News - Atlanta Hawks - Bulldog63
Defense
The Hawks have a disappointing 5-11 record as of this writing, which is on pace to fall below last season's 30-win total. Where have things gone wrong so far? Well, if the picture above, didn't clue you in, it's defense. The hawks have 3 epic rim protectors but boast the 3rd worst defense in the league so far, at 120.4 PPG. So where has it gone wrong? There are 2 main culprits:
1) Transition defense:
The Hawks are the *worst* team in the league at giving up fast break points, at 23.1 per game. This has been undoubtedly somewhat due to their offensive strategy, which is having their monster center Donovan Clingan crash the offensive boards for putbacks; this is reflected in their 2nd best second-chance points rating, one of 2 teams over 10ppg in this category. But it clearly comes with tradeoffs, one the hawks will have to consider changing; having epic paint protectors wont' do much if the ball's in the basket before they even make it to the paint.
2) Perimeter defense:
The hawks are in the bottom 5 for 3P% against and 6th in 3PA against, which suggests an inability to properly contest out of the pick and roll. There have also been lots of help defense lapses so far, defenders helping out of the corner when the player is already well-defended, allowing an easy kick-out and open 3. Getting a true point-of-attack defender would definitely help in this regard, but even getting one of those will only do so much to alleviate the issues. While bane, quickley, and stewart are all "ok" defenders, they aren't really plus defenders, so aside from the paint protection the roster just doesn't have a whole lot going for them defensively. They may be more in line for a defensive scheme shift than a drastic personnel shift. There is still lots of room to grow for some of these players, but the more established guys just are who they are. The hawks certainly are sniffing about for any upgrades they can make to the defensive perimeter, so we'll see if something materializes.
© 2019|
All Rights Reserved |
About Us |
NBA SIMS LEAGUE