Atlanta was the ultimate average team in the league last season. Even when Quin Snyder joined the team, that did not stop happening as the Hawks had a 11-11 with him coaching the team. Snyder made the Hawks push the pace more and they were able to be more efficient on offense, despite not having a high 3pts volume% rate. However, they remained a subpar defensive unit the whole season.
2023/24 OUTLOOK:
Atlanta finally got rid of John Collins as they traded him to Utah. The team is now projected to play with a modern “stretch 4” on offense with Saddiq Bey, Jalen Johnson or De’Andre Hunter at that position. This was exactly how Utah used to play under Snyder and this will also be his plan in Atlanta.
However, those Utah teams had Rudy Gobert patrolling the paint and some good perimeter shooters surrounding him on offense. Will Snyder be able to replicate this successful formula in Atlanta? Capela and Okongwu are decent on defense, but they are far from prime Gobert’s level.
Trae Young and Dejounte Murray are the new Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley, but unlike the former Jazz’s players, the two Hawks’ guards are quite inefficient 3pts shooters: Young 33.5% 3pts and Murray 34.4% 3pts. Yet, Atlanta was able to be efficient on offense overall with these two players having a high volume of usage on offense.
Atlanta’s biggest challenge this season will be to build a competent defense. Last season, the lineups that used Young, Murray and Bogdanovic were killed on defense (128.8 defensive rate on 528 possessions). Atlanta’s roster doesn’t have a lot of defensive talent on the perimeter, so the team’s defensive system will have to be really good and that’s the main reason why Atlanta signed Snyder…