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Despite significantly changing the makeup of its team this past offseason the Atlanta Hawks have become one of the league's best offensive squads and that can be most illustrated by the improvement in starting point guard Jeff Teague.
Teague has been the catalyst for the Hawks through the first six games including Saturday's 104-94 win over the Orlando Magic. He finished with 19 points and 13 assists driving his season averages up to 17.7 points and 9.8 assists on the season. Teague's recorded a double-double in four of Atlanta's six games this season and had nine assists in the opener.
"We're still learning every day," he said. "I was glad to see us bounce back, get the lead back up and make plays at the end. Hard work is paying off."
Teague twisted in the wind over the summer as a restricted free agent before signing a four-year offer sheet with the Milwaukee Bucks. The Hawks elected to match the offer and so far Teague is showing that it was a wise investment. Now in his fifth season in the league, Teague finally looks comfortable leading the Hawks and Mike Budenholzer continues to give him more of the reigns of his new offense.
"I think he's really starting to understand what we're saying," Budenholzer said after his team improved to 3-3. "I think for the last week to 10 days that he's had a lot of opportunities and a lot of responsibility for the way we play. He's doing a lot of good things. I think he's going to get better and better. "
Per MySynergySports, Teague is in the Top 30 in the league averaging .71 points per position in pick and roll situations as the ball handler. He's in the Top 7 in transition offensively and defensively is in the Top 20 in defending his opponent's pick and roll which is substantial improvement over last season. Its a small sample size but the trends are looking promising.
More from Peachtree Hoops:
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