{"id":2126,"date":"2016-11-01T13:55:17","date_gmt":"2016-11-01T17:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/?p=2126"},"modified":"2016-11-01T13:55:17","modified_gmt":"2016-11-01T17:55:17","slug":"steady-start-atlanta-hawks-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2016\/11\/01\/steady-start-atlanta-hawks-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Steady Start to the Atlanta Hawks Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week,\u00a0the Atlanta Hawks<\/strong> began life without Al Horford<\/strong><\/a>. While they have only played three games so far, the Hawks have shown some encouraging signs in their three victories.\u00a0Of course, Atlanta’s early schedule has been kind<\/a>, matching them with three teams who failed to make the playoffs last year. Yet, the Hawks have proven their strength in depth, winning each game by over ten points.<\/p>\n

Steady Start to the Atlanta Hawks Season<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Bench Contributions<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Atlanta’s bench performance has been spearheaded by Thabo Sefolosha<\/strong><\/a> and Mike Muscala<\/strong><\/a>. Sefolosha leads the league in steals<\/a> through the first three games, despite only playing 22 minutes per game. His active hands\u00a0have\u00a0boosted\u00a0the Hawks and they have the highest defensive rating<\/a> in the league.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Muscala has thrived\u00a0with his increased minutes<\/a>, averaging 11\u00a0points per game. His field-goal percentage has been efficient and he has chipped in with rebounds and blocks, further emphasizing\u00a0the Hawks’ stifling defense. Moreover, his impressive free throw shooting contrasts Dwight Howard’s<\/strong><\/a> well-documented struggles from the line.<\/p>\n

Korver Finding His Range<\/strong><\/h3>\n

After a three-point barrage in 2014\/15, Kyle Korver’s <\/strong><\/a>shooting touch deserted him the following season<\/a>. But early into this season, Korver seems to have found consistency again. He has shot regularly and efficiently, connecting on nine of 15 long-range attempts. He has benefitted from Howard’s imposing presence inside, which has sucked defenses\u00a0in and left Korver open.<\/p>\n

The 35 year-old’s ability to nail shots from outside is crucial to improving the Hawks’ offense. They ranked 21st in offensive rating last season; but after the first few games this season, they have upgraded to 7th<\/a>. Korver’s offensive slump seemed closely correlated with the team’s overall offensive slump\u00a0in 2015\/16, but there are signs of recovery in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

Millsap’s Consistency<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Underpinning the Hawks’ solid start had been the unwavering reliability of Paul Millsap<\/strong><\/a>. He has more responsibility – particularly on offense – with Horford gone, but has risen to the challenge. In the three games so far, Millsap has averaged 19 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists. It’s numbers like that that could send the 31 year-old to his fourth consecutive All-Star<\/strong>\u00a0Game.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Room For Improvement<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Hawks have brushed aside weaker teams so far, but they will need to improve in order to beat the real contenders in the NBA<\/strong>. One factor\u00a0will be Dennis Schroder’s <\/strong><\/a>finishing. While the speedy German\u00a0<\/strong>is an excellent driver, he needs more composure to finish at the rim. Among the 58 players to average five drives per game, Schroder’s field-goal percentage ranks 30th having driven<\/a>.\u00a0That isn’t terrible, but he needs to boost that ranking to become a go-to scorer<\/a> for the Hawks.<\/p>\n

In addition, the Hawks need Howard to become more efficient from the field. Given that his shots mostly come from inside the paint, his 45.5% shooting from the field is poor. It’s early days for Howard, though, as coach Mike Budenholzer<\/strong>\u00a0has to accommodate a different type of center. His 18 point performance in the last game against the Kings was encouraging, particularly as he shot 5 of 9 from the field.<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Hawks have been imposing in their three wins the season, but there are 79 games to go in the regular season. If they can continue their defensive prowess and developing offense, the Hawks’ will be a\u00a0dangerous team in the Eastern<\/strong> Conference<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo<\/p>\n

Atlanta Hawks (4)\u00a0Paul Millsap<\/a>\u00a0driving to the bucket in game vs Oklahoma City Thunder at the Chesapeake Arena in Oklahoma City. December 10, 2015<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has been a steady start to the Atlanta Hawks season. A variety of factors have contributed to this, but the Hawks still have areas to improve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1484,"featured_media":2149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_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":[4,2,62],"tags":[251,65,252,205,364,550,96,153,367],"class_list":["post-2126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hawks","category-featured","category-nba","tag-atlanta-hawks","tag-basketball","tag-dennis-schroder","tag-dwight-howard","tag-kyle-korver","tag-mike-budenholzer","tag-nba","tag-paul-millsap","tag-southeast-division"],"modified_by":"Harrison Marcus","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2126","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\/1484"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}