Atlanta Hawks: Thabo Sefolosha Must Be In The Rotation

The Atlanta Hawks’ defense struggled in Game One against the Wizards. Thabo Sefolosha must be re-inserted into the rotation to help fix it.

The Atlanta Hawks did not play their best in Game One against the Washington Wizards on Sunday afternoon.

The Wizards cruised to an 114-107 win over the Hawks and the Wiz really took Atlanta’s defense apart. John Wall dominated with 32 points and 14 assists. Bradley Beal (22 points) and Markieff Morris (21 points) also had excellent offensive games themselves. The inability of the Hawks to stay between Wall and the rim really hurt them and they need some help on that end.

But coach Mike Budenholzer elected to not play Thabo Sefolosha, one of the team’s best defenders. It is standard practice to trim down the rotation to 9-10 players for the postseason run but Sefolosha should not have been a cut.

This season, Sefolosha started 42 games, and appeared in 62, while averaging 7.2 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game. His size at 6-foot-7, 220 lbs. makes him capable of guarding both wing positions and even some point guards. The physicality of the veteran has allowed him to get in people’s heads throughout his career and frustrate star players.

There is a very good argument to be made that Sefolosha is Atlanta’s best wing defender and players like Mike Dunleavy and Jose Calderon got minutes instead.

Sefolosha should be getting minutes over Calderon, specifically. Yes, Calderon is the backup point guard but he played just eight minutes in Game One and was a non-factor. The Hawks have experimented with Kent Bazemore at the backup point guard spot and should continue with that. Because Bazemore has given the team good minutes off of the bench of late.

With Sefolosha, you get a defender that can spend time guarding both Beal and Wall. Beal was primarily guarded by Taurean Prince and the rookie did a decent job. With both Prince and Sefolosha, the Hawks can rotate them on Beal and Wall to give the Wizards’ duo big, athletic defenders to deal with.

Prince’s athleticism and size should allow him to take shifts guarding Wall, also. But forcing him or Sefolosha to shadow him for long periods of time spells trouble. Wall’s speed and explosiveness would wear down the bigger men over time.

But Dennis Schroder showed that he could not contain Wall and that a bigger, stronger defender is needed. A switch to using Sefolosha and Prince to guard Wall will force Schroder to guard Beal, which is a more manageable task than trailing Wall for the entire game. But even if he does spend minutes guarding Wall again (he likely will), the Hawks will benefit from giving Wall so many different looks.

Next: Atlanta Hawks Key to the Series: Transition Play

In this particular matchup, Calderon doesn’t bring much to the table for the Hawks. He cannot guard many offensively gifted guards and does not solve any problems for Atlanta. Sefolosha brings a toughness and grit that the Hawks lacked on the defensive end in Game One. And he must be brought back into the rotation to help stop the electric guard duo for the Wizards.