The Whiteboard: Hawks without Trae Young, Wolves lose KAT and more

Today on The Whiteboard, the Hawks without Trae Young, the Wolves without KAT, Jalen Suggs hitting 3s and more.

Trae Young's injury and extended absence set up an interesting experiment for a team that had reportedly considered trading him and planning for a future without their offensive engine of the past few years.

So far, things are working out pretty well.

On Wednesday, the Hawks beat the Cavs, 112-101, their fourth win in the six games since Young went down, all by double-digits.

What's working for the Atlanta Hawks right now?

Admittedly the Hawks haven't faced the toughest schedule during this stretch — wins over the Magic, Jazz and injury-ravaged Knicks and Cavs, with a pair of losses to the Nets. But they've been winning with an average offense and an extremely strong defense.

Young has consistently been one of the worst defensive players in the league for years and so it makes sense that removing him from the lineup would have an immediate impact at that end of the floor. What matters more for the longterm is that the Hawks have been decently effective on offense without him.

Dejounte Murray has obviously shouldered much of the playmaking load, bumping his time of possession from 5.4 minutes per game before Young went down to 8.4 in the past six games, identical to Young's season-long average. He's struggled a bit with his shooting efficiency but he's still putting up 21.5 points, 8.8 assists, 6.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game.

They are also getting really nice bumps from Jalen Johnson and Bogan Bogdanovic who have each picked up about a minute per game in time of possession and, combined, are averaging 7.5 assists per game over the past six. The offense is still incredibly heliocentric — they aren't passing much more or utilizing shooter touches, but you can see the outlines of a more balanced offense with multiple complementary ball-handlers capable of creating around Murray.

It's not clear how much the Hawks will try to adapt in Young's absence vs. treading water but they're getting a sneak peek at an alternate future and right now, it looks pretty good.

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Worst-case scenario for the Timberwolves

The Timberwolves are tied for the best record in the Western Conference and just about everything has broken their way to this point in the season. But that changed today with the news that Karl-Anthony Towns may have suffered a meniscus injury.

If Towns were to need surgery he would likely miss significant time. If he pursues a non-surgical approach he would still miss some time but could return earlier, albeit with some potential limitations and other risks.

The Timberwolves have been fantastic on defense and their championship hopes rest on an average offense scoring enough to get by. Losing Towns would be a huge blow to that plan — he's averaging 22.1 points and 3.0 assists per game, shooting 50.6 percent from the floor and 42.3 percent from beyond the arc.

The Timberwolves are expected to release more information about the injury and his recovery timeline soon.

READ MORE:

• Karl-Anthony Towns and 2 more Timberwolves who won’t be back in 2025 after devastating injury by Lior Lampert, for FanSided
• Sources: Karl-Anthony Towns being evaluated for meniscus injury by Adrian Wojnarowski, for ESPN
• Karl-Anthony Towns tears meniscus in left knee, out indefinitely, per sources: Who needs to step up? by Jon Krawczynski, for The Athletic

QUICK HITTER: Jalen Suggs is finally making his 3s

Right from the beginning of this season, the defensive prowess and aggressiveness of Jalen Suggs helped set the tone for the resurgent Orlando Magic. However, his consistently shaky shooting was a major problem.

Suggs made just 27.1 percent of his 3s across his first two seasons and 35.3 percent through the end of this December. In a backcourt rotation that also featured non-shooters like Markelle Fultz and Anthony Black, Orlando's spacing was incredibly cramped and their offense struggled.

However, Suggs hit 5-of-10 in a 119-109 win over the Wizards last night and is now shooting 42.4 from beyond the arc since the beginning of January. It's still a relatively small sample in the grand scheme of things but it's brought his numbers up to 39.3 percent on the season. It's the product of relatively balanced performance — he's 23-of-50 on pull-ups and 49-of-120 on catch-and-shoot attempts — and the projection model DARKO has dramatically changed its estimate of his true 3-point shooting skill level — from about 32 percent at the beginning of the season to about 36 percent now.

If he really turns out to be somewhere between a respectable and good 3-point shooter it dramatically changes his player value to the Magic and raises his ceiling from solid role player to borderline All-Star. Here's hoping it's not a mirage.

Recommended Reading:

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