Analytics and advanced stats have found their way into everyday use in the NBA in recent years. Their role is to try and find a way to categorize and track all actions that happen on the floor in a manner that makes the information easier to understand.

At BBall Index, we have gone above and beyond to produce numbers–based of percentiles and an A-F grading system–that helps you, the fans, better understand how players are impacting the game. However, we now have the ability to do the same for an entire team, through weighing player data by minutes played. We can now take a team’s stats, or the stats for a team’s position group (guards/wings/bigs), and compare it to the rest of the NBA’s teams/position groups in order to figure out what areas a team is good in and what areas they are deficient.

The Atlanta Hawks are currently 11-24 (12th in the East) as they undergo a rebuild, but, even though the season is in the tank they aren’t just rolling over either. Head coach, Lloyd Pierce, has done a phenomenal job of giving his young team the blueprint to be successful in the future. As of late, the Hawks are playing their best basketball of the season–winning five of their last six games.

With the halfway point of the season approaching it is a good time to check in and see this team’s strengths and weaknesses compared to the other 29 teams in the league.

STRENGTHS

Guard Playmaking (84th Percentile)

In the 2018 NBA Draft, general manager Travis Schlenk targeted two players (Trae Young and Kevin Huerter) to help build a backcourt in Atlanta that could mirror the success that Schlenk saw firsthand during his stint with the Golden State Warriors with the Splash Brothers tandem of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.

So far, Young hasn’t held up his end of the bargain as a perimeter shooter–currently shooting 26.1 percent on three-pointers–to make this comparison come true, however, Huerter and Young have made a name for themselves as the “Pass Brothers.” According to The Bball Index Player Grades, both players have A grades in Playmaking (Huerter: A-, Young: A). In fact, the pair of young Hawks are the league’s top two guards in our Playmaking metric. The infusion of playmaking from these rookies have helped Atlanta turn into one of the better perimeter playmaking teams.

 

Big Offensive Rebounding (77th Percentile)

With the likes of Alex Len (7’1”), Dewayne Dedmon (7’), and Miles Plumlee (6’11”) getting the bulk of the time at center and athletic power forwards John Collins (6’10”), Omari Spellman (6’9”), and Alex Poythress (6’9”) Atlanta has a rotation of big men that can really make an impact on the glass. Having Collins return after missing the first 15 games of the season has certainly helped boost this number. Collins has a motor that never stops and his ability to get off the floor twice before most bigs jump once makes him a handful for opponents as a rebounder.

Len was brought in late in the free agency process and has made quite the impact for the Hawks already. Even though his grades have dropped from last season in offensive rebounding (A in 2017-18 to B in 2018-19) Len is spending more time outside the paint in Pierce’s offense than prior seasons (career-high 1.8 three-pointers attempted per game).  Dedmon is in year two with Atlanta, and he’s provided similar production for the Hawks in both seasons. His offensive rebounding grade has jumped from a B to a B+ this year.

 

Big Roll Gravity (74th Percentile)

With the offense running primarily through Young and Jeremy Lin, pick-and-roll has been the Hawks bread and butter play for the majority of the season. Both guards are capable of getting downhill quickly and can maneuver through traffic with relative ease. As Collins, Dedmon, Len, etc. make their way through the paint defenders are forced to help or give up easy baskets around the rim.

Having them control the paint in this way opens the floor up for outside shooting–the Hawks have yet to strike fear in their opponents from the perimeter this season. As the season goes on, Atlanta will continue to send their bigs to the rim at every opportunity. Young is especially crafty at sneaking passes into a seemingly crowded paint for scoring opportunities at the rim. This is a staple that should continue during the Lloyd Pierce era.

 

Guard Finishing (48th Percentile)

One of the knocks against Young coming into last summer’s draft was that he struggled to finish in the paint. He hasn’t exactly turned that weakness into a strength, but he has converted at around an average rate so far. Young being just decent enough has helped to turn this into a positive for the Hawks. Huerter meanwhile, grades out as an F so far.

Yet, only Kent Bazemore has graded out higher than Young in finishing as he ranks at a C compared to Young’s C-. While this metric grades out as a strength numbers-wise, the Hawks would like to see it jump at least into the low-to-mid 50’s at some point this year.

It’s also noteworthy that the team’s third largest listed strength in our data also marks the point in which the team is no longer above average. It turns out that “strength” is a relative term.

