Atlanta Hawks: Update on the Big Name Offseason Additions

The Atlanta Hawks 7 game winning streak was snapped on Monday night, as the Andrew Wiggins led Minnesota Timberwolves stifled their feisty comeback attempt. Still, the Hawks are 7-2 and it looks like they could be in the midst of another historic season. Will they win 60 games? It’s tough to say, but they are one of the big boys in the Eastern Conference and should easily crack the 50-win threshold as long as their core remains healthy.

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Despite some poor shooting from some of their starting five (mostly Kyle Korver and Jeff Teague), their core remains as potent as ever. Kent Bazemore has grabbed hold of the starting small forward role and Thabo Sefolosha has returned from injury to provide stellar defense off the bench. So, the holdovers from last season are looking pretty good. How about the new additions to the squad?

Justin Holiday and Lamar Patterson have been fine in limited minutes, but what about the big names? What about Tim Hardaway Jr. and Tiago Splitter? Eh, it’s been a bit of a mixed bag for the more famous newcomers. First of all, Hardaway Jr. has yet to play a single minute of action.

The former Knick has seen himself glued to his seat on the bench, racking up “inactives” like they’re going out of style (as Taylor Swift will tell you they’ll never go out of style, so long as the Hawks are winning). There was some initial skepticism when the Hawks traded for Hardaway Jr. on draft night, including from yours truly, but after some time that skepticism became slight optimism. Perhaps Atlanta’s player development staff could turn him into a corner three swishing, offensively inclined bench piece that won’t kill you on defense.

The big knock on Hardaway Jr. coming into the NBA ,and during his two seasons with New York was that he could not play defense. Like, at all. Last season he was ranked as the 82^nd best defensive shooting guard in the NBA, according to ESPN’s defensive real/plus minus (it was -3.39). The eye test isn’t much better, and by that I mean that watching him play defense last season may have made your eyes bleed.

Has Mike Budenholzer decided that he is too much of a liability to play even the smallest amount of minutes? It’s possible. Justin Holiday and Lamar Patterson may not light it up offensively, but one thing they do is play sound and high energy defense.

Last week Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal Constitution stressed that just because he was not playing now did not mean he would never become a part of the rotation. He cited a wrist injury from last season, difficulty learning the system, his youth, a newfound use of Jeff Teague and Dennis Schroder together, along with the defensive concerns as reasons that it may take some time for Hardaway Jr. to land some playing time.

"The Hawks play with a defense-first mentality. Hardaway is an offensive-minded player. He’ll need to catch up defensively with Patterson and Holiday. The Hawks are 10th in the NBA in defensive efficiency. They are going to continue to play to that strength."

Trust the process? I guess we’ll find out later rather than sooner if he truly was worth a first round draft pick.

As for Tiago Splitter, it just looks like he hasn’t found his rhythm with his new team. Especially on the offensive end. That’s understandable. Splitter has played 18.8 minutes per game over eight games, and is averaging 6.5 points and 4.4 rebounds per game on 46.5 percent shooting. Not dreadful numbers, but nothing to write home about.

Though, any offensive contributions Atlanta gets from Splitter is gravy. They traded for him to help with their interior defense and rebounding. Rebounding has never been a true strength for the Brazilian big man. The best rebounding rate of his career was 16.1 percent -coming in 2013-2014- and so far this season it sits at 13 percent.

But, defense has been a strength for Splitter, and that part of his game is not quite where he would like it to be. His defensive rating is currently 104, three points above his career average, and he has only recorded 2 blocks in his first eight games. Most concerning is that players guarded by Splitter are currently shooting 52.9 percent this season and 71.4 percent at less than six feet from the basket. That’s not something you’d expect to see from a defensive anchor, but of course, SMALL SAMPLE SIZE. However, there is reason for some optimism, his on/off the court numbers have been fantastic.

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With Splitter on the court the opponent’s offensive rating dips from 105.6 points per 100 possessions to 98. Offensively Atlanta’s offensive rating rises from 102.9 points per 100 possessions to 114. Even though Splitter’s individual numbers have been a bit disappointing, it’s clear that his presence on the court is having a positive impact on the Hawks as a whole.

When considering Splitter’s strengths as a basketball player that makes perfect sense. He’s the type of player that can positively impact a team with things that don’t show up in the stat sheet. He’s a good passer who knows to keep whipping the ball around when the offense is really humming, he sets good screens which opens up the floor for Jeff Teague and Dennis Schroder, and he is a good positional defender that rarely lets his man outsmart him to the hoop. Splitter is a former Spur which means he knows what he’s doing. Even if he’s not at his best, he can still help the Hawks win.

I tend to preach optimism when addressing these early concerns or even early success. The small sample size warning applies to any kind of trends that occur two weeks into the season. By February Splitter could be a rim protecting, rebounding machine and Hardaway Jr. could be a regular member of the wing rotation and shooting 40 percent from the corners. It’s a long season and what’s true in November may not necessarily be true later in the season.

Next: Player Grades Against the Timberwolves

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