Atlanta Hawks 2022-23 Season Preview

Trae Young guarantees a top-10 offense.

Oct 09, 2022

Welcome to the 2022-23 previews for every NBA team! These breakdowns are designed to look at stats, film & anything I found interesting in my preparation for the upcoming NBA season.

If you liked this breakdown feel free to share it & if you have any other scenarios, plays, or thoughts on any future breakdowns let me know in the comments below!

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Stats

2021-22 Record: 43-39

Net Rating: +1.5 (14th)

Offense Rating: 116.3 (2nd)

Good

Trae Young, creation and ball security. That’s what the Atlanta offense will be designed around, leading them to ran 1st in TOV% with only turning the ball over 12% of the time. Since Trae’s arrival, he has averaged a 42% assist percentage and Atlanta’s offense has been top-5 the last 2 years with him on the court.

Ok

Although the Hawks had the 2nd best offense in the NBA, they didn’t take a lot of shots at the rim, 20th in rim % attempts. Although the last few seasons were down for Dejounte Murray, he did rank in the 75th percentile and even the 95th percentile previously for shots at the rim. Never playing with a player as skilled as Trae, I expect a bump from him and the Hawks for shots at the rim.

Ugly

The Hawks were the worst team in the NBA scoring off of put backs. Not a huge deal, but when they did rebound it offensively, they need to convert the shots at a higher clip.

Defensive Rating: 114.8 (26th)

Good

The Hawks defense was bad. However, there is always some good in some bad, for example, they did not foul opponents, ranking 8th in NBA in FT rate. This is typically good for a defense since free throws are one of the most efficient shooting opportunities.

Bad

Giving up above average amount of 3s, 17th in shooting frequency is not that big of a problem but when teams shot 37% from 3 against them that becomes an issue (variance ya, but still not great).

Ugly

TERRIBLE in transition defense. Basically dead last in the NBA in transition defense in almost every facet possible. Defense starts with transition, so if you are that bad that quickly it will almost always end up with bad results.

Film

High Ballscreen Exit

A great look with 2 big lineups is running a high ballscreen with a big low and creating “Short” action. The Hawks amplify this by having the big low set an exit screen with a guard cutting to the corner - taking most of the help away.

This creates a tough situation for the defense and with the attention on Trae Young & Murray, the roll man gets open often.

Stack

Stack action is what I call when a guard comes off a screen in the middle of the floor, around the nail.

He cuts to the wing and then after the pass the big follows into a ballscreen.

Wide Reject Spain

This specific action has been highlighted before in the previous breakdowns, but I wanted to include it since I think it could be a very useful set for the HAwks this season. Starting off with a “Wide” screen, this is designed to intentionally reject and fake this action to start.

This design is great since they can now use Trae Young as the backscreener in Spain action with Murray handling the ball coming off the screen.

One thing that will take some getting used to for Trae is playing off the ball, as you can see here he initially fades and looks for the ball instead of the automatic Spain action.

Ram 2 Chase Exit

Another way the Hawks create shake action is to set a double ballcreen empty with a guard setting the first screen.

The initial screen before by the big creates problems with coverages for the defense.

Flip Cut

A quick-hitting action that teams go to is for a quick flip in the middle of the floor and looking for a downhill drive.

Last season the Hawks ran this for Hunter, and in their preseason game they ran this for Collins. Look for this action more often this season and in ATO situations.

If you liked this breakdown feel free to share it & if you have any other scenarios, plays, or thoughts on any future breakdowns let me know in the comments below!

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