The Hawks have one of the best offenses in the NBA and one of the best offensive players on the planet in Trae Young. Though the fit between him and Dejounte Murray on the court is not always perfect, they make it work and both players can lead the offense on any given night. Bogdan Bogdanovic should be in the running for sixth man of the year and even with Jalen Johnson going down with a wrist injury, the offense has managed to survive.
So what is holding Atlanta back? It does not take a genius to figure that out.
The defense has been atrocious this season and much worse since Johnson has gone down with his injury. Per Cleaning the Glass, Atlanta is 25th in points allowed per 100 possessions and 28th in effective field goal percentage allowed. Both numbers are really bad, but they have been much worse since Johnson was injured.
Johnson gave them the ability to be versatile on defense, something that Saddiq Bey does not do. Johnson matched up well with bigger and more athletic forwards like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum, and Evan Mobley, and he would have been a useful player to try and guard Victor Wembanyama when the Hawks played the Spurs on Thursday. Even if he did not guard Wembanayama, he would have been able to guard Zach Collins at center and allowed Clint Capela to guard the Spurs rookie forward.
Let’s take a look at Atlanta’s numbers with Johnson on and off the floor.
Per Cleaning the Glass, Johnson ranks in the 92nd percentile in points per 100 possessions allowed when he is on the floor and the Hawks defense is 8.4 points better. He ranks even better when it comes to effective field goal percentage allowed, ranking in the 96th percentile. The Hawks are a struggling defense even with Johnson, but they are much worse without him and lose a lot of versatility.
Without Johnson, the Hawks have started Saddiq Bey in his place and the defense is much worse with Bey on the court. Bey is one of the Hawks’s worst defenders and Atlanta allows 3.7 more points when he is one floor.
Last week, Snyder talked about how the Hawks can’t do as much defensively without Johnson:While Trae Young is often blamed for the Hawks defensive problems, he has actually taken strides to turn that narrative around and has made clutch plays on that end of the floor.Hawks head coach Quin Snyder has heaped praise on Young for his defense this season and has talked about the narrative surrounding Young and his defense:The topic came up after the Hawks’s loss to the Pacers earlier this year and Snyder was quick to praise Young for his effort on that end:
“I am glad you asked me that, I have been saying it all year and its whatever… there is a narrative that develops about someone. He has been good off the ball, he has been good on the ball, he has competed, I can show you a long edit of the times that he has picked up full court and someone should talk about it. It’s not… when you talk about Trae tonight, you will talk about what a great offensive game that he had and he did but it is one of the things that I have told him, even early in the year when his shots were not going in, he did not stop defending and that is good to see, from all of our guys. That is the mentality that we have to have and there are some things tonight that obviously defensively that we can do better and we played against a really good offensive team.”
Young will not be an elite NBA defender, but he is making winning plays this season on that end of the floor and it deserves to be recognized.
So how can the Hawks fix these issues with Johnson out? Can they be fixed?
Earlier this week, I talked about the Hawks might need to start thinking about starting Onyeka Okongwu alongside Clint Capela in some matchups and that is still something that should be explored until Johnson gets back.
Now, he does not play many minutes alongside Capela and the Hawks have not tried a lineup of Trae Young, Dejounte Murray, De’Andre Hunter, Okongwu, and Capela, but having Okongwu in would allow him to matchup with Giannis and he has guarded Antetokounmp well. It would also allow Capela to have a natural matchup with Lopez.
Spacing would be a concern of course. This season, Okongwu has shown a willingness to take three-point shots, but he has not been very good at making them. He would have to be able to keep defenses honest if this is a change that Snyder is interested in.
The changes Atlanta needs to make could involve changing up the roster.
According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.com, Atlanta continues to monitor Toronto Raptors forward Pascal Siakam as a potential trade target.
“The Atlanta Hawks continue to monitor Toronto Raptors forward Pascal Siakam as a potential trade target after attempting to acquire him during the offseason, league sources told HoopsHype.
While Atlanta was unable to acquire Siakam over the summer, Jalen Johnson has emerged as an early Most Improved Player candidate, averaging career-highs in points (14.1) on 59.4 percent from the field and 42.5 percent from beyond the arc with 7.3 rebounds as the starting forward before suffering a left wrist injury that could sideline him 4-to-6 weeks, per Shams Charania of The Athletic.
“Jalen Johnson has been their third best player this year behind Trae Young and Dejounte Murray,” an NBA executive told HoopsHype.
Hawks forward De’Andre Hunter was among the players discussed during the Siakam talks, and his $20 million salary and versatility on both sides of the ball playing both forward spots at times makes him a trade candidate to watch in a potential deal.
Another Hawks frontcourt player, center Clint Capela, was linked to the Mavericks this offseason, but with the emergence of rookie center Derrick Lively, Dallas’ trade interest in Capela has since faded. However, after signing Onyeka Okongwu to an extension, some rival executives believe Capela could be used as a trade chip again before the February trade deadline.
Patty Mills and his $6.8 million expiring contract is a noteworthy trade chip that could also be included to match salaries.”
I think that could be the best option. Siakam is a solid defender who can switch and that would work well when Johnson comes back, giving them multiple guys that can do that. Murray is a solid defender as well and adding someone like Siakam could be huge for the whole team and it might be necessary.
Coming into the season, the Hawks wanted to avoid being in the play-in tournament for a third consecutive season, but right now, they are 10th in the Eastern Conference Standings. I think they are better than what their record suggests, but they are digging themselves into a deep hole if they continue on this same trajectory.
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