The Atlanta Hawks upped their defensive arsenal when they acquired Luguentz Dort for Zaccharie Risacher.
Dort brings championship experience, leadership, and aggressive defense to his new squad to form a lockdown duo with Dyson Daniels. Atlanta relied heavily on its ability to turn great defense into easy transition offense last season, but it also needs both players to contribute with perimeter shooting in the halfcourt.
Dort and Daniels both saw their three-point percentages take a nosedive last season. However, Hawks Head Coach Quin Snyder encourages his players to let the ball fly from deep, and more often than not, this has led to success.
Atlanta hopes Dort and Daniels become the latest players to recover their outside shot in a Hawks' uniform.
Lu Dort just had two great three-point shooting seasons
Dort has developed a reputation as one of the best perimeter defenders in the association due to his lateral quickness and strength. He cemented himself as a starter on several contending Oklahoma City Thunder teams for this very reason. However, his recent lack of shooting last season posed problems for his former squad. The 27-year-old shot 34.4% from deep on 5.4 attempts per game.
This, however, has not always been the case. Hawks fans only have to look back to the 2023-24 campaign, when Dort shot 39.4% on 5.0 attempts, to find a good perimeter shooting season.
He followed these numbers up in 2024-25 with a career-high 41.2% efficiency on 5.8 attempts. It is certainly no coincidence that Oklahoma City lifted the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy that season.
Atlanta ranked inside the top nine in efficiency, volume, and makes from deep last season. Dort has never been shy about letting it fly from downtown, averaging 5.6 triple tries for his career. Expect this number to remain high, as he joins Snyder's three-point-heavy offense.
Dyson Daniels had an outlier shooting performance last season
Daniels entered the league with major questions surrounding his three-ball. However, he shot a career-high 34.0% on 3.1 attempts from deep in 2024-25. Hawks fans were encouraged by Daniels' gradual improvement over his first three professional seasons.
As a result, Atlanta had every reason to expect another jump in 2025-26, but this did not come true. In fact, it went drastically the opposite way. Daniels posted one of the worst three-point percentages in the league at just 18.8% last season.
The 23-year-old shot over 31.0% from downtown in each of his first three campaigns. This is a much larger sample size than one outlier campaign. Daniels has never been regarded as a good outside shooter, but going from below average to shockingly bad makes a big impact.
Atlanta hopes Dort and Daniels can progress rather than regress again in 2026-27.
Add us as a preferred source on Google