Quin Snyder must address the most preventable problem the Hawks face

Hawks fans are on a topsy-turvy rollercoaster of emotions to begin the year, and there appears to be no emergency brake on the ride in sight.

In just the last couple of weeks alone, the Hawks took their fans' hopes to the clouds with a dynamic pair of victories against the Philadelphia 76ers and the Cleveland Cavaliers, two serious contenders in the East that Atlanta will no doubt have to navigate on their quest for a title.

With these highs also come lows, however. First, a catastrophic loss to the bottom-feeders of the league, the Washington Wizards, by over 15 points hushed some of the hype around the franchise. Second, a heartbreaking loss against the Detroit Pistons by a mere one point, coming down to a near tip-in buzzer-beater basket that would have seen the Hawks complete a phenomenal upset on the second night of a back-to-back.

Amid all this chaos, the head coach is meant to be the calming presence among the raging winds. Instead, Quin Snyder has fallen short, especially in one key category.

The Hawks are floundering when executing set plays out of timeouts

Being in the same conversation as the Jazz, Bulls, Mavericks, Blazers, Wizards, Nets, Pacers, and Pelicans isn't somewhere you want to be as a team in any category besides lottery odds. The Lakers are just as much of a surprise inclusion in this bottom-10 post-timeout execution metric as the Hawks, but the rest of these eight teams are all at the bottom of the standings, and for good reason.

Teams that fail to pick up easy baskets - most notably, after timeouts when the coach has an opportunity to draw something up - are nearly never teams that make a deep run in the playoffs when a mere handful of critical plays so often determine the outcome of a close game.

The Hawks executing at a mere 102 points per possession after a timeout (compared to 98 PPP in a halfcourt setting and 25th/30th in the NBA) simply isn't good enough.

Quin Snyder has long been lauded as a strategic mind, and no doubt his X's and O's have led to more than a few Hawks wins. Perhaps this small sample size can be chalked up to shooting variance, but if the Hawks don't begin to climb out of the depths of this category, winning close games won't get any easier. Snyder must address this weakness if the Hawks plan to duke out close wins against the league's elite competition.