New Atlanta Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce has also made the team devoted to pushing the ball hard in transition. Though the team lacks polish as well as a gifted roll man and play finisher due to the injury of John Collins (get well soon JC), the team (led by rookie Trae Young) is still doing all the right things in transition.
Though the Hawks are third in transition frequency on offense with 18.9 percent of their possessions coming in transition, they are 29th in points per 100 possessions (101.1), 20th in points added per 100 possessions (2.2) and 22nd in points per play added per 100 possessions (114.7).
That string of numbers and jargon-filled sentence simply states that while the Hawks are getting great looks in transition and pushing the ball hard on a majority of their plays, the lack of offensive polish is letting the team down bigtime when it comes to actually scoring in transition.
Perhaps most notable of the team’s focus on transition play is how much the Atlanta Hawks push the ball off of live rebounds. 40.3 percent of live rebounds the Hawks take down end up being transition plays, which is second only to the Lakers.
Both Trae Young and Kevin Huerter are experts in this ability to push the ball hard after rebounds, as are more seasoned players such as DeAndre’ Bembry and Kent Bazemore. Huerter in particular has the verticality to crash the defensive boards, push the ball hard and find an open player either at the rim or for three – per the Hawks’ good shot profile.