The Atlanta Hawks ruined the Cleveland Cavaliers home opener as they stormed “The Land” and got their first win of the year, 133-111. Trae Young had the most impressive outing of his rookie career totaling 35 points and 11 assists.

Three Observations

1. Lloyd Pierce is still tinkering

One of the most interesting parts about having a new coach is the unknown. People pour over any bit of information they can find (summer league, preseason, previous jobs, etc.) in an attempt to try and map out expectations for the new person calling the shots.

However, Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce seems to be comfortable in that unknown.

Through three games Pierce has chosen to doll out minutes in three different ways.

Here’s a look at the rotation against Memphis (courtesy of Phil Roth and nbarotations.info)

Now, this is from tonight’s win over the Cleveland Cavaliers

Only Trae Young’s minutes replicate anything similar to what he received the night before.

After dropping the first two games by embarrassing margins, it was clear that Pierce was still attempting to find the right spots to turn to certain players. With Dewayne Dedmon and John Collins waiting in the wings, there’s a high chance that the rotations will continue to change over time during the season.

2. Enough was enough

Following two blow out losses to begin the year, you wouldn’t have been blamed if the team succumbed to that feeling of deja vu when Cleveland raced ahead 22-7 with 4:36 left in the first quarter.

Nothing was clicking on offense and the defense was hemorrhaging points once again.

Yet, this team did not fold. Not only that but it was the trio of first-round picks (Young, Kevin Huerter, and Omari Spellman) who lead the team back into the game by drilling back-to-back-to-back triples to cut the deficit to just 8 points.

From there, the team was able to find its rhythm and poured it on the Cavaliers as they were able to get their first win of the season.

That type of fight is going to be important in helping this team build their character. With the addition of nine new players and taking part in a full-on rebuild, turnarounds like this will be impactful down the line.

3.  The kids are alright

Young, Huerter, and Spellman combined to score 61 points (draining 13 three-pointers), dish out 16 assists, and grab 13 rebounds.

While Young exploded tonight–he’s now the sixth rookie in NBA history to have 35 points and 11 assists in a game (the others: Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Allen Iverson, Derrick Rose, and Sherman Douglas)–he has been solid in all three games.

The extra production out of Spellman and Huerter was really the big takeaway from the night. Huerter has gone from barely getting in the game, to becoming one of the first substitutes off the bench for Pierce.

If he can continue to reciprocate his 10-rebound and two-steal performance it’s going to be harder and harder for Pierce to keep him off the floor.

Not much is expected out of the Hawks this season, but any kind of positive development they can get out of their young players should truly be celebrated.

Tonight was one of those nights.

Two Questions

1. How fun is Trae Young?

I mean, really, how fun is he? Once he got things going it felt like he would never miss again.

Young’s ability to connect from the perimeter won him fans in college, but even though he connected on six three-point attempts tonight he really did a lot of damage inside the arc.

He made six of his eight attempts at the rim on the night. If Young can connect around the rim it opens the perimeter game for him and allows him to be an even better facilitator for his teammates.

I don’t want to wax poetically too long about Trae’s game (that will come in a separate post soon to publish!), but this is the type of game fans dreamed about once they learned that the former Oklahoma point guard would be joining the Hawks this offseason.

2. How amped are you guys for the home opener?

After being on the road for each of their first three games, the Atlanta Hawks–and ESPN–will return to Atlanta to open up the State Farm Arena to the world.

If you haven’t yet, definitely do yourself the favor of checking out the pictures, videos, tours, etc. offered online to give yourself a taste of what to expect on Wednesday night.

The Hawks are a fun, fast-paced team that the city should readily be waiting to get behind. Add in the perks and glitz and glam of a refurbished arena and this game could be something the city remembers for a long time.

A repeat performance of Trae Young’s mastery from last night would be a nice touch as well.

One Prediction

1. Trae Young will finish the year with a 50/40/90 season

I am two-for-two in this section. First, I called that Pierce would opt to play Young and Jeremy Lin together after having offensive issues in the first game. Then, after the loss to Memphis, I predicted that Atlanta would win their first game of the year against the Cavaliers.

Instead of tempting fate here, I’m going to fast forward to the endgame this time.

One of the pillars of great shooting in the NBA is accomplishing a 50/40/90 season The significance of 50/40/90 is shooting 50 percent or better from the field, 40 percent or better from three, and 90 percent or better from the free throw line.

In the history of the NBA, only seven players (Larry Bird, Mark Price, Reggie Miller, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Durant, and Stephen Curry) have ever finished a season hitting those benchmarks.

Nash–the player Young has admitted to modeling his game after–did it a league-best four times in his career.

After tonight’s game, Young is shooting 45.4 percent from the field, 39.2 percent from three, and 80 percent from the free throw line.

Looking at Young’s shot chart through three games he’s very clearly sticking to shots at the rim or from beyond the arc as his predominant methods of scoring–he’s taking 29.1 percent of his shots at the rim and 50.9 percent of his shots from deep.

Currently, he’s at 56.3 percent at the basket (0.2 percentage points below the NBA average).

Young is still learning his way around performing at an efficient level in the NBA and his just a few percentage points away from being securely in the 50/40/90 club. If he can avoid a slump at any point during the year he could be on his way to making history as the first rookie to ever hit the 50/40/90 parameters.