The Hawks now have some games under their belt however are so far underperforming in comparison to pre-season expectations. Defense has been an issue as the Hawks managed to drop two games the past week.
NBA.com — No. 14
In a league that’s seen a significant drop in free throw rate, the Hawks have (maybe not surprisingly) seen the biggest drop by a pretty healthy margin. They’ve gone from fourth (27.8 attempts per 100 shots from the field) last season to 29th (16.9) this season, from +2.8 points per game (best in the league) at the line to -3.0 (sixth worst).
Trae Young might be the poster child for the new points of education regarding Non-Basketball Moves, but he’s not the only Hawk who’s seen a big drop. Among 123 players with at least 50 field goal attempts this season (and at least 200 last season), Young has seen the second-biggest drop (from 49.1 to 21.8 per 100), while De’Andre Hunter (34.3 to 7.1) has seen the third-biggest and John Collins (26.5 to 10.1 and zero attempts in four of his six games) has seen the eighth-biggest.
Those three guys have also seen big drops in 3-point rate, with the Hawks dropping from 19th (38.2%) to 29th (31.0%) in the percentage of their shots that have come from beyond the arc. As they dropped games in Washington and Philadelphia on Thursday and Saturday, they were outscored by 33 points on 3s. They’ll get another shot at the Wizards on Monday, while also facing the teams that rank first (Utah, +15.0 points per game) and last (Phoenix, -22.2) in 3-point differential this week.
ESPN — No. 9
In Wednesday’s victory against New Orleans, Trae Young reached 5,000 career points in his 208th career game, the quickest in franchise history to reach that point total, ahead of Bob Pettit (212), Pete Maravich (218), Joe Johnson (227) and Dominique Wilkins (230). — Lopez
SI.com — No. 8
Whether it’s the new foul rules or early-season sluggishness, it’s notable that Trae Young is averaging only 4.3 free throw attempts a night right now, half of how often he went to the line in 2021, and what would be the worst mark of his career.
Looks like the Hawks have fallen across the board due to multiple losses. It’s early but it would be rough if Atlanta were to rack up more losses with the upcoming difficulty in schedule. Again, it is still very early but losing a couple to teams where they were favorited definitely does not help.
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