Atlanta Hawks Season Preview

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1:01In my early days, I did some of my best work in parked cars or coffee shops. But when I landed my first big contract, I realized I couldn't bet my future on a public connection that cuts out if someone turns on a blender. As a small business owner, you're already wearing at least 10 hats. You shouldn't have to be your own IT department as well. That's why I rely on AT&T Business. They keep your connectivity reliable, so you have one less thing to worry about. Powered by AT&T Business, built to work. Get AT&T Business at business.att.com. Are you the kind of fan that wants to dig into the story behind the stats? Join the Athletic Live on YouTube and cover all the sports stories that you can't stop talking about. On Game Days, we'll watch the biggest matchups alongside the Athletics Most Taped in Reporters. And you can become a part of the show in the interactive chat. The Athletic Live is presented by Google Gemini. Subscribe now on YouTube. Good morning and welcome to the Athletic NBA Daily. Coming up, Kaka, we're talking about the Atlanta Hawks.

2:04Good morning everybody. That was a really bad Kakao. It was worse than the schedule release one. I loved the schedule release from the Hawks, by the way. So good. They won the best that I saw. For sure. Joining us here to talk about the Hawks is our good friend, Lauren Williams, who covers them for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Lauren, how's it going? It's good. It's good. We are here. We are ready to talk Hawks. Lots of things happen to them over the off season or rather they did a lot of things in the off season. So let's do it. They certainly did. Yeah. They did. Bad, they're roster. Yeah, I guess, you know, kind of looking forward into into next season. What is the thing that fans are looking forward to the most about this Hawks team? Well, if I'm thinking from like a Hawks fans perspective, it's probably they wanted to

3:05be better than what they were last season and potentially be a team that goes beyond the first round of the playoffs, or excuse me, yeah the first round of the playoffs, Realistically, I don't know if they're gonna be a team that goes beyond the first round of the playoffs, solely because of how deep the east is. I mean, you cover the rafters or rather, you're in Toronto, so you're probably a little bit excited or feeling the excitement around Kauai, Leonard Jean, potentially back. And I feel like that puts quite a bit of strain on the rest of the Eastern Conference. And then obviously the King himself, LeBron James, with the 76ers, that makes the deeper, obviously Terry's Halliburne coming back for the Pacers. So there's just a lot happening in the east that it'll be interesting to see how quickly the Hawks can get everything together and position themselves.

4:05Yeah, and look, like you mentioned, the Eastern Conference is revamped. This Hawks team is, what I would say somewhat revamped too, they got 46 wins last year, ended up being the succeed, really pushed the defending champion, now defending champion, New York Knicks in the first round. And it was also, after the trade, young trade, it was the first full effort in the Jalen Johnson show, like that this is now his team, this is now his franchise, and this team revolves around him as the son of everything, right? The creation piece for every single piece out there. And they also revamped their roster with three Oklahoma City Thunder players, now in Aaron Wiggins in Lewdorth, and they were able to really just add defensive pieces that match what this group likes to do. So from a stylistic standpoint, what do you think we can expect from this Hawks group?

5:08I think that this is going to be a defense that likely wears opponents down. There's going to be a lot of energy expended, trying to figure out how to counter at the different lineups that Quince Knighter might be able to sort of throw out there, whether that's with Nikhil Alexander Walker, Dyson Daniels, CJ McCullum, Jalen Johnson, and Anika Hongun, that starting five, and then it's kind of going to come at you when you add in Lewdorth and Aaron Wiggins, and potentially Ryan Nemhart in the mix. So they have a lot of different options that they can throw your way. And that's not to mention what could potentially come with Kingston Flemmings and Zubi Ejrefour, who they both drafted in the draft this past June. So Zubi Ejrefour is a monster. And I don't know how much playing time he'll get, simply because he's a rookie. But if he does get a lot of playing time,

