Soaring Down South
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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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Atlanta Hawks
Atlanta Hawks (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images) /

Atlanta Hawks progress report No. 1: The mid-range experiment has largely been successful

Multiple Hawks including Trae Young and Kevin Huerter spoke before the season of wanting to perfect the mid-range. Some of them have done rather well. Despite Reddish sinking their numbers, the Hawks are sixth in the NBA in mid-range efficiency, while averaging the seventh-most makes, and ninth-most attempts per game.

They went 8-of-13 from the mid-range against the Heat on Friday.

If you were to remove the new Knick’s contributions the Hawks would be second in efficiency shooting 45.1 percent mid-range this season.

Young has nearly doubled the percentage of his total attempts that come from the mid-range. He is shooting 53.2 percent from the mid-range this season. That is up from 45.2 percent last season and is tops on the team among the rotation players.

"“Instead of wiggling his way into precarious situations as often, Young is embracing more jumpers off the bounce inside the arc. According to Synergy, his floater frequency has dropped from 35.7 percent last season to 27.2 percent this season. Meanwhile, per Cleaning The Glass, his frequency of shots between 14 feet and the three-point arc, classified as “long midrange,” has ballooned to a career-high 18 percent. His previous career-high, set last year, was 13 percent.” – Jackson Frank/Dime Magazine in December"

He’s fifth in the NBA among players averaging at least three mid-range attempts per game. Only Kevin Durant, Seth Curry, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Malik Newman have been better.

However, Huerter, Bogdan Bogdanovic, John Collins, and De’Andre Hunter were the top four on the team last season in mid-range efficiency with none shooting below 49 percent from that area. This year, only Hunter is close to his team-high 52.1 percent last season at 51.5 percent.

None of the other three are shooting above 44 percent with Collins the worst at 36.5 percent.

Hunter has increased the percentage of mid-range shots he takes but the rest haven’t seen a significant change either way in their attempts per game or shot selection. Mid-range attempts are making up a significantly smaller portion of Collins’ shot diet compared to last season.

We’ll see if their new look will foster a return to form from the others.

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