After reaching the Eastern Conference Finals, Atlanta expected to be a top team last season. However, they completely failed to do that as they were just #8 in the East and needed to win two play-in games to even get to the postseason. There, they were dispatched by Miami in five games in the first round.
Trae Young had a breakout season on offense by posting Curryish numbers: 46.0% FG | 38.2% 3pts | 90.4% FT. Helped by that, the Hawks were #2 on offense last season. However, given that they were a top offense but still struggled to win games, their defense was indeed abysmal: #5 worst overall. The Hawks were subpar at protecting the rim but were especially terrible in the perimeter by being #26 in allowing 3pts%.
Their roster was filled with subpar defensive players so this disaster wasn’t exactly a big surprise. As much as Trae Young is a brilliant player on offense, he is a clear net negative player on defense. Plus Atlanta had Lou Williams, Danilo Gallinari, Bogdan Bogdanovic on court often as well, all subpar defensive players.
2022/23 Outlook:
As they were #2 on offense and #26 on defense last season, Atlanta’s offseason goal was to improve their defensive talent, especially on the backcourt. Hence, the Hawks traded for San Antonio’s Dejounte Murray, a player who has the reputation of being a good defensive player with good size for his position.
Murray will be responsible for improving his new team’s perimeter defense. He is coming from a career season where he was the Spurs’ main focus on offense (21.1ppg while shooting 46.2% FG). However, he isn’t a good shooter and his role on the Spurs was to be the team’s ball handler, something that might cause some issues in Atlanta given Young’s presence on court. It seems like Atlanta will have to sacrifice some of their efficiency on offense to improve their defense. Besides Murray, the Hawks didn’t make any other significant change on their roster: they lost Gallinari but they replaced him with Justin Holiday.
Both John Collins and De’Andre Hunter had an injury riddled last season as they only played 54 and 53 games. Atlanta needs both of them to be healthy this season in order to be a top team. Note that their best lineup last season (Capela, Collins, Hunter, Bogdanovic, Young) only played together in 492 possessions!
Atlanta should have a shot at winning a weaker Southeast division as long as they improve on defense;