Happy holidays to you and yours!
Today is the day Santa Claus brings gifts to all the nice kids — and coal for the naughty ones.
What about theses Atlanta Hawks? Jolly Ole Saint Nick has checked his lists not once but twice, and he’s determined which of this year’s players has earned their place on either column.
The Hawks sign-and-traded for Nickeil Alexander-Walker this offseason on a four-year deal worth the mid-level exception (approximately $60.4 million over four years). He has already proved to be well worth the money and more. After spending his entire career as a mostly bench player, he’s started 24 games for the Hawks this season and provided scoring punch that they’ve needed in the wake of Trae Young’s injury.
He works tirelessly on defense — often taking the toughest assignment when Dyson Daniels is out of the game — and he’s bumped up his usage on offense to a career-high 20.3 points on 59% true shooting in 32.7 minutes per game. Not a ton has gone right with the free agent and trade acquisitions this past offseason (more on that later), but ‘NAW’ has brought tons of holiday cheer.
Vit Krejci’s rise from two-way player to closing games for the Hawks must be studied.
At one point, Krejci wasn’t at all willing shooter, and his defense was unplayable at the NBA level. His drives into the lane that ended in a pass out instead of a restricted area shot attempt were a source of frustration early in his Hawks career.
But after a stint in Hawks University down in College Park, he came back firing from deep while playing improved defense. Over the past three seasons, he’s shooting 45% from three on 4.0 attempts per game, and this season he’s hitting an absurd 48% from three on 5.6 attempts per game. His quick trigger has been huge for the Hawks’ spacing, and even after checking (Czeching?) his list twice, Santa Claus definitely has him on the ‘nice’ side of things.
Asa Newell’s long-range touch
Another unexpected shooting leap, Newell’s game at Georgia was mostly as a downhill finisher. In his one-and-done college season, he hit 26-for-89 shots from deep for a 29% three-point shooting percentage over 956 court minutes. Now, in just 215 minutes of NBA gameplay, he’s already knocked in 18-of-35 attempts (52%!). Who knows? Maybe his range extends to the North Pole.
Jalen Johnson’s offensive output
What more needs to say about Johnson’s ascent? He’s averaging 23.8 points, 10.5 rebounds, 8.3 assists per game and true shooting 62% on by far the highest usage of his career. Only four other players have ever averaged 23 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists per game across a whole season: Nikola Jokic, Russell Westbrook, Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson.
He’s a lock to make the All-Star Game at this rate despite the backsliding Hawks as a whole. His game hasn’t all been great (again, more on that below), but they needed him to step into the role of a number one option on offense minus Trae Young, and he answered that call.
On Santa’s naughty list
I’m a proponent that there are no bad one-year deals, and that includes Kennard on his $11 million contract inked this summer. The Hawks had the cap space so why not use it? At worst, they can include the salary in a trade or simply let him walk in 2026. But it’s safe to say this acquisition has been a disappointment.
Kennard’s passivity on offense is all too noticeable. He’s not getting up three-point shots (7.1 attempts per 100 possessions, his lowest since his rookie season), and he often looks to get rid of the ball as quickly as possible like he’s playing a game of Hot Potato.
He’s not in the rotation for his defense, so if he’s also not a threat to score, create advantages for himself or others or assert himself in any meaningful way, he deserves coal in his stocking this season.
The 20-minute cap on Zaccharie Risacher and Mouhamed Gueye
I just don’t get this one.
Risacher has had an up and down sophomore season so far to be sure, but it’s odd from a confidence standpoint to continue to start him and not close games with him. His defense is legitimately impactful, and the team as a whole is +4.7 points per 100 better with him on the court versus off the court. It’s time to take the training wheels off him and let him grow in crunch time (and Tuesday’s untimely “foul” simply wasn’t a foul).
Gueye’s minute cap might be even more inexplicable. This is a team starved for paint protection in wake of the status of Kristaps Porzingis. He also has his struggles on offense, but the easy solution is the pair him with one of Young or Johnson and let him do what he does best: deter shots near the rim. Mo is averaging 2.0 blocks per 100 possessions — not accounting for the numerous other shots he affects — and his own on-off plus/minus is an almost identical +4.6.
Jalen Johnson’s defense
There’s no sugarplum-coating this one. This development been a major disappointment. Johnson’s activity on defense could best be described as ‘igloo-like’, and the Hawks defense simply bleeds points when he’s on the court (118 versus 114 on-off team defensive ratings). It would be a Christmas miracle if he can look anything like the defender he was two or three years ago now that Trae Young is back in the fold, but that seems like the only real path to team success at the moment.
Fluke injuries and illnesses
It wouldn’t be a Hawks season without a sudden rash of injuries. Trae Young has missed 23 games and counting. Kristaps Porzingis has missed 19 games and counting. Jacob Toppin, Eli N’Diaye, and N’Faly Dante have all suffered season-ending injuries (two of them labrum tears, the same thing that ended Johnson’s and Kobe Bufkin’s years last season).
The injury gods have been the naughtiest kids of all.
What do you think? Who should be added to the nice and naughty lists? Please discuss that and the Christmas Day NBA action below.