A quick peek at the offensive seasons at the halfway point of the Atlanta Hawks three most important young players.
The Atlanta Hawks have played better of late, though the teams main focus should still be making sure they are in a great position to draft a game-changer in the 2019 NBA Draft – most notably Zion Williamson.
One thing is certain, the young trio of Trae Young, John Collins and Kevin Huerter has been a blessing and a complete joy to watch on a night-to-night basis. We’ve previously explored the stunning second season of JC, the low-usage/high-impact season of Red Pepper (Huerter) as well as the idea that despite unsightly shooting numbers, Trae Young is the offensive fulcrum this Atlanta Hawks team needs.
Now, the advanced metrics are starting to express similar results to what the eye test has said when these three players share the floor.
According to ESPN’s catch-all Real Plus/Minus metric, all three of Young, Collins and Huerter are Top 40 at their position in offensive RPM. Collins is the leader, of course, as his offensive exploits are still underreported around the league. In ORPM, JC is 6th among power forwards with at 1.30. He is behind only Anthony Davis, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Blake Griffin, Pascal Siakam and (surprisingly) Marvin Williams.
Huerter is 34th in ORPM among shooting guards and even Ice Trae, who has been somewhat panned due to his lack of shooting touch from way, way outside is 39th in ORPM among point guards.
Sure, those numbers aren’t amazing, but for 20-year-old rookies, I feel that those numbers are fairly impressive.
Huerter’s ORPM is higher than Dwyane Wade and Andre Iguodala, and Young’s positive ORPM is better than both of the previous Atlanta Hawks point guards: Jeff Teague and Dennis Schröder, who are both in the negative in that stat at this juncture.
Similarly, in BBall Index’s Player Impact Plus/Minus stat, which removes the reliance on teammates, the Atlanta Hawks only have three players with positive offensive PIPM numbers. I’ll bet you can guess where this is going.
That’s right: John Collins leads the Hawks in OPIPM at 1.9, Trae Young is second with 0.2 and Huerter is third with 0.1. No other Hawks player ranks positively in this metric – an impressive feat for two untested rookies and a 21-year-old second-year big man.
24The Hawks are in good shape going forward on offense with their young core, though the defensive end is still a work in progress, but that should come with a little more seasoning. No matter what, this team will be fun to watch for quite a while.
Statistics courtesy of ESPN and BBall Index and current as of 1-23-19.