6:10it's because of his defense, and just how immovable he is when it comes to being in the post. So yeah, I think teams are going to have to get kind of creative with maybe some of the offenses they throw at that Hawks this season, just because they've so much defensive versatility. And then shooting, I mean, they did get better shooting wise, especially with the addition of Lewdorth and Aaron Wiggins, and I understand that, you know, Dort had a down year last year. Aaron Wiggins was trying to figure out where he fit onto the Thunder lineup. But we've seen what Quinn Snyder's able to do with guys who have had, you know, some success in other places, but he's able to help them kind of figure out what their opportunity in Atlanta is. We saw it with Nikkei-Lalik Sandor Walker last year, most improved player. We saw it with Dyson Daniels the year before that, most improved player. So maybe the Hawks are in line to be a three-peat for MIP with either of those guys or Ryan Nemhart,

7:12as I've already mentioned. You know, we haven't even talked about Buddy Heald, who's still technically on the roster. We'll see if he is come, you know, October when the season begins. You know, we don't know what kind of traits might pop up between now and then. But yeah, they have a lot of spacing on the floor. And I haven't even talked about Joclundale, who can shoot the ball as well from the five spot on Yekko Koglu who can shoot from the five spot. So I just think that they're maybe a prototypical three in the type of team, but they do have some guys who can go out and get their own shot in CJ McCullum. We saw a little bit of that with Nikkei-Lalik Sandor Walker and the regular season. Can he do that, you know, at the next level now that we've seen what he can do? It's really fascinating to me, because you mentioned like, like you look up and down this roster, and you're like, there are a lot of good players. Like they can be a deep, deep team. CJ McCullum has that veteran presence

8:12and obviously his scoring and off the bounce game is really, really important to them. Nikkei-Lalik Sandor Walker, for all the reasons you just mentioned, the spot-up shooting, the defense, his own on-ball creation growth has been really, really great to see. And the defensive nucleus, like everything that they strive towards, whether it's switching a bunch and being really pesky on that in front, having the length to be able to just one, cause a lot of deflections and run and transition. But two, I think more than anything, outside of what they can do defensively, like their cutting was really weaponized in the second half of the season after trade, young got traded between Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson and all of these guys, Quinn's not a found a way to like, squeeze as much juice out of their offense as possible. And you look at like the rest of this roster, I'm kind of curious who you think the X factor is, who could be the swing between, like you said,

9:13maybe making it to the second round or still being a first roundout type of team. Yeah, I kind of feel like it could be either Lude Dort or Aaron Wiggins because we saw them kind of be those pieces for the Thunder when they won the championship a couple seasons ago. So, you know, they have that, one, they already have the experience of what it means to make the deep playoff run and what teams are going to expect out of them. So I kind of could see it being either of those two, just because one, they're looking to have, you know, to prove something and nothing kind of motivates a guy better than having a little bit of a chip on their shoulder. And so I think those two are probably my X factors for this season. And if we're looking outside of those two solely because of, you know, just experience-wise, I think that the X factor could maybe be even Ryan Nemhart so, you know, because one, you have to wonder

10:15about the genetics of the Nemhart family. And again, his brother has experience going, you know, on a deep post-use in Ron, but he was kind of, you know, underrated and Dallas because there was so much going on around them. He had Cooper Flag, who a lot of people were, you know, putting their eyes on. And I think he kind of started to find his way toward the end of the season. And so I think he could take a step forward with the hawks depending on, you know, whether he's able to carve out a role because of his defense, shooting is obviously something that they're going to prioritize. And he does play, you know, a little bit bigger than his size. I know, you know, people look at him as an undersized guard, but he does have that hustle and dog mentality that quince nighter values. So, yeah, I think there are three potential options out there that, you know, could be somebody who, you know, takes a huge step forward in their career and we'll see that actually is the case when the season starts. I mean, I think the other aspect to this,

11:18and I'm just kind of like looking over the hawks numbers after they traded, trade young, but, you know, Jalen Johnson, what he was able to do, and I know he struggled in the postseason, maybe we could talk about some of his postseason struggles, but what he was able to do in the regular season, proving that one, his on-ball creation was real, he plays with a tenacity and a force that I think is relentless and really spurs on all of the transition game stuff that they want to do, but also like opens up the opportunity for shooters, IndyKill, NCJ, eventually Aaron Wiggins and LudoDort, like how he looks for a full regular season as the number one guy and then another crack at a playoff spot, another crack at like a playoff series will be really interesting to me. Why do you think he struggled? Like, what do you think that lapse happened in the postseason compared to, you know, the regular season where he found so much success? Yeah, I mean, there's nothing different

