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The Atlanta Hawks have just about everything you could want in an NBA roster.
Lockdown defenders: Dyson Daniels and Lu Dort
Knockdown shooters: Nickeil Alexander-Walker, CJ McCollum, and Corey Kispert
Hard-nosed bigs: Onyeka Okongwu and Jock Landale
3-and-D wings: Aaron Wiggins and Dorian Finney-Smith
Promising young players: Kingston Flemings, Asa Newell, and Zuby Ejiofor
And an up-and-coming All-Star: Jalen Johnson
Hawks head coach Quin Snyder has such a deep roster to turn to that Atlanta can play basically any style it wants with interchangeable pieces. If Okongwu misses a week, Ejiofor can step in. If Daniels is out, Dort can take the toughest perimeter assignment. Wiggins can handle some of the same responsibilities as Alexander-Walker. There are going to be nights when Snyder looks down his bench and has multiple answers for whatever the Hawks need, which will be one of the strengths of the team over the long regular season.
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But the Hawks are missing one critical thing: Who gets them a bucket at the end of a close game?
Last season, McCollum scored 0.82 points per isolation. Alexander-Walker scored 0.85. Johnson scored 0.78. All three ranked below the 50th percentile, according to Synergy Sports. As a team, the Hawks ranked dead last in isolation scoring.
McCollum certainly had his moments against the Knicks in the playoffs, hitting the go-ahead baskets in both of Atlanta’s wins in the first-round series. But New York found an answer by putting Josh Hart on him. Over the final three games, McCollum averaged just 11.3 points on 39.5% shooting, and he committed 10 turnovers to only four assists. The Knicks adjusted, and Atlanta’s most reliable scorer in the series suddenly had a much harder time creating anything.
Getting out and running wasn’t much of an option either. The Hawks ranked third in fastbreak scoring during the regular season at 18.1 points per game. They scored seven fastbreak points in Game 4, four in Game 5, and eight in the Game 6 clinching blowout loss. New York forced them to play against a set defense….
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/the-hawks-have-everything-except-a-closer-can-jalen-johnson-be-the-guy-164259024.html
Author : Kevin O'Connor
Publish date : 2026-10-07 16:42:00
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