The team that the Atlanta Hawks should model themselves after

When former Atlanta Hawks president of basketball operations Travis Schlenk took the reigns and immediately committed to building around Trae Young, many Hawks fans assumed that Atlanta was attempting to model itself in the image of Schlenk’s dynastic Warriors.

Fast forward a few years and it has become clear that Young is not a Steph Curry reincarnation, Kevin Huerter did not turn out to be Klay Thompson 2.0, and Atlanta fans now have a higher degree of appreciation for just how rare and, perhaps lucky, Golden State was to establish their nearly decade-long reign.

What Atlanta does have is a player in Young who, despite his physical limitations and occasional stubbornness, is still one of the three best passers in the world and that, when he’s got it going, has a certain level of offensive electricity that few other players can reach.

This makes his backcourt fit with Dejounte Murray, another ball-dominant guard, pretty awkward. There was little in the pairing’s first year together that would encourage anyone to think they could reach a level where they truly bring out the best in each other, and there’s probably a reason for that: it has been extremely rare throughout NBA history that a backcourt with two ball-dominant guards has produced championship-caliber results.

But since Atlanta finds itself in this position and likely won’t be moving on from either Young or Murray anytime soon, they might as well attempt to model themselves after the team built similarly to them that reached the highest degree of success in recent memory, which was the 2017-18 Houston Rockets, a 65 win team that pushed the greatest team ever, the Kevin Durant Warriors, to 7 games in the Western Conference Finals.

That Houston team featured James Harden and Chris Paul, two ball-dominant guards to be sure, in the backcourt. So what made them so successful?

The first and most obvious reason was that, while that Rockets team wasn’t the first ball club to emphasize three-point shooting, they took it to a whole new level, putting up 42.3 three-point shots a night, then far and away an NBA record. And they shot them well, too, connecting on over 36% of attempts from the Land Beyond.

Can Quin Snyder change the Atlanta Hawks’ shot profile?

That approach is the polar opposite of where the Hawks operated this season, as Atlanta ranked dead last in the NBA in three-point attempts at 30.6. Presumably, the new head coach and noted offensive mind Quin Snyder will amend this and encourage his team to ramp up the threes going forward.

However, three-pointers are only valuable if they’re going in (which Houston found out in real-time as they missed 27 straight with a trip to the NBA Finals on the line), which is why Atlanta must have players who can knock them down. John Collins, for example, shot only 29.2 percent from outside this season, which simply isn’t going to cut it.

The Hawks need to make changes to the roster

Houston also filled the roster with versatile defenders, including a familiar face in Atlanta’s own Clint Capela. However, it was Houston’s wings, particularly Eric Gordon and P.J. Tucker, that allowed them to become the sixth-best defense in the league that season. Perimeter defense is another glaring issue for the Hawks, as Atlanta showed absolutely zero resistance to the Boston Celtics whenever they wanted to get to the basket in this year’s first-round series.

But what about Harden and Paul? How were two ball-dominant guards able to coexist when all the historical evidence suggests that they shouldn’t? The first answer lies in the fact that Harden was just insanely good that season, winning the MVP and averaging 30.4 points a game. The floor spacing that was created by Houston’s shooters, including Tucker, Gordon, and players like Ryan Anderson, gave Harden and Paul maximum space to operate, something that Murray and Young did not have this year.

Also, the fact that both Houston guards shot upwards of 36% from three essentially turned whichever one didn’t have the ball into a spot-up shooter in their own right. The Rockets’ ability to run pick-and-rolls with either Harden or Paul, both offensive maestros, at the helm, Capela running to the rim, and three floor spacers keeping the defense honest, was the bread and butter of the most efficient offense in the NBA that year and put immense pressure on the opposition. Whenever a play broke down, both Harden and Paul could create offense for themselves and score from all three levels.

So how does Atlanta apply these principles in real-time to a flawed roster? My first suggestion is pulling the plug on the John Collins experience one way or another and plugging in someone in the vein of Tucker who can defend and knock down corner threes. They don’t have to be a star. Just someone who can do those simple things. Dillon Brooks and Grant Williams are names to keep an eye on in the free-agent market that could fill that void.

Also, Atlanta has to decide once and for all whether De’Andre Hunter is worth all of the headaches that his inconsistency incites. Again, he doesn’t have to be an All-Star. But he does have to knock down open threes and actually defend, not just theoretically be able to defend with his wingspan and quickness. If he can’t do that, Atlanta owes it to the fanbase to look at other options. Perhaps one of the Brooklyn Nets’ plethora of 3-and-D wings will become available via trade.

Or maybe Jalen Johnson will take the leap this year and be able to stop perimeter players and knock down threes.

Either way, to maximize the Young and Murray experiment, Atlanta needs to space the floor and hike up as many threes as possible and simplify the offense into a steady diet of pick-and-rolls and kickouts for open shots.

There’s a reason two ball-dominant guards rarely coexist. There is only one basketball. And the reality of the situation is that Atlanta probably won’t ever find a championship level of success with Young and Murray in their backcourt.

Because they don’t have a ton of flexibility right now, they might as well make the most of it by modeling both their roster and their playstyle after the team that came the closest to ultimate success, which was the Rockets of four years ago.