The Atlanta Hawks have one of the NBA’s best offensive playmakers and creators with Trae Young and over the past few years, he alone has been able to give them one of the best offenses in the NBA. While the Hawks did lose Dejounte Murray this summer, that is a move that I would argue frees their offense up. Young is better when directing the offense by himself and the big question coming into the year is if the Hawks have enough around Young for them to still have a good offense. I would argue yes, but CBS NBA analyst Sam Quinn does not and has the Hawks projected for the No. 19 offense in the NBA:
“Early in his career, Trae Young made a habit of lifting miserable rosters up the leaderboard as perhaps the league’s most underrated generator of team offense. But over the past two seasons, the Hawks with Young haven’t been that much better than the Hawks without him. You can probably thank Dejounte Murray for that. The two didn’t fit together on offense, but Murray could lift Atlanta enough in bench minutes to keep the overall offensive rating high. Murray is gone, and with him is any hope that the bench can survive. Will Young be able to make up for that with the starters? He did so early in his career, but it’s just really hard to get excited about the supporting cast here. Young forwards Jalen Johnson, Zaccharie Risacher and Dyson Daniels are all promising in other ways, but none of them are reliable, high-volume 3-point shooters yet. Bogdan Bogdanovic is, but health has been a major issue throughout his Hawks tenure and playing him and Young together might not be defensively viable. If Young misses games Atlanta’s offense is sunk. This is around the portion of the list teams with one high-end creator and a roster with limited shooting tend to end up.”
I would argue that those guys getting to play alongside Young is going to lift them up and guys like Risacher and Daniels are going to get open looks this season. I don’t think the Hawks are going to have the best offense in the NBA, but I have a hard time imagining a team led by one of the best offensive players in the NBA is going to finish 19th.
Additional Links:
NBA Predictions: Projecting the Eastern Conference Standings For the Upcoming 2024-2025 Season
