If you shoot 2 for 15 from the floor, you're probably going to bear the brunt of the blame for a blowout loss.
Box-score watchers hoping to quickly identify a scapegoat will likely identify Nickeil Alexander-Walkers' horrific 2-15 shooting performance, in spite of what was truly a team-wide shortcoming.
Don't be so hasty to write NAW off purely from a shooting standpoint. Sure, we all would've loved for him to make a jumper or two, but what Hawks fans should truly be stoked for was his defensive intensity and playmaking that he provided in an otherwise defensively muted performance from the Hawks.
Time and again, Alexander-Walker stifled Toronto's efforts to take the ball to the paint - while a gargantuan 86 points in the paint from the Raptors categorically decimated Atlanta's interior defense (for context, the average league worst PIP per game last year was 56 - a whopping thirty points lower than what Atlanta gave up on opening night), NAW was a singular bright spot for the Hawks' defense.
Alexander-Walker's impact was felt regardless of the shooting woes
Excluding Mouhamed Gueye - who came in during garbage time and provided a solid +5 in 5 minutes - Alexander-Walker was a team-high -2 across his 28 minutes played.
NAW achieved this feat even in spite of his woeful shooting - if even a few more of these shots had dropped, this metric would have skyrocketed en route to becoming a complete outlier in +/- for Atlanta.
This should serve as a testament to exactly what the two-way talent brings to the squad - he makes all the gritty plays. All the hustle plays. All the plays that his teammates simply aren't accustomed to throwing themselves on the floor to get.
The narrative of culture-setters in locker rooms is far from a fairytale. Often, all a solid team needs to get over the hump is one or two impact players to bring much-needed intensity and direction to a team in dire need of amplified emotion. Coming from a Minnesota team that made back-to-back conference finals appearances, Alexander-Walker understands the importance of a strong defensive identity.
The addition of NAW isn't just a massive win from a defensive standpoint - as was certainly clear on Wednesday - it's a win from a cultural and emotional standpoint as well. If Dyson Daniels can stay out of foul trouble going forward, look for the defensive-minded duo to wreak havoc on opposing backcourts just as was foretold over the summer.