All issues thought of, the Atlanta Hawks are having 2024-25 season; not too many had excessive expectations for them after buying and selling away Dejounte Murray over the offseason, however the Hawks are on monitor to complete above .500 for this season — not essentially an enchancment from the place they have been previous to their commerce for Murray, however trajectory for them to be on nonetheless contemplating that they’ve a younger, burgeoning workforce that’s solely getting higher.
There is not precisely a lot urgency for the Hawks to enhance the roster previous to the 2025 commerce deadline. They are not precisely on monitor to compete for a championship this season, regardless of nonetheless being the one workforce within the NBA this 12 months to beat each the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics.
Any deadly flaw of the Hawks’ is one thing that they’ll need to work via with out having to hurry the roster-building course of that they’re presently in. They’ve a couple of constructing blocks that ought to nonetheless be across the subsequent time they could be a prime playoff workforce within the East, however one factor’s for certain — there should be a diversification in the best way Atlanta performs in the event that they have been to take the following step as a workforce.
That is the deadly flaw the Hawks must take care of transferring ahead.
Are the Hawks too reliant on Trae Younger to create offense?
The Hawks have already experimented previously with bringing in one other shot creator and playmaker to scale back the workload on Trae Younger’s shoulders. Sadly, the Dejounte Murray experiment went sideways actually rapidly, as Younger and Murray’s playstyles weren’t too suitable with each other.
In 2021, the Hawks stumbled upon a successful system — encompass Younger with as many 3-and-D gamers as doable whereas letting him do the majority of the creating on offense. And it labored; they made all of it the best way to the Jap Convention Finals and had a preventing probability to make all of it the best way to the NBA Finals if extra harm luck had fallen of their favor.
The Hawks are replicating that system, nevertheless it hasn’t been working fairly as effectively. There’s a lack of secondary shot-creation on the roster, and the harm drawback to Bogdan Bogdanovic hasn’t helped issues in any respect. Jalen Johnson has been doing his finest in his function as a do-it-all, dive man and secondary playmaker, however his playmaking chops nonetheless have lots of room for enchancment. Dyson Daniels is a defensive specialist who can deal with the ball often, however he would not have the constant means to make pictures off the bounce to threaten defenses.
In the meantime, De’Andre Hunter is extra of a play finisher, somebody who thrives off of the setup from playmakers corresponding to Younger, whereas Zaccharie Risacher is as uncooked as ever within the shot-creation and playmaking division. Merely put, the heavy burden to generate offense falls on their star playmaker, and it is leading to a few of Younger’s worst scoring output in years.
Younger’s true taking pictures is presently at its worst since his rookie season, and his 22.5 factors per recreation can also be his worst output since his inaugural NBA marketing campaign in 2018. That could be a concern; defenses can load up on Younger and stifle him, forcing him into extra powerful taking pictures nights than ever — capping the Hawks’ offensive ceiling.
This could not be too massive of a problem if the Hawks’ protection was stable. However even with Daniels being probably the most pesky defenders within the affiliation, their workforce protection has been leaving quite a bit to be desired.
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Atlanta’s protection is shaky at finest
It would all the time be tough for any workforce to mitigate the unfavorable defensive results of getting Trae Younger on the roster. However the Hawks have to select a battle. They need to both go all-in on offense or protection, and so far, they’re fairly mediocre (at finest) in each aspects of the sport. They’re presently complementing their seventeenth ranked offense with the league’s twenty first ranked protection. That spells catastrophe for them by way of stringing collectively some successful basketball.
Buying a two-way wing who will help absorb some shot-creation duties might go a good distance in the direction of serving to the Hawks obtain some higher roster stability.
Time to swing for the fences?
The Hawks are a workforce that may speak its approach into buying somebody like Brandon Ingram. Ingram is a three-level scorer and a wing playmaker, and he can slot in seamlessly for the workforce on the three, supplied, after all, that all the pieces goes in accordance with plan in his restoration from harm.
Atlanta can construct a bundle round De’Andre Hunter and Bogdan Bogdanovic together with some draft capital, though the Hawks must quickly pony up an enormous contract for Ingram in the event that they have been to deliver him in.