Atlanta Hawks (32-34) offseason acquisition Delon Wright has apparently been relegated to mop-up duty. The team got a much-needed 112-106 win over the visiting Los Angeles Clippers on Friday. They are still 10th in the East because the Charlotte Hornets beat the New Orleans Pelicans while the Wizards fell to the Lakers leaving them 2.5 games out of the play-in field.
Trae Young had 27 points, 11 assists, and hit 10-of-12 free throws. He got into the paint at will and that made all the difference between this game and the losses to the Milwaukee Bucks and Detroit Pistons, or even the first meeting with the Clippers.
Youngs’s 34th double-double came with Clint Capela’s first in three games and Kevin Huerter hit two dagger threes to finish with 16 points and eight boards.
Wright only logged five minutes, in the second half, ending with two points.
Delon Wright has been taken out of the Atlanta Hawks rotation for the time being
In the loss to Milwaukee, Wright saw eight minutes. All of those came in the first half and he finished that contest with two rebounds and two assists but no points, missing his only attempt from the floor and finishing as a minus-six. He was a plus-one versus the Clippers, for what it is worth.
But going 48 minutes between floor appearances is certainly not how he nor the Hawks envisioned this thing going.
When Wright was brought in on a three-team deal that sent Kris Dunn and Bruno Fernando to the Boston Celtics and Tristan Thompson to the Sacramento Kings, we were among those that felt he would allow them to be even more versatile but this felt like a benching.
Nate McMillan said in his postgame remarks that he is “shortening my rotation”.
"“It’s nothing he has done. He’s been playing well for us. But it’s really difficult to play a 10-man rotation because everybody gets squeezed. What I did was went to Lou at that backup (PG) — the rotation we had last year.” – via Chris Kirschner/The Athletic"
We talked about Wright giving a little extra versus his former teams – which the Clippers would not qualify as – but he really has done what he was brought in to do defensively with his length, especially as a helper. The Hawks allow 3.8 fewer points per 100 possessions when he is on the floor overall.
However, per Cleaning The Glass, which removes garbage time from the equation, that number falls to 1.8 fewer points per 100 possessions. That is the fifth-best mark behind Lou Williams as well as John Collins, Kevin Huerter, and Onyeka Okongwu.
The Hawks offensive rating is also 5.2 points worse with Wright per Cleaning The Glass and 3.8 points worse overall.
His net rating ranks above both Williams and De’Andre Hunter.
Both of them are putting up better offensive numbers though. Perhaps this is also an acknowledgment that the Hawks offense feeds their defense and, more importantly, wins. Wright is averaging 4.3 points, 2.4 assists, and 2.8 boards this season making this arguably his worst performance since his second year in the league.
He is shooting 44.3 percent from the floor and 35.6 percent from downtown. But it will be most interesting to see how long he remains out of the rotation if Williams, a former Clipper, goes 1-for-6 from the floor as he did on Friday night.