The Atlanta Hawks have changed how they use Kevin Huerter

We haven’t consistently seen the best of Atlanta Hawks (31-32) wing Kevin Huerter. News has been slow and light on his injured shoulder. The latest from head coach Nate McMillan via Sarah K. Spencer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is that he is still “sore” and his availability for Monday’s tilt with the Detroit Pistons is still up in the air.

What we’ve seen from Huerter to this point in the season can best be described as uneven – he has nearly as many games (24) with nine or fewer points as he does with 10 or more points (32) this season

There is even a goose egg in there, though, that came in the fifth game of the season.

The same could be said for the team at large, however, with regards to performing unevenly and that applies to Huerter’s usage which may not be ideal.

Kevin Huerter has been most effective when lined up as a small forward

Huerter spoke with reporters on Monday about his injury saying that he has previously had issues with the same left shoulder noting he “felt it slip out a little bit” when making a cross-court pass. He added that he was feeling “alright” in his first time working out since suffering the injury with four minutes to go in the fourth quarter on Friday against the Washington Wizards.

When he’s been on the floor, Huerter has continued to flash the tools that had him seeming like a sixth-man candidate at worst.

He’s scored fewer than 10 points three times in the last five games including Friday.

But it isn’t all Huerter’s fault. COVID and injuries have put the roster around him in flux just as much as it has the player with the fourth-year swingman even bouncing from the bench to the starting rotation full-time; a shift that we have previously explored.

He’s averaging 3.9 points more as a starter with far greater efficiency than as a reserve.

His usage in non-garbage time situations is down to the lowest it has been since his rookie season even though he will tie his career-high in starts, also set in his rookie campaign. There is also data suggesting the Hawks have Huerter miscast as a shooting guard in general and that his future would be better off at small forward.

Huerter has a plus-3.9 point differential per 100 possessions this season per Cleaning The Glass; a marked improvement over last year’s plus-1.7 differential.

Part of that has been a shift in how the Hawks have deployed Huerter, using him more as a small forward than a shooting guard. He has seen 56.0 percent of his floor time there this season after logging 33 percent of his minutes there last season.

The results have been positive too, just as they were last season.

He has a plus-2.3 point differential when he is slotted at the shooting guard. That jumps to plus-5.6 when he shifts to the three-spot. Last year, Huerter posted a plus-6.8 differential as a small forward compared to minus-0.3 at the off-guard spot. This is another way the Hawks seem counterintuitive in the era of “positionless basketball”.

From Bogdan Bogdanovic being a strong closer despite coming off of the bench to John Collins’ ability to play the five being best utilized in the regular season as opposed to the postseason.

They have tinkered with a lot to find the things that work and this is yet another. The Hawks will have to address what this means for the position with De’Andre Hunter manning the three spot and due up for his own contract decisions soon.