12:19than playoff basketball versus regular season basketball. I mean, I know guys talk about that all the time, and I do think people forget how young Jaylin is. He's only 24, about to turn 25, leaving December. And so that first, this was his, last season was his first, I'm starting so much, but last season was his first kind of like full season, no injuries. He's not playing behind anybody. As you mentioned, he's, you know, figuring out how to be the number one guy. And so it's understandable if that all sort of comes rushing at him at the most in opportune time, which is the postseason. And just sort of like the mental aspects of what playoff basketball entails. I think that he is a pretty hard on himself type of player. And so I think if things aren't maybe going the way

13:23that you envision, it's now how do you sort of move past that. And so in the playoffs, it's much faster because you have to play the same opponent every game, maybe for seven games. And so you have to make those adjustments quicker. And so figuring out how to sort of flush the previous game, you know, I think that's maybe an aspect that he has to work on and we'll see if maybe he found the right mental things to do in order to move from game to game to game because we kind of saw it with Brunson, you know, with how they lost those two games to the Hawks. And he was kind of maybe a little bit within himself after game four and then or skinny game three. And then it's just like a switch flipped. And he almost he was the same player, but he also wasn't. If that makes any sense, it's like he went into killer mode. I don't know. Yeah. And so it's like for a guy like Jalen Johnson, it's how does he transition to killer mode? Maybe a little bit faster. Yeah. No, that's that's a good thing.

14:23And by the way, like that doesn't happen without experience. Like you genuinely most of the time, you know, there are the rarities, the Victor Bumidiamis of the world and whatnot. But like most of the time. And even Wembee in the finals, you can tell like there was there was a moment there where it was all kind of too much. And yeah, like you just need the experience. You just need to have gone through the process to come out on the other side of better player. The one thing I'm focused on for the Atlanta Hawks next season, or maybe I'm curious about is just their half court offense. January 1st and onwards. Basically when they traded trade young onwards, there was 17th in half court offense efficiency. And again, like I know between McCollum and Nikiil and all of these shooters that they have in a floor spacing. What does a functional half court offense look like for this Hawks team? Can they get better? Can they be better than what they were, which was 17th in the league last year?

15:25This coming season, it's hard for me to say, yes, they can be better than that. I think they can eventually get there. I think with Drafting Kingston, they found their point guard of the future. But he's only 19. And it takes young guards a little bit of time to kind of get their feet wet when they get to the league. And we saw some really good things out of him at Somerley. I mean, low turnovers, high basketball, Q. Yeah, he was making the right decisions. He's good. He's good. It's just going to take a second for him to kind of figure out the NBA speed. And so the good thing about Kingston is that he does adjust quickly. So it will be interesting to see how he's able to make those adjustments in season and for 82 games. So to answer your question, I don't think they'll be better necessarily in the half court. Next season or in the coming season, but I do think that there seems to be a plan to try and

16:29get there, especially with the addition of Kingston. And I think they also hope that Dyson continues to evolve as a player. We saw him take a step forward as a creator, whether that's where his own shot at the rim or for other people. And so we'll see if that takes another step forward, especially, you know, if he can't quite get it shooting under, under control the way that the Hawks want him to. You know, one thing I think Kingston Fleming will be really, really good at is just adhering to the defensive identity of this team. Yeah. Like that. He's a dog. That matches incredibly well. And speaking of dog, like I was just looking it up, but the Hawks were third in terms of ball pressure. Last season, the league, there were six in terms of switching how frequently they were switching last year. And so I think Kingston Fleming's will, will like naturally work in that, you know, especially with you have C. Jim McCallum at the point of attack. Like one of the questions with him always is the defense and how he's able to stay in front. I think Kingston will be able to do that. And honestly, I kind of expect that to be something to happen even as a rookie, which is

17:33really, really hard to say, but it's possible. Okay, when we come back, we'll talk about, you know, Florence Healing for this Hawks team with Lauren and some expectations and predictions. This episode is brought to you by Onnet. You know those days where your schedules pack to the broom. You're jumping straight from managing work deadlines to squeezing in a workout, running family errands and trying to handle a million things all at once. When you're deeply engaged in a busy day, staying in that zone can make all the difference. That's where Onnet's Alpha Brain comes in as a daily, neutropic formula designed for daily cognitive support. It supports cognition, memory, attention, focus, and mental clarity while you're tackling your daily task. It supports the Alpha Brain Wave activity, helping you tune out distractions, get into the zone, and support that optimal flow state when you're deeply immersed in an activity. It supports quicker reaction times and relaxes and supports alpha wave activity during normal occasional stress. If you're ready to support your concentration and focus

