Taking a look at the best and worst 5-man lineups the Atlanta Hawks have used this season.
The Atlanta Hawks are 19-44, closer to the #1 pick in the Draft than a playoff spot, and carry one of the league’s worst defenses. Even though the season has been a bit disappointing, the Hawks were never really supposed to be good this season.
This year was always going to be about development, and a run for the 8th seed would only have been a bonus, not a goal.
The Hawks’ rebuild is nearly over (hopefully), and there is still more work to be done in the scouting department.
Looking at who performed well and who did not is a key part of a rebuild, and helps the front office decide who to keep moving forward. New NBA statistics let you find out which 5-man rotations work well together, and which ones don’t.
While the ‘eye test’ may be a better measuring stick in this case, statistics don’t hurt to look at either.
Here we’ll be looking at the best and worst lineups the Hawks have used for more than 30-minutes this season, based on a variety of advanced and general stats. I’ve also included an honorable and dishonorable mention, which we’ll get starting on now.
Dishonorable Mention:
Trae Young, Kevin Huerter, De’Andre Hunter, John Collins, Bruno Fernando
This lineup of all 22-or-younger players have played 80 minutes together, and has been the starting five for a few games.
Even with Trae Young and John Collins on the floor together, these five have not been good offensively, but are surprisingly decent on D.
No qualified Hawks’ lineup has put up a worse offensive rating than these five, and they’ve shot 42.8 from the field, 29 percent from three. Even with a respectable defensive rating, they posted a negative plus/minus.
What’s odd is that (spoiler alert) this lineup is just one player different from the Hawks’ best lineup on this list. That player is Bruno Fernando, who has been so-so at best this season.
Still it doesn’t seem like simply switching one player in for the next should catapult a lineup from among the worst to among the best.
There are two potential explanations to this that I could think of:
- The Hawks are known to start the game slow, and this lineup was a mere victim of that trend.
- Bruno Fernando has played much better as a reserve than a starter.
I’m inclined to believe the latter to be more true, as there are stats confirming that. Bruno’s splits show that he averages 4.8 points on 41 percent shooting as a starter, with a plus/minus of -3.2
Off the pine Fernando impresses with averages of 4.4 points on 57.7 percent, with a plus/minus of -1.1.
For whatever reason the rookie big man has done significantly worse when included with the starters, which is likely the main reason this lineup struggled. With Clint Capela and Dewayne Dedmon back soon, Bruno’s role off the bench will become permanent.
Honorable Mention:
Trae Young, Cam Reddish, De’Andre Hunter, John Collins, Alex Len
Statistically speaking, this was the best lineup the Hawks used this season but with just 38 minutes played together, I had a hard time putting them over my top pick, who have logged over 180 together.
The success of this lineup is the defense, and their defensive rating of 81.0 was miles better than the next closest of 97.0.
Looking back, Alex Len was easily the Hawks’ best frontcourt defender before the Trade Deadline, and it showed big time while looking through the lineups. Most of the Hawks’ top defensive lineups featured the now Sacramento King, as did the top rebounding ones.
Offensively they were weighed down by a 22 percent three-point clip, but were much better shooting twos and in the paint.
Also worth noting is the pace these five played at, which the lowest of any five-man lineup. Perhaps a byproduct of the comparably small sample size, or perhaps these players slowed it down while playing together.
With John Collins playing more center than ever this season, the Hawks have been able to get out and run with Trae Young leading the charge along with basically four forwards. With Len here anchoring the middle, they found success in the more slowly-developing plays.
The Worst:
Trae Young, Cam Reddish, De’Andre Hunter, Jabari Parker, Damian Jones
This was a oft-used lineup earlier in the season for the Hawks. While John Collins was suspended and Kevin Huerter was hurt, the quartet of Trae Young, Cam Reddish, De’Andre Hunter and Jabari Parker were the routine starters, with Damian Jones and Alex Len swapping starting center duties.
Jabari Parker had his moments as an Atlanta Hawk, but had his fair share of downfalls too — especially on defense. Rookies Cam Reddish and De’Andre Hunter are both much different players now than they were back in October/November, with Reddish in particular struggling early on.
Trae has never been touted for his defense abilities either, and putting these five together produced a defense rating of 137.7. Only six other five-man lineups (who’ve played more than 30 minutes together) posted a worst number there in the entire league.
They were better offensively, shooting nearly 50 percent from the field, and posting the fourth best offensive rating among other Atlanta qualified five-mans. Still, their plus/minus was -3.4.
What’s scariest about this however was how many minutes they got. These five shared 98 minutes together, with only one other Hawks’ five-man playing more.
Just goes to show you how bad the Hawks were to begin the year without Collins or Huerter, but is also a nice way to look back and see how far the rooks have come.
Jabari Parker is off the team, and Damian Jones is barely holding onto a rotation spot, so this lineup will mercifully never be seen again in Atlanta.
The Best:
Trae Young, Kevin Huerter, Cam Reddish, De’Andre Hunter, John Collins
It has to feel good to see these five playing well together as they (along with Clint Capela) are the building blocks of the Hawks moving forward.
They’re the only five-man to play more than 100 minutes together, and they’ve nearly hit 200. Other lineups were better offensively, others more stout defensively, but this grouping has been among the most consistent with a good net rating of 7.1
The lineup full of young studs have shot nearly 50 from the field while sharing the court, draining 42.3 percent of their threes. It’s been used as starting lineup when the Hawks go small, but with Cam Reddish mostly coming off the bench since Collins’ return from suspension, is more of a crunch time lineup. The Hawks often run these five to close out tight games.
In what’s perhaps a microcosm of the Hawks’ season — the Hawks’ best players are their youngest. Maybe more importantly than simply being good, they play well together, which is extremely encouraging for the future of the sport in Atlanta.