A collection of CBS scribes have released their rankings for the best shooting guards in the NBA. They rate Devin Booker as the best shooting guard in the league and this is not a great surprise. However, what is of interest in this article is how the Atlanta Hawks fare in the rankings.
The Hawks have two current and one former player in the top 22, which is what is able to give us the basis for the comparison. One of these players, Bogdan Bogdanovic is returning from last season and is ranked 15th. For a player who has vowed to come back and have his best season ever, this is a handy place to start.
However, it is two other players on the list that are more interesting. The Hawks traded for Dejounte Murray in an effort to get a second star and they traded Kevin Huerter in an effort to bolster their wing defense. So, how is it that the Hawks have improved given the CBS rankings?
How the Atlanta Hawks have improved their stocks at the shooting guard position.
Huerter was ranked 18th by the CBS team. As noted he is an incredible shooter, going at 39 percent from deep last season and was in the 92nd percentile of catch and shoot 3-point shots. We all know how versatile he was as a player but versatility is not genuine star power.
So, why is Murray an upgrade? Well, as has been discussed since the trade, mainly because it is relevant, is that Murray is a much better defender and playmaker than Huerter. He was fourth in assists last season and led the league in steals.
While he is more of a point guard, both he and Young are interchangeable on offense at the point, it is more than likely that Young is going to be used off-ball. This is not going to stop his creativity for both himself and for others. In fact, this is probably going to improve the second-best offense in the league last season.
That is what happens when you add the fifth-best shooting guard in the league to this team. In less than a month we get to see these guys play together when it means something as the NBA regular season gets underway.