Atlanta Hawks: 7 Takeaways from First Week of Preseason
By Chris Guest
Expect a Lot of Threes
As well as personal fouls, the Atlanta Hawks are also working with a surplus of three-pointers attempted.
Seeing as Hawks General Manager Travis Schlenk prioritized triples with the drafting of Trae Young, Kevin Huerter and Omari Spellman consecutively in the 2018 NBA Draft, it comes as no surprise that the Hawks have hoisted a ton of threes in their first three contests of the preseason.
Per game, the Hawks are attempting 38.3 triples per contest for a total of 115, marks that rank at 7th and 5th in the preseason among all teams respectively.
Clearly, Lloyd Pierce and Schlenk value the team’s three-point shooting ability and have decreed that the green light is always on at all times.
Even new center Alex Len, who has only attempted 25 triples in his career to this point, is shooting 1.7 threes per game in the preseason at a sterling 60 percent clip. Just like Dewayne Dedmon last year, it seems the Atlanta Hawks are committed to turning lumbering seven-footers into stretch fives with relative ease.
Beyond that, Taurean Prince and Jaylen Adams have provided plenty of sweet shooting from distance – though Trae Young continues to get his feet wet from beyond the arc in the preseason.