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19:40so you can spend less time troubleshooting and more time focusing on what actually matters. Powered by AT&T Business, built to work. Get today at business. AT&T.com. And we're back with Lauren Williams. Hi, Lauren. Hi. What do you think is the floor and the ceiling of this Hawks team? We talked about first round outs and the potential of that, the Eastern Conference has gotten better. No doubt. What is the expectation? What is the floor and the ceiling for this Hawks group? Yeah, I think the expectation is obviously that they're going to go out there and compete and compete hard with the best of them. You don't go on beef up your defense without the expectation of their being some step forward on that side of the ball. But I think that again, when you look at the Eastern Conference, it's hard to

20:43imagine the Hawks being maybe any higher than six. Maybe they could squeeze into the five spot depending on whether they're injuries or anything like that in the Eastern Conference. But to me, six is the super optimistic ceiling. So staying in that top six because there were six laps, you were staying in that would be... And that's super optimistic. I think realistically, I see them more within the seven to nine positioning. It's hard for me to see them dropping all the way to 10 with as much talent on the roster as they have. And I only say that because when I go through the Eastern Conference and I list out the teams and I think about everything that each of those teams have done over the off season, it's hard for me to think about how they stack up

21:44against them. I look at New York, they're virtually the same roster. And we saw how they turned out with the Hawks. Obviously, things are a little bit different. But I kind of see them still being at the top of the East. Philly is always going to be obviously in the mix when you go out and get LeBron James and they added Jalen brown to the mix. So how are they able to kind of make all of that work? Pacers, as I already mentioned, to get Tyree's Halibur in back and we get to see what they look like with Evisa Zubach. Detroit kind of stayed the same except for a few like... And Celery moves, they obviously lost to Bias Harris, but they get John Collins and they still have Duncan Robinson in the mix. And they're a point guard that they just drafted. And I'm not going to try and say his name right now because one, I don't have the pronunciation guy. And I don't want to disrespect him that way.

22:45But he looked really good at Summer League as well. And then obviously, Kay, do you expect him to continue taking steps forward? Still remains to be seen what they have with Duren. And then, you know, for me, that's already four teams and five and six could be anybody's game. And I haven't even mentioned the Celtics yet. Or the Heat. Or the Rockers. Or the Rockers. So that's already like seven teams that one, historically, the Hawks have had some trouble against. Obviously, the Rockers are different, but just thinking about historically. They were swept by the Rockers last year. I think they got, I remember, did they get one game? They got one game on Detroit last year. Obviously, Pacers, I didn't even mention Cleveland. Yep. Cleveland. It's the, it's the, it's the conference is insane. It's insane. It's absurd. And honestly, like I think, you know, the conversation coming into this season is just

23:48how much the East has now overtaken the West. Of course, the West has the two top dogs and the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs and Minnesota and Denver will always be good and the Lakers are good. But just the sheer amount of depth in the East is incredible. And I think there's going to be a team that's disappointed. Yeah. There are going to be a few teams that are disappointed, you know, and I don't know. We'll see if the Hawks are one of those disappointed teams. But I, yeah, like you look at this group and you say there is a clear floor that they can achieve. I don't know how you feel, Lauren, but I feel like I've said that about the Hawks for the last 10 years, you know, where it's like, yeah, this could at the very worst, it can be a 41 team, 41 team. But that ceiling isn't necessarily there, like, like some of the other teams that we talk about. Do you feel like, like, what is the thing that needs to happen for this Hawks organization, the franchise, whatever to stop being, you know, middle of the road and take that next step?

