Atlanta Hawks: Studs and duds from first home loss of the season

Atlanta Hawks stud from first home loss of the season: Trae Young’s comments come at an interesting time

Young cited passing up on a couple of scoring opportunities and subsequently turning the ball over in speaking on why he needs to be more aggressive scoring early. But the comments are nonetheless interesting. Especially given he was 1-for-7 in the first quarter of this game.

On the season, he is 16th in first-quarter shot attempts but shooting just 30.6 percent on those looks and 23.5 percent from beyond the arc. He’s also experiencing career-lows in shooting efficiency as he adjusts to the new rules on shooting fouls.

This was also a game that saw De’Andre Hunter score 12 of his 14 points before halftime and attempt just one shot after.

John Collins had 13 points on seven attempts. Both are far too low for a player who is supposed to be the second best on the team night in and night out. He also had the best defensive field goal percentage on the team, though his primary matchup was the much smaller Royce O’Neal; more of a spot-up shooter on offense than anything.

Cam Reddish and Kevin Huerter shot a combined 4-of-15 from the floor and 0-for-6 for 10 points. They were 2-of-9 overall and 0-for-4 from deep in the first half.

Young got five of his seven assists in the second half, adding to the intrigue over the timing of his comments.

He is down 3.1 free throw attempts per game compared to last year; almost identical to his points per game differential over the same period. He also played some of the best defense in Thursday’s loss. He, like most of this team in this game, was a mix of both positive and negative takeaways.

If nothing else this is a situation to monitor as we have them acknowledging chemistry issues. Of course, they overcame similar issues last season.