Atlanta Hawks: The curious case of Delon Wright’s playing time

At 4-6, the Atlanta Hawks haven’t had the start to the season many hoped for or even expected. Now healthy after their run to the Eastern Conference Finals last season despite being banged up, they’ve struggled to find their chemistry consistently. Frustration stemming from that (and some of the officiating) has, in turn, led to defensive lapses.

One thing that has been a bit of a surprise has been the roll-out of this mostly healthy group of very talented players.

Coming into the season, Nate McMillan spoke of players’ roles being determined during the season. We are seeing the results of that process play out leading to their worst six-game stretch in the head coach’s short tenure.

Delon Wright was supposed to help with some of the issues we’ve seen from the Atlanta Hawks

One name that has come up often of late is Delon Wright. The seven-year veteran was acquired via three-team trade over the summer. It was supposed to lessen the drop-off in offensive production the Hawks experienced when Trae Young went to the bench. Their offensive rating dropped 12.4 points when Young sat.

That disparity has grown this season, now to 17.4 points per 100 possessions, despite Wright’s presence.

Except the journeyman hasn’t really been receiving consistent playing time. At least, he hasn’t since Lou Williams returned to action. Wright is averaging the fewest minutes of his career since his rookie season.

To be fair, though, he was on track for the same career benchmark prior to Williams’ return.

Williams, who is reportedly set to retire following the season, missed the first two games and three of the Hawks first four.

The Hawks were 3-1 in those games and Wright averaged 14-plus minutes. Since then, Wright has averaged just 7.4 minutes and the Hawks are just 2-5. He’s been inactive for two of their last three contests and played fewer than three minutes in the other; all losses. Wright has not been on the injury report since the regular season started.

When asked why Wright hasn’t played of late, McMillan was less than forthcoming.

That’s all well and good except that even the numbers haven’t fully backed up the decision. Wright’s on-off numbers, especially the offensive and defensive ratings for the Hawks and their opponents, are superior to Williams. The argument there is the competition Wright has gone against.

He’s seen half of his 10.5 minutes per game in the fourth quarter this season compared to Williams who has seen about a third of his time there. That means a lot of other backups.

But Williams’ numbers haven’t been great on their own with him currently sporting the fourth-worst box plus-minus on the team. Wright’s is the fifth-best but, again, the level of competition has to be considered.

Perhaps he is in the dog house for something we haven’t heard about but it would seem to simply be a coach’s decision at this point. We’ll apparently have to wait and see if anything changes with the Hawks still feeling their way out here in the early going.