Atlanta Hawks Team Awards at the Quarter-Season Mark

A quarter of the way through the 2017-18 NBA season, the Atlanta Hawks are last in the Eastern Conference with a league-worst 6-23 record.

Despite this cellar-dwelling status, the Hawks have been close in all but a few of these games, keeping it interesting throughout but faltering in the latter stages of the 4^th quarter many times.

At this juncture in the season, let’s take a look at the best performers on the Atlanta Hawks by doling out team awards a quarter of the way through the 2017-18 campaign.

Most Improved Player – Dewayne Dedmon

After the Dwight Howard trade, signing Dewayne Dedmon to a 2-year, $14 million deal was the splashiest offseason move for the Atlanta Hawks. Dedmon performed admirably off the bench for the Spurs last season, anchoring a typically stellar Spurs defense and serving as a strong rim-runner and finisher in the paint.

This season, Dedmon has the highest usage of his career with 18.2% and was one of the Hawks best players before suffering a stress reaction in late November, which will force him out for 3-6 weeks.

Before the injury, Dedmon was supremely efficient and consistent –averaging 11.1 points (6^th on the team) and 7.8 rebounds per game. His 60.1 percent field goal percentage ranks 5^th overall in the NBA, in illustrious company such as Deandre Jordan, Steven Adams and Lebron James.

Dewayne is also shooting 48.3 percent from three-point territory (14 of 29), which is a new career-high in attempts – beating his previous career highs of -ahem- zero three-point makes on one three-point attempt. Dedmon’s outside shooting has been a revelation for a team that expects most of its players to be able to spot up for three-pointers, even players who have shown no range throughout their entire career like Dedmon.

As the Hawks’ opening day starting center, Dedmon is the Hawks’ Most Improved Player and has outperformed relative to expectations. This has been Dedmon’s first starting gig, and he had been playing beautifully before suffering that leg injury.

Defensive Player of the Year – Kent Bazemore

This was the most difficult category to choose, as the Hawks 29^th-ranked defensive rating of 111.2 doesn’t leave one with many choices for “best” defensive player.

Three Hawks have defensive ratings below 110 per 100 possessions: Kent Bazemore, Dewayne Dedmon and John Collins.

While Dewayne Dedmon has been a deterrent in the paint and John Collins’s springy athleticism leads to many positive defensive plays, Kent Bazemore is the Hawks’ Defensive Player of the Year so far.

As the starting two guard, Kent is asked to defend many score-first guards that try to victimize him with their speed and athleticism, but Baze has acquitted himself well. He is second on the team in defensive rebounding (with a total of 119) and second on the team in blocks (with 17).

Kent’s major skill this season has been using his quick hands to force a lot of steals – he is tied for 4^th in the league with 53 takeaways, tied for 8^th with 1.8 steals per game and 5^th in the NBA with a 3.1% steal percentage.

Kent is able to leverage his length and quickness to fly around the court and wreak havoc on the defensive end, especially against more lumbering players that have no answer for Kent’s constant activity on that end.

While the Hawks are lacking any real defensive talents, Kent Bazemore has some of the better stats on the team, and is thus the Hawks Defensive Player of the Year through a quarter of the season.

Rookie of the Year – John Collins

This one was pretty much a no-brainer. Though Atlanta folk hero Tyler Cavanaugh continues to impress after being forced into big minutes due to innumerable frontcourt injuries, John Collins has been an absolute beast for the Hawks before and after suffering an AC joint sprain in his left shoulder on November 30^th.

Collins, whose statistical exploits were thoroughly explored here, has been a consistent and important part of the Hawks offense and defense throughout this season.

Per 100 possessions, Collins has the second-highest offensive rating on the Hawks with a muscular 119 (only behind Tyler Cavanaugh’s titanic 130 ORtg in limited playing time). JC also has the highest Player Efficiency Rating on the team with a 20.8, which is also tops among a historically stacked rookie class – no small feat for a player who was drafted 19^th overall.

