3 Takeaways: Atlanta Hawks lackluster performance in loss to Magic

The Hawks need for an isolation scorer has never been more evident

We have talked a lot here at Soaring Down South about how pleased we are with the head coaching job done by Atlanta’s Lloyd Pierce, and that praise extends to his entire staff and the great plays they implement into the offense. But even the best sets can be blown up by immense amounts of length and athleticism.

Atlanta couldn’t muster much easy offense in this one. They ended the night with 11 fastbreak points, despite averaging over 15 fastbreak points per game on the season.  The second chance points also weren’t there for the Hawks, who only mustered 4 on the night, a testament to Orlando’s aggressive on the defensive glass.

But all this meant was that the Atlanta Hawks offense would need to be more efficient than Orlando when running their halfcourt offense.

With the Magic mucking up the Hawks normal hand-off and lob sets with tight pressure, a skilled iso-scorer would’ve been ideal to keep their offense afloat, like in the second quarter when the Atlanta Hawks shot 7/17 from the field.

Included in that poor second quarter was a 1/5 shooting effort from Collins. The poor shooting was most concerning when it came to Collins, because this isn’t the first time we have seen him struggle to score over lankier forwards.

He has improved slightly when it comes to using his strength advantage to get into the chest of shot-blockers, thus nullifying their ability to affect his shot. But until he gets MUCH better at that specific skill or starts to increase hit 3-point attempt rate significantly, we will continue to see JC struggle against the Jonathan Isaac’s of the world.

Kevin Huerter isn’t expected—nor does he need—to be a source of isolation scoring in any capacity, and he found a way to be effective off his normal diet of catch-and-shoots and drives off of closeouts. The Red Pepper finished the first half with 10 points on 66.7% shooting, but cooled off considerably down the stretch.

And franchise point guard Trae Young was solid in finding his teammates (7 assists on the night) but had incredible difficulty scoring with the Magic often trapping pick-and-rolls, especially sideline PnRs. And while the assists were nice, most of them came very early in the action.

Young spent a lot of the night lofting passes over a thicket of defenders to the weakside, giving Magic head coach Steve Clifford’s defense extra time needed to recover after their aggressive rotations.

The Hawks will be able to add a player with the skill set of an comfortable one-on-one scorer in the draft or free agency should they please. But if they want to develop that type of player out of someone currently on the roster, Ice Trae still fits the mold, as long as they set multiple picks for him in search of mismatches after switches by the opposing D.

When Young gets a big man on him, he can dominate them off the dribble in a similar fashion to two-time NBA MVP Steph Curry. But there simply wasn’t enough of those type of opportunities on Sunday night.