the Hawks are looking the worst they have in four years and it’s getting to the point where I can realistically see them missing the playoffs considering the moves they’ve made

Recently it’s clear that they’re trying to get better but instead these moves more specifically the Deonte Murray trade have backfired greatly and the team is currently sputtering with how poor the season has gone rumors about the Hawks potentially shipping off Murray and other players are at an

All-time high and it looks like some kind of move is going to be made soon but what the hell exactly happened to the Hawks why have they been so bad bad this season and why does so many people including myself think it’s time for some big changes to be made well that’s

Exactly what I’m going to go over in today’s video so if you’re new to the channel and enjoyed this kind of content please consider liking the video and subscribing liking the video helps it perform well in the YouTube algorithm and at the time of this recording we’re

Just 18 subscribers away from my goal of 1,500 by the halfway point of the NBA season and any help with that is g appreciated but with that out of the way let’s get into it to start things off I’m going to talk about Trey young and

Why I don’t think he’s the problem with this team whatsoever Trey is a player who gets the inefficient shot chucker label a little too much and when you look deeper into his efficiency from each range and his actual efficiency numbers you can see that this just isn’t

The case a lot of people will look at his basic field goal percentage which is about 42% this year and call Trey inefficient despite this Trey still has a true shooting percentage of around 58% which is about League average and for a guard who averages 27 points per game

While shooting 9 threes a night this is honestly pretty impressive another number I see people mention when knocking Trey is his efficiency at The Rim don’t get me wrong hitting 51% of your shots from this range isn’t great but considering that TR is 6’2 and has

Only taken 109 shots at The Rim it’s really not the end of the world especially once you consider that 3 31% of Trey shots come from the 4 to 14t range which for him are mostly floaters and he hits these shots at a 48% rate which is in the 79th percentile so Trey

Is still creating and hitting plenty of shots at The Rim just not in the traditional way which for a point guard of his size and frame is basically what he has to do it’s pretty easy to see why there are so many misconceptions about Trey being some type of inefficient shot

Chucking guard but when you really dig into it and look past his basic field goal percentage you’ll see that Trey is a high volume Point per game scorer on overall League average efficiency and that’s without mentioning his playmaking which has still been amongst the best in the entire NBA Trey young definitely

Isn’t without his flaws but it feels like so many people just look at his basic field goal percentage and assume that he is the problem with the Hawks when in reality that’s just not the case really the problem is a roster around Trey and how poorly they fit with one

Another more specifically deante Murray don’t get me wrong I still think dejonte Murray is a very good NBA player but he kind of has the opposite effect of Trey young where instead of looking at his numbers and Assuming he’s worse than he actually is far too many people look at

Deon Murray’s box score stats and come to some pretty crazy conclusions now I will say that Deonte Murray does do some great things that would make him valuable to other teams for example the jump he’s made this year in terms of three-point shooting is really impressive prior to this season Murray

Was a career 33% three-point shooter on about three attempts a game this year though he’s hitting 39% of his shots from Beyond the arc on six attempts who knows if this will be sustainable for the remainder of the season but his start has certainly been impressive and

When you look at his last couple of years the trajectory of his three-point percentage has only gone up however there are so many misconceptions about muray as a player on both sides of the ball that I feel need to be addressed for starters Deonte Murray is not the

Great defender he once was a seems like a lot of people look at the fact that dejon 6’5 with a 6’10 wingspan who led the league in Ste de 2 years ago and automatically assume he’s still Elite when in reality this isn’t the case this season he’s been much worse at timing

His Closeouts and defensive counters he looks lost at times in the off ball and he’s had so many moments where the aggressiveness that was once there on defense is gone and even when it is there he just doesn’t have it on that end for one reason or another Deonte

Definitely still has moments where he looks great on that side of the ball and his hands are still pretty active a lot of the times but overall it simply looks like he isn’t locked in on defense like he used to be alongside this when we look at his offense looking at his basic

Box score efficiency you’d think that de jante absolutely clears Trey young in this area but again when you take a deeper look this is not the case Trey has a better true shooting percentage he shoots just 1% worse from the mid-range and they’re both really inefficient at

