NBA Free Agency 2017: 5 offseason needs for the Atlanta Hawks
By John Buhler
4. Improved 3-point shooting
It wasn’t just rampant turnovers that limited the Hawks’ overall effectiveness offensively. This team that once set the league on fire with jump shooting only two years ago looked and played drastically different in 2016-17. The 3-ball wasn’t the weapon it once was for Budenholzer’s Hawks.
Atlanta did end up trading its best 3-point specialist in shooting guard Kyle Korver to the Cleveland Cavaliers for small forward Mike Dunleavy. While Dunleavy connected on a team-best 42.9 percent of his 3s for the Hawks, he only played in 30 games for the club after coming over from Cleveland.
It wasn’t that anybody in particular that played a lot of ball for the Hawks struggled from beyond the arc. The problem was that nobody was particularly explosive from distance. Atlanta usually had at least two players on the floor that could sink 35 percent on 3-pointers. However, the Hawks lost that edge of fearfulness that the threat of a Korver 3-pointer would give the opposing defense.
Could Atlanta re-sign Korver or land the next closest thing in Los Angeles Clippers wing J.J. Redick? Maybe, but those guys on are the wrong side of 30. Korver and Redick could fit into exactly the type of offense Budenholzer wants to run, expect Atlanta to target a younger 3-point shooters, especially if the Hawks aren’t willing to match an offer Hardaway could garner in restricted free agency.