24:51Look, it's weird. It's like one, I think in, you know, I'm going into my fifth season. And I do think that this is probably the strongest team that I've covered, you know, since I've started covering the Hawks. I mean, last year was probably the second strongest, just because of the depth. Obviously, they started off the season with Luke Knart and Christophe's for Zinges. And then things shifted. They went to the playoffs. So I can't discount that that was a very strong team that they were able to construct last season. And I think this team, it is stronger. It has the archetypes that they wanted. And that Ansi Saleh and Quinn Snyder believe are, is our archetypes that can lead to winning. I just think that they get very unlucky at some of the most in opportune times. You know, they miss out on Cooper Flag by one year with the number one pick. This year they had

25:53the Pelicans, the worst of the Pelicans and the Bucks pick and they dropped to eight. And I don't, I'm not saying anything about Kigston Fleming. I think he's a great player. Yeah, but it's different than that. What it's been for you to get number one. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, 100%. And so I do think just like, again, like I think that Eastern Conference Finals run that they had in 2021, luck was on their side because, you know, things fell apart for Philly. Things kind of fell apart for New York. But then unfortunately for them, Tray steps on the foot of a referee and they get booted after the Eastern Conference Finals. So I just think they have the weirdest luck. We'll see if luck is on their side this year. You know what? My mom always used to say this, but luck is preparation meets opportunity. The Hawks are prepared. They have a certain opportunity this season. As is Jalen Johnson, who is the best player on this team. And I think, you know,

26:55sometimes you go as far as your best player can take you. And what step can he take moving forward? Crystal Ball predictions. This is what I want to do. It's like three things that you can predict from this Hawks season, whether it's awards, whether it's, you know, some sort of win total, whatever you want to do. So I'm getting traded. It doesn't matter. But three predictions that you have for this Hawks season. Okay. Three predictions. They three Pete most improved. Oh wow, who's the, who's the winner this time? Um, you know, I'm gonna throw Aaron Liggins out there. I think he is gonna have, okay. You know, no, because I mean he's gonna have an expanded opportunity. And he has a full off season with Quinn Snyder and figuring out the system. Um, he's, he seems like a very smart player. He seems to do all the right things that cultures require of him. And so why not? Why not him? I like it. I like it. You know what? Aaron Wiggins was

27:56one of those guys where in, okay, see, he clearly wasn't given the same amount of opportunity, right? Like he just wasn't afforded the luxury of usage and time. And whenever he was, him in an expanded role looked excellent. Yes. He was awesome. And so I, maybe you're right. Maybe you're onto something. Aaron Wiggins is most improved player. Okay. Another prediction. What do you got for me? I think they get 48 wins. I think they get 48. An improvement from last year's 46. Two more wins than last year. All right. Two more wins. If they can, you know, because some of those wins could calm, you know, harm some wins in the West. They, they seem to struggle against Portland last year. Portland's a different team this year. So yeah, could get two wins there. And that's 40. And then a final prediction. It's hard. It is. Jocolandale, six man of the year. How do you feel about that?

28:59I like it, but I also think there are some teams that probably have some stronger candidates for six man. Sure. Love Joc. I think he's amazing. Maybe that maybe this is a cop out, but I think Dyson shoots better than 30% this year. Okay. That would be, that would be well welcomed. You know, I would be very, very happy if died because look, he's an incredible defender, a very smart cutter. If he can get that 3.0 percentage, just even a little bit higher, he's very clearly like a massive, massive part of this team. He needs, he just needs to shoot better. It's just point blank. He needs to shoot better. And the thing too is is that think of the different lineups that are going to be out there around him. He's going to have some better shooters. So I think the opportunity for him to be wide open is probably going to be there. So I don't hate it. I don't hate it. I don't hate it.

30:03I also don't hate the Atlanta Hawks and I absolutely love talking to Lauren Williams. Thank you very much, Lauren. As always, read Lauren about the Hawks, about everything sports related in Atlanta at the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Thank you very much, Lauren. Appreciate you as always. One plug. I do think yes, I cover the hug, the Hawks, but I also cover the dream. And the WNBA playoffs are a little bit over and over and over. Yes, yeah. Depending on when people are listening to this, the WNBA playoffs might just be real, like have started already. So I don't know, you know, whatever, either way, you do incredible coverage, either way. Thank you very much, Lauren. Appreciate it. As always, thank you to everybody who listened. This was your Hawks preview. And we'll see you guys next time. Thanks for waking up with us. Thanks for listening. Make sure you hit the subscribe or follow button so you never miss an episode. If you enjoyed it, drop a like, leave a rating,

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