The Rim so I’m not going to waste time by comparing to ass and alongside this Trey might shoot technically worse from three but when you consider that Trey takes and makes more from Beyond The Arc it really doesn’t matter that much now this isn’t me trying to stir

Some debate about who’s better because I think we all know that Trey is far superior but it’s more so to shine some light on why the stat between these two can be a little misleading and where the problems with this Hawks team lie Trey and deante don’t fit next to each other

At all deante can’t playing the off ball he isn’t a great defender anymore and he simply doesn’t produce much if the ball isn’t in his hands is try young perfect no but he’s a far better player in easier to build a team around while what dejonte does can easily be valuable to

Another team it isn’t for the Hawks and the trade that brought him in is looking pretty bad right now now this brings me to my next point of the video concerning what the the hawk should do moving forward while I don’t think a total rebuild is needed a retooling of this

Roster definitely has to happen starting with trading dejonte Murray who’s been in a ton of rumors so far teams like the Warriors Knicks and Lakers have reportedly been interested and according to John Hollinger of the athletic yes that John Hollinger the Hawks are pretty much done with this roster and are

Scouting potential trade values guys like Deonte Murray DeAndre Hunter and clink Capell were all mentioned in that report and I can see why both de jante and DeAndre Hunter aren’t the Defenders they were advertised as and they already have Ona oku who is more versatile and arguably better than clink capella on

Both sides of the ball already it’s tough to judge what these guys could bring in a potential trade but there’s definitely some areas of the Court the Hawks need to put in emphasis on starters their defense the Hawks have the 27th rank defensive raing at 12.9 and are allowing the highest effective

Field goal percentage in the NBA at 58% to put it simply they need defense all over the floor they allow the most shots at The Rim in the NBA while being bottom five in efficiency from the mid-range and Beyond The Arc the Hawks have made investments in the defense but they

Aren’t panning out and it’s time to make some upgrades if they want to maximize Trey young another thing the Hawks have to address is their finishing at The Rim they’re currently hitting 61% of their shots at The Rim which ranks 27th in the NBA league average efficiency at this

Range this season is about 66% according to cleaning the glass and the Hawks have just two players in their main rotation shooting league average or better at The Rim this being Jaylen Johnson and Ona okongwu I feel like these issues can be solved by bringing in more off-ball

Oriented players guys who can run dhos pick and Pops or are even just good at slipping past Defenders for off ball cuts the Hawks offense is in some desperate need of more fluidity and trading guys like Deonte Murray for more 3 andd oriented guarder Wing or even

Just getting rid of Clint capella for the sake of starting Ona oku would make a big difference regardless the Hawks have won eight of their last 24 games nearly blew a 30-point lead to the Spurs last night and almost every report I’ve read points toward changes being made I

Really do feel like a team led by Trey young with the right Supporting Cast of course can go far in the playoffs we’ve seen it happen before but the current way this Hawks roster is built isn’t going to work it didn’t last year and that certainly isn’t going to change

Without some trades being made the Hawks have the assets to retool without completely rebuilding and honestly the only players I just straight up wouldn’t trade if I were the Hawks are Trey young and Jaylen Johnson Trey young for obvious reasons and Jaya Johnson just fits what Atlanta needs perfectly and is

A guy I talked about in a previous video so if you’re interested in my thoughts on him the link to that video will be in the description below but anyways the Hawks may not necessarily need another star next to Trey but what they need are players who fit better which can be done

Without having to give up too much but with that being said I’m going to wrap things up here let me know whether you think the hawk should retool or flat out rebuild and who you think they should look to trade for in the comments below please remember to like And subscribe so

I can reach my goal of 1500 subscribers by the halfway point of the NBA season thank you all so much for watching and I’ll see yall in the next one

Despite coming just two games from a finals appearance three years ago, the Atlanta Hawks have turned into one of the most mediocre teams in the NBA after trading for Dejounte Murray.

Now, with the team sitting at 16-23 and are the 11th seed out East. This is thanks in part due to the lack of fit between Trae Young and Dejounte Murray and why I think the two need to be split up sooner rather than later.

Thank you so much for watching!

Link to Jalen Johnson Video: https://youtu.be/7kWsKNPu_JI?si=vp2lM9LL5iUpd9dr&t=310

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DesmondNovack

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