The Hawks pace over the past two seasons has been juiced by their high turnover rates on defense, giving them plenty opportunities to score in transition. As of Tuesday, October 27, their defensive turnover rate (TOV%) is 13.9. Or in other words, out of every 100 defensive possessions, they are forcing around 14 turnovers.<\/p>\n
This has led them to being a top 10 team in pace (102.5 possessions per 48 minutes) so far this season \u2014 wholly unsurprising considering their quick-paced teams of late.<\/p>\n
A lot of this is driven by the Great Barrier Thief, Dyson Daniels, who has 14 steals (!) in four games which leads the NBA. Those opportunities quite often lead to Alexander-Walker flaring to the wing for open threes or Jalen Johnson run out dunks.<\/p>\n
As for the three-point rate, the Hawks are putting up 44.6% of their field goal attempts from behind the arc, slightly up from last season\u2019s 42.9% rate. Both marks had them 11th in the NBA respectively.<\/p>\n
The offense is built to move the ball and seek high value shots like catch-and-shoot threes \u2014 but oddly those attempts aren\u2019t coming from the corner to this point. The Hawks have the 27th corner three-point rate with 18.3% of threes from that location \u2014 the most efficient three-point area due to its slightly shorter distance.<\/p>\n
That might help explain their poor shooting so far this season, hitting just 33.1% long range of total attempts, down from their top five finish in 2025-26 (37.1%).<\/p>\n
But in reality, this is likely noise and a touch of bad luck. Three-point shooting is one of the last major metrics to statistically stabilize, so there\u2019s no reason to worry yet (including with respect to the center pairing discussed below).<\/p>\n
Dyson Daniels, still indispensable \u2014 on both ends of the floor<\/p>\n
We know Quin Snyder likes to spread the ball handling duties on offense in the post-Trae Young pivot they made over roughly the past calendar year.<\/p>\n
A big key to this is getting the other guards to screen and cut off the ball. It helps to have good perimeter size and physicality at all the backcourt spots when possible, and one guy above all accentuates this aim.<\/p>\n
Dyson Daniels is an all-world defender, and his tape over the past four games looks just as good as it did during his runner-up finish in the 2024-25 Defensive Player of the Year campaign.<\/p>\n
But let\u2019s talk about the other side of the floor for a bit.<\/p>\n
Daniels is often a lightning rod for discussion, largely over his inability to stretch the floor despite (ostensibly) being a guard. But he\u2019s among the best guards in the entire NBA at screening and cutting, often getting the ball around the free throw line giving him the option to shoot his patented floater or kick to corner shooters.<\/p>\n
I call him a false center on offense because his role resembles that of your standard pick-and-roll big man, just in a 6\u20197\u201d package. The threat of a pass out of the short roll is usually all he needs to get his flip floater shot over defenders.<\/p>\n
Also, he\u2019s dished out 14 assists this season against just three turnovers \u2014 efficient but notably playing less on the ball with Aaron Wiggins and Kingston Flemings joining the fold.<\/p>\n
In this manner, he\u2019s incredibly valuable to threatening the rim and giving a bit more space to shooters like a traditional above-the-rim center would be. Just like last season, the offense is better with him on the floor<\/a> than off (albeit a drop from around seven to two points per 100 possessions from last season to this one).<\/p>\n So while it sure would be nice for him to his more than one three in four games, the offense is far from reliant on it.<\/p>\n The shooting centers need to keep shooting<\/p>\n Related to Dyson Daniels\u2019 shooting woes, with the Hawks running the inverted offense where Daniels is screening and cutting, it\u2019s important to get floor spacing from the other positions.<\/p>\n The two centers (Onyeka Okongwu and Jock Landale) spacing the floor is rather key to allow these actions to flourish .<\/p>\n However, through four games, Okongwu and Landale are a combined 4-for-28 (14%) from three \u2014 including a 1-for-15 (8%) mark across the two-game Rockets sweep.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t have a lot to add for this one other than the shooters need to keep shooting. It\u2019s as simple as that. Turning down open threes will just junk of the Hawks offense even more.<\/p>\n Okongwu and Landale are fairly limited in other areas, including defensive rebounding (see below), so their value as a stretch center is paramount to let Daniels play his funky offensive game.<\/p>\n Shots will fall. Okongwu shot 38% from three last year, including hitting the most threes by a Hawks center in franchise history. Landale shot 38% as well. There\u2019s no reason to change boats midstream.<\/p>\n The Hawks might have a defensive rebounding problem<\/p>\n There was a possession in the Saturday home game against the Rockets when the Hawks had three chances to secure a defensive rebound. They failed all three times, giving Houston points on their fourth shot of the possession.<\/p>\n
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