The Atlanta Hawks get their first chance at revenge when they host the 5-1 Washington Wizards on Monday night. The last time these two met was on Thursday and the Wizards put up 122 points on a disjointed Hawks team. Since then, Atlanta has once again given up 122 points, this latest being to the Philadelphia 76ers.
In reality, this is more of a chance to make good than it is for revenge. The Hawks effort on both ends has come into question as they’ve looked more interested in seeking shots than running the offense or getting back on defense.
Consider the amount of the Hawks made field goals that are unassisted is up 1.4 percent from last season.
They have also seen their last two opponents outdo them in fastbreak points 17-11.
It isn’t just one player or thing that is holding the Atlanta Hawks offense back right now
The Hawks percentage of isolations is also up slightly on the season. That might ultimately wind up being negligible but they certainly didn’t add any new isolation-type players for there to be a jump.
They’re averaging 9.6 more pull-ups per game and hitting them at a clip 4.6 percent lower than last season while their pull-up triples are falling at a rate 8.5 percent lower than a year ago.
Atlanta has seen a similar trend in their mid-range game, an area they spoke openly about wanting to improve from.
They’ve nearly doubled their attempts only to see their efficiency fall about 4.0 percent.
Assistant Coach Chris Jent commented on the lack of ball movement against the Philadelphia 76ers, a game in which the Hawks managed just 94 points and were shooting just 36.0 percent from the floor at halftime.
Assistant coach Chris Jent wants the ball to move better in the 2nd half.@laurenjbara | @ATLHawks pic.twitter.com/aMgfuxBfZp
— Bally Sports: Hawks (@HawksOnBally) October 31, 2021
Atlanta is averaging slightly more assists per game, has a better assist-to-pass ratio than last season, and even the same number of secondary assists. But they’re averaging about eight fewer passes, fewer assist points created, and fewer potential assists; passes that would have counted as assists had a shot been made.
Nate McMillan called the offense “out of sync” and said that it’s leading to “really no defense at all”. In the preseason, he spoke of sacrifice being even more important this season with everyone healthy.
For all of the talk about the Hawks depth, much of it was because they had to use it due to injury.
The current starting lineup played less than 20 minutes together last year.
We’ve gone over the struggles of De’Andre Hunter, Kevin Huerter offensively, as well as the inconsistency from John Collins. Trae Young’s issues with officiating have been all the buzz despite his adjusting better than others and having a legitimate gripe with some of the missed calls as the league drives home its point on shooting fouls.
What emerges is an overall theme of a team doing exactly as its head coach predicted. Perhaps some of it is due to the shuffling of the lineup in the preseason as guys were on the mend. But it has bled into the season and the Hawks appear to be laboring for fixes.