The Atlanta Hawks are probably split between enjoying the longest break they’ve had since the season with two days off and chomping at the bit for another chance to end the skid. For a team that made a run to the Eastern Conference Finals, albeit as somewhat of a Cinderella story, this has to be a challenging stretch.
Fortunately, their four-game road adventure comes to an end after their game against the Denver Nuggets on Friday. Unfortunately, it won’t be the last such stretch they endure this season.
They also have a six-game tour from the end of December into the beginning of January.
Before any of that, though, they have to take care of business against the Nuggets. That has proven to be a bigger challenge than even the biggest skeptics could have predicted.
Taking a look a what lineup combinations have worked best for the Atlanta Hawks this season
The question is how can they right the ship or, to be even more specific, what has been working? We have talked about how they are once again heavy in their use of the pick-and-roll, their bread-and-butter action. But we also noted that they haven’t yet been as effective with it as they were last season.
This could be due to many reasons including Clint Capela still getting himself into midseason shape. As Nate McMillan mentioned, many of the players didn’t get a full camp experience due to rehabbing.
We can be even more specific, then, and question which groupings have done the best so far. Looking at those that have spent at least 10 minutes together, we do see some trends.
Atlanta Hawks lineups that have mostly worked this season
Let’s get this out of the way: Trae Young, as a player who plays a lot of minutes, can be found on both ends of the spectrum. But his value to this offense cannot be overstated. The Hawks offensive rating without him on the floor falls by a greater margin than it did last season when it was a widely acknowledged issue.
Even with Young this season, only four of the Hawks lineups (with 10-plus minutes) have a positive plus-minus.
Five sport negative plus-minuses and one is a push.
At the top of the ‘successes’ category is the typical starting lineup of Young, Bogdan Bogdanovic, De’Andre Hunter, John Collins, and Clint Capela. That group is plus-18 in 197 total minutes, is shooting 50.5 percent from the floor, and 44 percent from three.
Right behind them is the one-game starting lineup we saw last game with Bogdanovic and Hunter out. It featured Kevin Huerter and Solomon Hill as fill-in starters alongside Capela, Collins, and Young. It was effective. The Hawks lost the game but those five ended as a plus-11 on the evening and had the best efficiency of any of the matching our criteria, shooting 56 percent overall.
The next best thing Atlanta has had to offer has included Huerter, veteran Danilo Gallinari and a player Bleacher Report says has been the team’s biggest surprise so far, Cam Reddish.
This setup shot 48.3 percent but was still at 40 from deep.
Taking the place of Bogi, Capela, and Hunter on the floor, this group is plus-seven on the season and has been efficient; two things that have not exactly been commonplace when Reddish has been on the floor.
For all of the grief McMillan’s all-reserve lineups have received on the hole, it’s one of these groupings that finds itself as one of their most effective.
When Delon Wright, Solomon Hill, and Gorgui Dieng have joined Huerter and Reddish on the court, they are plus-five. Sure, it is a modest number and they only shot 34.2 percent from the floor.
But it’s counterintuitive to the perception of the bench’s performance so far this season. And, again, the Hawks haven’t had many of their groupings work out at all.
The ‘push’ lineup features Capela, Huerter, Hunter, Reddish, and veteran Lou Williams who has said this will likely be his final season.
Atlanta Hawks lineups that have mostly stalled this season
That ‘push’ group could fall under either heading. There is enough talent for it to be a plus lineup. Alas, they are shooting 36.2 percent overall and 25 percent from downtown. This also isn’t about which lineups have been disappointments. The Hawks certainly have plenty of lineups that have stalled and some that have been flat-out bad to start the season.
We’ll start with the best of the worst, a lineup that features a Young-Huerter backcourt, Gallo and Reddish on the wings, and Dieng at center.
This group is a minus-one so they could easily find themselves on the other side of the ledger.
They are shooting 28.6 percent and have canned just 1-of-9 triples. That is quite gross even before factoring that this should be one of their deadliest lineups from beyond the arc with everyone a passable-to-good three-point shooter.
Next, when the Hawks have Williams running point with Huerter and Reddish on the wings and Gallo and Dieng as the bigs, they are a minus-seven.
The drop from the previous group is the second-largest we see among the sample size.
It’s shooting 36.4 percent overall and is 3-of-15 from deep as we see the trend of what has held Atlanta back take shape.
Two groups feature Young along with Bogdanovic, Collins, Reddish, and Young with either Bogdanovic or Capela. Different groups, same results as both are minus-13 on the season.
Perhaps not so shockingly, Capela’s group is shooting a better percentage from the floor; 41.7 to 37.3 percent. But what is surprising is they are also more efficient from long range, shooting 42.9 percent compared to Bogi’s group which is shooting 26.1 percent on its tres. The latter lineup is shooting about three times as many threes.
Lastly, and most certainly least, is the disappointing and ineffective lineup that features Young and Bogdanovic in the backcourt with Capela at the pivot and Hunter and Reddish on the wings.
Despite the incredible scoring ability — and the diversity in playing styles — they are minus-18 on the season and shooting woefully. They’re at 37 percent overall and are 2-of-7 from outside.
It’s still too early to start saying entire lineups need to be scrapped entirely. The opposite is true as well. We certainly wouldn’t expect McMillan to go heavy on one lineup from here on out based on this small sample size.