JC’s most impressive statistical profile is his offensive rebounding. He is 14^th in the league with 69 offensive rebounds in only 528 minutes of play, and his immense 14.8 offensive rebound percentage is the 5^th-highest mark in the entire NBA.

On the defensive end, Collins is also performing remarkably well. John the Baptist leads the Hawks with 23 blocks and is averaging 1 block per game. Collins has the second-highest defensive rating per 100 possessions on the team, tied with Dewayne Dedmon with a 109 DRtg.

When Collins is playing, he is going to outwork almost every other player on the court when it comes to siphoning up offensive boards, and that work ethic coupled with a supremely efficient offensive playstyle (59.7 field goal percentage, 5^th in the league) makes him an easy choice for the Hawks Rookie of the Year.

Sixth Man of the Year – Marco Belinelli

While Rookie of the Year might have been a simple decision, the Hawks Sixth Man of the Year is a little more complex. While Luke Babbitt is shooting the lights out on three pointers (45.6 percent on 90 attempts) and John Collins has done much of his damage off the bench this season, Marco Belinelli has performed the typical role expected of a Sixth Man: Come off the bench, chuck up shots at an impressively high volume and connect on many of those shots in an efficient way.

In an anemic offense that is often wanting for viable scoring options, Belinelli has shown absolutely no problem with taking shot after difficult shot – oftentimes to great success.

Belinelli has played 717 total minutes off the bench (4^th on the Hawks) and has come out firing to the tune of 113 of 277 shooting from the field (40.8 percent). The majority of Belinelli’s attempts have come from downtown, where he is hitting 38.1 percent of his attempts (56 of 147).

Those 56 makes and 147 attempts are the most on the Hawks by a sizeable margin, and many of the three-pointers are difficult, off-the-dribble, leaning, off-balance attempts that somehow go in at an impressive clip.

Belinelli’s shooting is also stellar from the free throw line, where he leads the league in free throw percentage with an incredible 95.2 percent – only missing three times out of 63 attempts. Another important aspect of Belinelli’s game is his knack for not turning the ball over as his miniscule 9.5 turnover percentage is top-30 in the league.

Because of this all-around offensive efficiency off the bench and a knack for shooting the Hawks back into games on a regular basis, Marco Belinelli is the Hawks’ current Sixth Man of the Year.

Most Valuable Player – Dennis Schröder

For the finale, we have the Most Valuable Player on the Hawks so far this season. Though many players’ contributions have been impressive through the Hawks’ first 29 games, one player serves as the offensive fulcrum of a team that desperately lacks creation and scoring – the Hawks’ starting point guard Dennis Schröder.

DS17 is having a big season as the Hawks’ most important player, and he is putting up huge stat lines on a nightly basis.

Through 27 games (Dennis was forced to miss 2 games early in the season with a mild ankle sprain), Schröder is leading the Hawks in the following categories: field goals (209), field goals attempted (467), assists (180) and points (531). He is second on the team in minutes (862) and free throw percentage (85.4%).

In terms of averages, Dennis is putting up an eye-popping stat line of 19.7 points, 6.7 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 1.1 steals.

Dennis is the only consistently effective creator on the entire Hawks roster, which shows in his massive 29.7% usage percentage – good enough for 17^th in the league (and the highest of Dennis’s career).

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Schröder’s 180 assists are 8^th in the league, and his assist percentage of 37.5 is 7^th in the league. His 178 two-pointer makes and 369 two-pointer attempts are 13^th and 9^th in the league, respectively.

Dennis’s turnovers, while still high, are down from 3.3 per game last season to 2.6 per game this season.

On a team that lacks viable options, Schröder carries the team on offense on a nightly basis, which certainly qualifies him to be the Hawks Most Valuable Player through a quarter of the 2017-18 season.

Check back in at other milestones throughout this Hawks campaign to see if any of these rankings change, and keep it locked to Soaring Down South for all the news, postgame reactions and more about the Atlanta Hawks.