Soaring Down South
Fansided

Trae Young and the middy lead Atlanta Hawks mid-season progress report

By Joshua Buckhalter

MIAMI, FLORIDA - JANUARY 14: Trae Young #11 of the Atlanta Hawks dribbles the ball up the court against the Miami Heat in the first half at FTX Arena on January 14, 2022 in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images)
MIAMI, FLORIDA - JANUARY 14: Trae Young #11 of the Atlanta Hawks dribbles the ball up the court against the Miami Heat in the first half at FTX Arena on January 14, 2022 in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) /
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The Atlanta Hawks sit 17-24 in a fast-moving season and find themselves in stark contrast to last year’s squad. While momentum doesn’t carry over from year to year, the Hawks were counting on continuity with a young group that seemed primed to develop further. That hasn’t happened this season with multiple players even regressing.

Trading away Cam Reddish signaled many things for the Hawks, not the least of which being that the talk of guys needing to accept their roles hasn’t been contained to John Collins and that it’s been an issue for some time.

Atlanta showed some better chemistry against the Miami Heat for three-plus quarters before familiar issues with missed shots, turnovers, and poor defense all crept back up.

They battled back from down as much as 17, led by as much as 10, and lost 124-118.

Will the Atlanta Hawks addition by subtraction help them sort their other issues out?

Per Travis Schlenk and Nate McMillan, Reddish handled everything like a professional and that’s true from the public side considering there was no national story from his camp. This even as he’s been in trade rumors since late last season and challenged publicly by ownership over the summer to be more consistent.

To his credit, Reddish set career-highs in points, field goal percentage, three-point percentage, as well as effective field goal percentage of 48.7 but even that was among the lowest on the team thanks to him shooting a career-low 42.1 percent on twos.

Why?

Reddish is shooting 27.9 percent on 1.8 mid-range shots per game which leads us right into our first item on our mid-season progress report.

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