Dyson Daniels is the heir apparent to Jrue Holiday in the long line of defenders that the league dreads most to line up against.
In fact, Daniels may have already inherited this title during the course of the 2024-2025 season - and advanced stats don't differ in the slightest. The Great Barrier Thief ranked first in the league in defensive playmaking, and 6th in the league in DBPM (defensive box plus-minus) amongst starters.
The idea that Daniels is amongst the best of the best on the defensive end of the hardwood isn't novel in the slightest - but this is far from his only category of improvement during the course of last season. Daniels completely flipped the script on his offensive output, silencing critics who had long deemed him a liability on offense, incapable of providing enough offensive firepower to stay on the floor to allow his elite defense to pop.
As we dive deeper and deeper into the depths of the current NBA offseason, however - a frightening statistic emerged that threatens Daniels' ability to remain an offensive threat.
Dyson Daniels' 3-pointers were too open
The statement that a player can shoot too many open threes, at first glance, isn't a bad thing - an open three pointer is the best look in basketball (for the vast majority of players). However, it's the why that should scare Hawks fans and frighten Quin Snyder even more.
Daniels' 3-point shot quality ranked 2nd in the entire league - just behind a certain Sacramento Kings big man. If you've watched Kings basketball over the last handful of seasons, you've seen the kinds of looks Domantas Sabonis is given - teams dread his playmaking, but aren't bothered by his shot, so they tend to leave him wide open.
The metric used to determine 3pt shot quality ranked Sabonis a league-best 0.88 (on a scale of 0 to 1) - Daniels fell just shy of this mark at 0.83, and not a single other player managed to crack a number greater than 0.76.
This spells trouble for Atlanta.
If Daniels was only able to cash in on 34.0% of his ridiculously open 3-pointers last year, does this actually make him a spacing threat - or is the defense simply willing to give up this relatively low-percentage shot to avoid better looks from other players?
The Hawks generated 1.15 PPP (points per possession) last season - good for 8th best in the NBA. A 34.0% Daniels 3-point shot represents a mere 1.05 PPP - a breath of fresh air for defenses looking for easy stops.
If Daniels fails to capitalize on the wide-open 3's he's taking at a higher clip, it represents a catastrophe waiting to happen in Atlanta. Onyeka Okongwu and Jalen Johnson are also shaky-at-best shooters - if half of the Hawks' core rotation can't space the floor for the maestro Trae Young, the vision of playing a 5-out offense with Kristaps Porzingis will never manifest.
Hawks fans should expect Daniels to continue to improve his shot, as he was able to improve from a 31.1% shooter the year prior - but if The Great Barrier Thief doesn't live up to his shooting expectations, Atlanta will struggle to reach the elite levels that they're certainly capable of attaining this year.