{"id":165283,"date":"2025-11-01T13:58:02","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T17:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=165283"},"modified":"2025-11-01T13:58:02","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T17:58:02","slug":"can-hawks-stay-afloat-in-the-east-without-trae-young","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/11\/01\/can-hawks-stay-afloat-in-the-east-without-trae-young\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Hawks Stay Afloat in the East Without Trae Young?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Atlanta Hawks recovered from their poor start, evening their record to 3-3 after a win against the Indiana Pacers on Halloween night. They did it without Trae Young, who suffered a knee injury against the Brooklyn Nets on Oct. 29. The Hawks star point guard traveled back to Atlanta for imaging on his knee to determine the injury&#8217;s severity and a recovery timetable.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, Head coach Quin Snyder adjusted his rotation against the Pacers with lineups not yet seen this season. During Young&#8217;s absence, the Hawks will lean on several players to increase their offensive output.<\/p>\n<h2>Can Hawks Stay Afloat in the East Without Trae Young<\/h2>\n<h3>Nickeil Alexander-Walker Enters the Starting Five and Immediately Produces<\/h3>\n<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/alexani01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nickeil Alexander-Walker<\/a> started in place of Young against Indiana, moving <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/daniedy01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dyson Daniels<\/a> to the starting point guard. Atlanta&#8217;s biggest free agent signing of the summer responded with his best offensive performance of the season. He collected 21 points (8-14 FG), three assists, three rebounds, and two steals across 32 minutes.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Nickeil Alexander-Walker - 21 Points, 3 Assists, 3 Rebounds vs Pacers - 2025-26 Regular Season\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4QXqyjarQQ4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Alexander-Walker repeatedly made his way into Indiana&#8217;s paint, putting pressure on their backline. He threw down a massive left-handed slam over <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/walkeja02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jarace Walker<\/a> to cap off Atlanta&#8217;s dominant third quarter. The Hawks outscored the Pacers 34-17 in the frame, building a 20-point lead. They never let off the gas pedal, starting their NBA Cup journey 1-0 with a +20 point differential.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This dunk will put some Stankonia \ud83d\ude24 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4NCCrs8Y4d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/4NCCrs8Y4d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ATLHawks\/status\/1984421504696606795?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 1, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Hawks need Alexander-Walker, Daniels, and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/johnsja05.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jalen Johnson<\/a> to get downhill consistently, especially in Young&#8217;s absence. The four-time All-Star specializes in making reads in the pick-and-roll and finding play finishers on dives to the basket or spot-ups from deep. Atlanta certainly passed its first test without Young, scoring a whopping 74 points in the paint. Johnson led the Hawks with 22 points, 13 rebounds, and eight assists, while Daniels added a season-high 18 points, nine boards, and six dimes. It was encouraging to see Daniels break out after a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/27\/hawks-why-dyson-daniels-2025-26-season-is-off-to-rocky-start\/\" target=\"_self\">slow offensive start<\/a> to the campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Alexander-Walker played an <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/08\/12\/projecting-nickeil-alexander-walkers-2025-26-role-with-hawks\/\" target=\"_self\">important role<\/a> off the bench for the Minnesota Timberwolves over the previous two seasons. However, if Young misses extended time, he will have the opportunity to prove himself in a high-usage starting role. The 17th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft already holds career-highs of 23.5% usage and 14.2 shot attempts per game.<\/p>\n<h3>Hawks Likely Lean on Their Defense with Big Lineups<\/h3>\n<p>Atlanta likely takes a sizeable step back in offensive efficiency without Young&#8217;s playmaking and ability to close games. However, the Hawks could take a jump defensively without him.<\/p>\n<p>At 6&#8217;5&#8221;, Alexander-Walker becomes the shortest player in the starting five. He and Daniels form one of, if not, the best defensive backcourts in the NBA. They single-handedly shut down this Pacers&#8217; possession, locking up <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/siakapa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pascal Siakam<\/a> and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/n\/nesmiaa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aaron Nesmith<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Might run out of words to describe how lovely it is to watch Nickeil Alexander-Walker defending next to Dyson Daniels. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4LDJdV7UMO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/4LDJdV7UMO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Kevin Chouinard (@KLChouinard) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KLChouinard\/status\/1984414300778230076?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 1, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Snyder has shown no hesitation in playing <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/o\/okongon01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Onyeka Okongwu<\/a> and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/porzikr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kristaps Porzi\u0146\u0123is<\/a>\u00a0together for long stretches. In Indiana, for the first time, he played Johnson next to both centers. This ultra-big lineup gives the Hawks a better chance to secure defensive rebounds. They rank 18th in this category as of Nov. 1. They can also switch 1-4 with Daniels and Alexander-Walker.<\/p>\n<p>In the past, Daniels, Johnson, and Okongwu&#8217;s lack of outside shooting caused spacing issues offensively. Opposing teams packed the paint and dared them to shoot. However, Porzi\u0146\u0123is&#8217; addition and Okongwu&#8217;s improved 3-point shot give Snyder more options. This lineup has a better chance of surviving offensively with the Hawks&#8217; best defenders on the floor.<\/p>\n<p>Atlanta entered this season with high hopes but will now try to stay afloat without its star point guard.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Atlanta Hawks recovered from their poor start, evening their record to 3-3 after a win against the Indiana Pacers on Halloween night. They did it without Trae Young, who suffered a knee injury against the Brooklyn Nets on Oct. 29. The Hawks star point guard traveled back to Atlanta for imaging on his knee [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5516,"featured_media":165294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,4,62],"tags":[1349],"class_list":["post-165283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-hawks","category-nba","tag-trae-young"],"modified_by":"Zach Kircher","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5516"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165283"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165296,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165283\/revisions\/165296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}