Over the past few years, the Hawks have meticulously transformed their roster to highlight the strengths and paper over the weaknesses of Trae Young. To cover for one of the worst defenders in the league, Atlanta has prioritized length, versatility and defensive upside at every other position. For one of the most ball-dominant floor generals in the league, the Hawks have forgone secondary creators and isolation scoring in favor of floor-spacing and off-ball threats.
The formula hasn't worked yet, but nearly every opportunity the Hawks have had to try a different path, they've doubled down — choosing what works best for Trae on paper.
But Young is now out for at least a month with a sprained MCL, and Atlanta has a chance to see what this complementary roster can do without its core player. So far, the returns have been good, and it might finally be enough to make them reconsider the multi-year plan.
The Hawks have been better without Trae Young
Young went down with his knee injury seven minutes into a game the Atlanta Hawks eventually won over the Brooklyn Nets. Since then, they've beat the Indiana Pacers and Orlando Magic by a combined 35 points, sandwiching an eight-point loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, giving us essentially a four-game sample without the star point guard in the lineup. Across the entire season, Atlanta is now minus-7.8 points per 100 possessions with Young on the floor and plus-3.6 when he hasn't been in the game, a swing of roughly 11.5 points.
Since Young went down, Nickeil Alexander-Walker has joined the starting lineup and gotten a chance to really chip in as a scorer, averaging 18.8 points per game over the last four. Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson have taken over as the primary playmakers and so far, they appear up to the challenge. Daniels is a more traditional perimeter creator, working through a lot of pick-and-rolls. Johnson gets a lot of touches at the elbows, and his triple-threat ability from that spot has a way of sucking in defenders.
With Young in the lineup, the ball is almost always in his hands and everyone else is a scoring threat only insofar as they're a target for a direct pass from him. With him out of the lineup, everyone is freer to put more pressure on the defense when the ball is swung to them — there aren't more scoring threats on the floor, but they need to be defended differently, with more possible actions in play.
Five different Hawks are averaging at least 3.0 assists per game in the four games since Young went down, and seven have averaged double-figure scoring. Atlanta doesn't have a single individual player who puts as much pressure on the defense as Young, but without him, they're a real threat to become more than just the sum of their parts. Playing with him puts a ceiling on young talents like Johnson and Daniels; they don't need to stretch their wings and find the outer limits of their talents because they only need to be role players. But what if they actually turn out to be stars, the kind of players who can be built around — and in a much more flexible way than the rigid hierarchies and role distinctions Young requires to be successful would allow for?
For all his offensive brilliance, Young makes the Hawks' offensive reductive and simplistic — it's a clear decision tree where everything flows from him. Without him, that tree because a mess of brambles that defenses need to fight through.
We're still talking about a very small sample, and there are bigger tests coming for the Hawks over the next three weeks. But this is also a major adjustment, and they should get better and more confident sharing the offensive load and finding ways for everyone to contribute as playmakers rather than just play-finishers. The defense will certainly be better, and Atlanta is now forced to run an experiment on what this offense looks like without their franchise cornerstone. There seems like a decent chance they discover they've actually been limiting themselves by making it all about Trae.
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The best NBA players this season who are actually ... say it with me ... 6-(foot)-7
If you're like me, with a 13-year-old and 10-year-old at home, the numbers 6 and 7 have become an indelible part of your family life. We see them in phone numbers and addresses, on math homework and Lego boxes. Multiple times a day, we hear them stretched out in that lilting drawl, head cocked as open palms rise and fall.
In honor of my increasingly very online offspring, I'm leaning into the discourse today and ranking the best 6-foot-7 players in the NBA right now.
(Note that I ranked the best NBA players at every height before the season started, and have already had to make some adjustments. Also, Kawhi Leonard and Jimmy Butler were honorable mentions on that preseason list, but the NBA now lists them at 6-foot-6. So they're out).
7. Jonathan Kuminga, F, Golden State Warriors: I was ready to give up on him before the season started, but he's been legitimately good and addressed a lot of his biggest weaknesses. Kuminga is shooting over 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3. He's playing great defense, has cut down on his turnovers and is averaging 16.4 points, 6.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game. The Warriors couldn't ask for much more than this.
6. Dyson Daniels, G, Atlanta Hawks: Daniels got off to a slow start but, as we mentioned above, he's blossomed since Trae Young went down. He's only averaging 10.1 points per game, but he's hitting better than 40 percent from beyond the arc, averaging 5.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists and threatening to lead the league in steals for the second straight season.
5. OG Anunoby, F, New York Knicks: Anunoby is entering his second full season in New York and feels like he's found his equilibrium — one of the best 3-and-D role players in the league. He can occasionally do more on offense, but you probably don't want to rely on him to carry your team at that end of the floor.
4. Jerami Grant, F, Portland Trail Blazers: The Blazers are back and so is Grant. He's back over 20 points per game and is in the ballpark of 50/40/90 shooting percentages, with only free throws holding him back. He's not the defender he used to be, but his scoring is off the charts right now and helping power Portland's strong start.
3. Amen Thompson, G, Houston Rockets: Thompson was the choice in my preseason article, but there have been some bumps in the road as he takes over as the full-time point guard for Houston with Fred VanVleet out. Still, he's providing elite defense and averaging 17-5-5 for one of the best teams in the league right now.
2. LaMelo Ball, G, Charlotte Hornets: Ball is woven into the evolution of the 6-7 meme, and he gets his flower here. His shooting percentages are still shaky, and he takes a lot of bad shots. But the Hornets are surprisingly frisky, and he's averaging 23.0 points, 9.8 assists, 7.8 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game.
1. Josh Giddey, G, Chicago Bulls: Look, I'm as surprised as anyone else. I thought the Bulls would probably regret investing in him to the tune of four years and $100 million after one season of garbage-time productivity. Instead, he's taken the leap in almost every category — averaging 23.1 points, 10.0 rebounds and 9.1 assists — and helped lead the Bulls to a 6-1 start, best in the Eastern Conference. For now, he's got the 6-7 crown.