Big Perimeter Shooting (48th Percentile)

As I mentioned in the Big Roll Gravity section, Lloyd Pierce’s offense has made it so that the bigs are spending more time on the perimeter. Spacing is vital to Pierce’s offense and getting as many players as possible outside the arc is the best way to create space. However, the Hawks big men aren’t just standing at the three-point line, but they are taking (and for the most part, making) three-pointers. Len is shooting 32.1 percent on three-pointers, Collins is shooting 23.8 percent, Dedmon is shooting 36 percent, Omari Spellman is shooting 32.3 percent, and Alex Poythress is shooting 38.9 percent.

As a fivesome, that totals to 32.62 percent for the Hawks big men on the season. 33 percent is average and Atlanta’s quintet of big men are trending in that direction. If Collins can bump his numbers into the 30 percentile range then this team has truly unlocked something special in today’s pace-and-space era.

WEAKNESSES

Wing Off-Ball Movement (3rd Percentile)

This is probably the biggest change from the Mike Budenholzer coached Hawks to the Lloyd Pierce version. The wings aren’t necessarily standing away from the action and waiting to receive a pass, but with the ball being entrusted to Trae Young the wings have become more spot-up shooters than active cutters.

Since Young is a rookie, this tactic could just be the coaching staff trying to play to Young’s strengths at the moment and then building off of that in the future. Taurean Prince’s style of play has changed drastically with the coaching change. Prince was one of the biggest benefactors of the off-ball movement Budenholzer implored, but under Pierce Prince has been playing more with the ball in his hands. The off-ball movement may be more of a coaching philosophy change than a true weakness for the Hawks.

 

One-on-One (3rd Percentile)

This is definitely a coaching philosophy weakness more so than Atlanta not having the talent capable of creating offense in one-on-one scenarios. In Prince and Young, the Hawks have two players who they feel comfortable giving the ball to and being able to get the better of their defender in one-on-one scenarios.

However, with Pierce looking for this team to push the pace (and Atlanta currently leads the NBA in pace checking in with 105.86 possessions per game on average) Atlanta isn’t necessarily operating out of half-court sets enough to attack defenses in one-on-one situations. When the Hawks are working out of set plays, the pace-and-space style is their go-to setup and that often leads to more screen and rolls than one-on-one opportunities.

 

Guard Roll Gravity (3rd Percentile)

In the strengths portion, it mentioned that Big Roll Gravity was one of Atlanta’s strengths this season. If that is the case, it is only right that Guard Roll Gravity would be judged as a weakness.

I think Lloyd Pierce and his staff are just fine with players like Young, Kevin Huerter, Kent Bazemore, etc. not being their main players rolling to the rim, even compared to their guard peers on other teams. However, with guard finishing being listed as a strength, in the situations that these players may find themselves going to the basket as rollers, the defense isn’t really hammering down on them in the lane.

 

Big Playmaking (16th Percentile)

Much like with the discrepancy between Big Roll Gravity and Guard Roll Gravity, the same relationship plays out for the Hawks with Big Playmaking and Guard Playmaking. With Guard Playmaking being their biggest strength it only makes sense that Big Playmaking would then register as a weakness.

As John Collins continues to develop, the hope is that he will help bring this category up enough that it doesn’t fall under the weakness label for much longer. Collins and Dewayne Dedmon have started to form a nice high-low passing game and if both can remain away from the injury report, this category could even see a bump as soon as this season.

 

Perimeter Shooting (19th Percentile)

Finally, we hit on the most troubling weakness for the Atlanta Hawks this season. Pierce has emphasized outside shooting as part of his system and the Hawks are attempting 34.8 three-pointers per game (fourth-most in the NBA). Their 33.2 three-point shooting percentage, however, ranks fourth-worst in the league. And this talent grade as a team being as low as it is may indicate that the team’s ceiling and floor for three-point shooting percentage is lower than most teams.

Having Bazemore, Vince Carter, Huerter, Jeremy Lin, Prince, and Young on the roster should be enough to keep Atlanta out of the bottom five in three-point percentage. So far, only Lin (39.8 percent), Carter (38.1 percent), Huerter (38.1 percent), and Prince (36.7 percent) have been holding up their end. Bazemore (32.7 percent) and Young (26.1 percent) have dragged them down. The other problem is that Young and Bazemore rank second and third respectively on the team in three-point attempts per game. If those numbers don’t rise, then Atlanta’s perimeter shooting issues will continue.