Is Taurean Prince the Best Player on the Hawks?

After returning from the All-Star break festivities, Prince has been on a sizzling hot streak. TP has been extraordinarily confident driving to the rack, and his hyper-aggressive and oftentimes out-of-control line drives to the basket have been replaced by cautious and measured drives that work off a rather wicked crossover that has visibly improved since earlier in the season.

From the eye test, Prince has taken a clear step forward on the offensive end (and his activity on the defensive end has also improved). TP moves with confidence, and his sure-footedness and quick first step allow him to get the rim with ease.

Size and speed were never an issue and getting to the rim was commonplace for Taurean, but it was what he did when he got there that was a cause for concern earlier this season, as he seemed to get lost when driving into 2 or 3 or even 4 defenders. He would hoist up a difficult shot, or get it cleanly blocked by longer defenders.

Since returning from the All-Star break, Taurean has shown much better decision-making and court vision as a primary ballhandler, sometimes even running out the game clock with starting point guard Dennis Schröder on the bench. Such was the case in a tanktastic affair vs. the Phoenix Suns when Prince drilled a leaning, off-balance three-pointer to down a team whose record is even worse than Atlanta’s.

TP has also shown great recognition in the pick-and-roll, and his passing ability is markedly better than when he first arrived in Atlanta fresh out of Baylor University. He is also looking to hit the open man in transition, as this sweet no-look, ¾-court dish to John Collins on the fast break entails:

The stats back up this claim, and Taurean’s usage rate and assist rate have both shot up by 4 percentage points from 17.2 to 21.2 percent and 8.4 to 12.4 percent, respectively.

In the 11 games Prince has played since February 23^rd, the first time Atlanta played since the All-Star break, The Prince That Was Promised is leading the Hawks in minutes per game (31.7), points per game (20.5), steals per game (1.4) as well as three point makes (3.9) and attempts per game (8.7).

Taurean is shooting so well from deep, in fact, that those attempts rank as third overall in the league behind only Damian Lillard (10.0 per game) and James Harden (9.1 per game) and his 3.9 three-point makes per game are behind only Dame.

Not only he is he hoisting up plenty of deep tries, he is hitting those shots at an excellent rate as well. Since returning from the break, Prince is also fourth in three-point field goal percentage (at 44.8%) among players that have attempted more than 7 a game, behind only three-point luminaries Kyrie Irving, Eric Gordon and Stephen Curry.  That number puts him ahead of noted bombers James Harden, Devin Booker, Wayne Ellington and Allen Crabbe.

Prince has been reeling off immense scoring explosions, mostly fueled by his three-point shooting. In the month of March alone, Taurean has logged career-highs in three-pointers made on three separate occasions, headlined by an astonishing 38-point explosion versus the Bulls last Sunday in which he drilled an excellent 7 of 13 shots from deep (53.8 percent).

He matched that tally less than a week later and almost delivered a miraculous game-tying three against the playoff-bound Milwaukee Bucks, whose defense seemed nothing short of disinterested overall.