It’s that time of the year again. Hawks basketball is back! After a week of training camp, the new-look Atlanta Hawks kicked off their 2025 preseason with a road matchup against the Houston Rockets.

While the final result didn’t go Atlanta’s way in the 122-113 loss, takeaways from a preseason basketball game should never be derived from the final score alone, and overall, it was an encouraging showing from a team with high expectations of themselves for the 2025-26 season.

New additions Kristaps Porzingis, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Luke Kennard all made their Hawks debuts, with Porzingis joining Trae Young, Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher and Jalen Johnson in the starting unit.

Meanwhile for Houston, Kevin Durant sat this one out, and in the wake of Fred Van Vleet’s brutal season-ending ACL injury, they trotted out a starting lineup of Reed Sheppard, Amen Thompson, Tari Eason, Jabari Smith Jr. and Alperen Sengun.

Atlanta played nine players in the first half, with Keaton Wallace (two-way) and Onyeka Okongwu joining the players above in the rotation, and it was clear that developing the chemistry between the projected top-eight* was a point of emphasis for Quin Snyder in this contest.

*Young, Daniels, Risacher, Johnson, Porzingis, Alexander-Walker, Okongwu, Kennard

Early on we saw Young connect with Daniels out of a pick-and-roll – one of their favorite actions from last season.

This was a nice possession to close the first quarter. Houston put two on the ball with Young operating the pick-and-roll, and three passes (four seconds!) later, Porzingis has an easy lay-in at the rim*.

*Shoutout Hawks Film Room for the clip. An easy follow on Twitter for all Hawks fans.

Midway through the second, Atlanta turned a Daniels steal into an open Kennard triple thanks to pushing the pace, ball movement, and proper spacing in transition. This was an encouraging sequence for a Hawks team that finished first in transition frequency but just 22nd in transition efficiency last season per cleaningtheglass.

Atlanta grew more comfortable on offense as the game went on. After some cold shooting out of the gate (43% from the field, 1-for-8 from three in the first quarter), they hit their stride in the second quarter (64% from the field, 7-for-13 from three) and finished the half with a 122.4 offensive rating. Trae

Young racked up nine points and eight assists in 18 minutes of action. Jalen Johnson scored 11 points on 5-for-8 shooting in 17 minutes.

To go along with their offensive performance, the Hawks also displayed their commitment to the defensive side of the ball in the first half, picking up eight steals and scoring 21 points off turnovers in the first 24 minutes.

It wasn’t perfect by any means. There were defensive breakdowns leading to more than a few open Rockets threes. Atlanta had no answers for Alperen Sengun (19 points, 6 assists in 17 minutes). They also allowed Houston to get to the line for 14 free throw attempts. The activity and effort level however, were encouraging.

Young, Porzingis and Johnson were all rested after the halftime break, with the rest of the top-eight joining them on the bench midway through the third, giving way for the likes of Mouhamed Gueye, Vit Krejci and Asa Newell to make their first contributions of the preseason.

While it was a valiant showing from the ‘stay ready’ crew, some ugly second half shooting splits (37% from the field, 7-for-26 from three) were difficult to overcome and Houston eventually pulled away.

Here are three takeaways from Atlanta’s first preseason game.

The Nickeil Alexander-Walker signing this summer was seen by many as a massive win for Atlanta’s front office and his performance in the preseason opener did nothing to quell the hype. ‘NAW’ brought palpable energy and intensity on both ends of the floor as soon as he entered the game.

Houston committed three turnovers on his first three defensive possessions, and he didn’t take long to make an impact on offense either, slicing through the paint for a score on his first offensive possession.

A few minutes later, he ripped the ball away from Steven Adams, forcing a take foul.

In addition to his outstanding defensive work, Alexander-Walker finished with 13 points on 5-for-8 shooting, including a 3-for-6 mark from downtown (encouraging volume!) to go along with three assists in 19 minutes of action. While it’s still too early to be projecting regular season rotations, if this performance was any indication, it will be hard to keep ‘NAW’ off the floor this season.

It’s no secret that Jalen Johnson’s season ending injury marked a clear inflection point in Atlanta’s 2024-25 season. Johnson was one of Atlanta’s most impactful defenders*, and was one of just 4 players to average 18+ points, 10+ rebounds and 5+ assists per game before he went down.

*Per cleaningtheglass, Atlanta posted a 111.7 defensive rating (78th percentile relative to other 5-man lineups in 2024-25) and allowed opponents to shoot just 63.1% at the rim (85th percentile) with Jalen Johnson on the floor last season.

Well last night he returned to the court and looked just like the player we were all missing last season, racking up 11 points, two steals and two blocks in 17 minutes of action. He had a couple of pretty transition finishes – including the one below where he muscled Amen Thompson out of the way before finishing at the rim.

Later, he showed off his defensive chops with this mean block on Tari Eason at the basket.

He even showed off the shooting touch, hitting an early shot clock three ball in the second quarter for his lone triple of the night.

We’ll have a lot of time to dissect Johnson’s play as the season goes on. I’d like to see him take his half-court scoring up another notch. However seeing him out on the floor last night, wreaking havoc for the first time in eight months was truly a wonderful sight, and it was great to see him pick up right where he left off.

After finishing third in pace and first in transition frequency last season, we know that the Atlanta Hawks want to play fast and put pressure on defenses early in the shot clock as often as possible. Last night was no different.

Atlanta made an effort to push the pace no matter the situation – exemplified by this three possession sequence in the second quarter.

That’s three straight offensive possessions, all beginning with either a sideline or baseline out of bounds, where the Hawks got a shot up in the first six seconds of the clock. Of course, this ‘bombs away’ strategy looks better when the shots are falling, but the Hawks do have the talent for it to pay dividends – as evidenced by their 37-point second quarter last night.

Basketball is a game of runs, and between this team’s offensive philosophies and their ability to force live ball turnovers on defense, they have the ability to put up points in a hurry, meaning they can either blow a game open at any given time or climb back into one that looks out of reach. It’s the sign of a dangerous team.