The Hawks are 14th in defense, a stated goal after finishing 26th a year ago and trading for Dejounte Murray in the offseason. Again, at a surface level, things seem okay. Yet, despite the recent Forwardgeddon, the Hawks are not a disaster.
TRAE YOUNG STATS VS WARRIORS FULL
Even at full strength, Hunter and Holiday have struggled mightily all year. They’ve had Bogdan Bogdanovic for only three games. The Hawks played their past few games in a roster pickle that has left them virtually devoid of NBA forwards, with De’Andre Hunter, John Collins and Justin Holiday all out of the lineup. If he’s going to perk up this season, now would be a good time to start. There is also the underlying story that things might seem much less dramatic if Young were simply making shots at his usual historic rate. Yet that incident may be the least of the Hawks’ problems. By those standards, his marching to the podium on Monday and announcing “I have a statement!” was as if Stan Van Gundy or Doc Rivers showed up with a chainsaw). Very even-keeled, polite, measured and totally devoid of printable copy. (*McMillan’s press conference dial is usually set at about 2 on a 1-to-10 scale. As our Jeff Schultz noted, Young responded to the whole debacle with something less than elite leadership.
Young, of course, made news when he sat out last Friday’s win over Denver under curious circumstances, as detailed by our Shams Charania and Sam Amick, which then prompted an emphatic* pre-game statement by head coach Nate McMillan before Monday’s loss to Oklahoma City. Suffice it to say, these are interesting times in Atlanta. Nonetheless, there is an impending sense that not all is well, and there are some good reasons for that.
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