Atlanta Hawks: Expect a much more free Lou Williams this season

With the Atlanta Hawks set to open the preseason on the road against the Miami Heat, we’ve already gotten the injury report and expectations for the team out of the way. One of the big notes from the weekend was Head Coach Nate McMillan saying they would be essentially running two squads to keep everyone healthy.

As of right now, only second-year center Onyeka Okongwu is set to be out for an extended period with everyone else set to be back by the regular-season opener.

One player that isn’t on the injury report, but likely still won’t see much floor time in the preseason is 16-year vet Lou Williams. A mid-season acquisition, the hometown product quickly ingrained himself and should be even better this coming season.

The Atlanta Hawks could see vintage Lou Williams with fewer responsibilities on his plate

Atlanta’s offense has tanked when Trae Young went to the bench. Last season, their offensive rating fell 12.4 points per 100 possessions, from 120.5 to 108.1, when he sat. The Hawks tried to remedy that in the offseason by signing Rajon Rondo, fresh off of winning a championship with the Los Angeles Lakers.

It only took 27 games for them to ship him off to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for Williams.

Still, that didn’t quite help cure what ailed them.

Williams averaged just 3.4 assists after arriving. That has never been his strong suit, though. He averaged a career-best 5.6 dimes per game just two years ago. But Atlanta traded for Delon Wright to alleviate Williams of that burden.

Though he did fill the role admirably, averaging 19 points and 6.5 assists making two starts Young’s absence during the postseason.

To be clear, Wright has never even averaged 5.0 assists per game for a season. But the responsibility of conducting the offense when Young rests now falls on him.

Besides, Williams won Sixth Man of the Year three times on his ability to get buckets.

Last season, while he hit a career-high 39.9 percent of his triples last season (44.4 percent with Atlanta), he also shot his lowest field goal percentage since the 2015-16 season.

One reason could be a reduced emphasis on the mid-range game from Williams last season. His 2.9 mid-range attempts were his fewest since 2016-17 and he only hit 33.7 percent of them, his lowest since 2013-14.

In 2019-20 he averaged 3.7 mid-range shots and canned them at a 40.1 percent clip.

It’s not often that more attempts lead to increased efficiency but that seems to be the case for Williams. Fortunately, there appears to be a new focus on the once-dying shot around the team.

Both Young and Kevin Huerter spoke of adding the mid-range to their arsenal in an effort to be harder for defenders to guard. Williams has long been a maven in that space and we could see a return to that form with fewer playmaking responsibilities on tap this season.