Atlanta Hawks Scouting Report

Here is a look at the Celtics first round matchup; the Atlanta Hawks

Record: 48-34
Seed: 4th in the Eastern Conference
Last 10 games: 6-4

Projected Starting Lineup: Jeff Teague, Kyle Korver, Kent Bazemore, Paul Millsap, Al Horford

The Atlanta Hawks are one of the hottest teams in the Eastern Conference and have started to look like the team that dominated the East last season. Atlanta’s head coach Mike Budenholzer has built a movement based offense with lots of passing and constant motion on and off the ball. While on offense the main idea is to be patient and try to find the most favorable circumstances to attack the basket. They have the tendency to make the extra pass when needed and that’s why they usually give up good shooting opportunities for greater ones.

Atlanta’s group of players is quite suitable for this system. They have a very quick point guard in Jeff Teague who, however, is not running the offense as effectively as last season. They also have a three-point specialist in Kyle Korver who comes off screens to take tough shots. Kent Bazemore has exceeded expectations with his performance in his attempt to cover up for DeMarre Carroll’s absence. Atlanta’s biggest weapon however is their frontline. Paul Millsap and Al Horford are two quality big guys who are very quick and mobile and that helps them to play away from the basket and create some offense.

Let’s take a look at some important stats of the Atlanta Hawks:

Basic Stats

Points per game: 102.8 (12th), Opp Ppg 99.2 (6th), Plus/minus: 3.6 (7th)
Rebounds per game: 42.1 (24th)
Assists per game: 25.6 (2nd)
Field Goal Percentage: 45.8% (11th)
3-point Percentage: 35.0% (15th)

Advanced Stats

OffRtg: 103.0 (18th), DefRtg: 98.8 (2nd), NetRtg: 4.1 (7th),
TS% 55.2% (7th), eFG% 51.6 (6th)
Pace 99.4 (8th)

Opponent stats

Opp FG%: 43.2 (1st), Opp 3P%: 33.8% (6th), Opp Rebounds: 46.5 (28th), Opp FTA 22.1 (7th)

More from Hardwood Houdini

Here we can see the most frequent plays the Hawks use in offense:

Spot-up: 21.1% of the time (6th in the NBA), Points Per Possession: 0.97 (13th in the NBA)
Pick n roll (ball handler): 16.7% of the time (18th), PPP: 0.73 (28th)
Transition: 14.8 % of the time (9th), PPP: 1.12 (13th)
Pick n roll (roll man): 8.5 % of the time (5th), PPP: 1.04 (9th)
Cuts: 8.4 % of the time (7th), PPP: 0.97 (13th)

Below we will see how well Atlanta defends on certain types of plays:

Transition defense: 6th in the NBA
Isolation defense: 4th in the NBA
Pick n roll (ball handler) defense: 4th in the NBA
Pick n roll (roll man) defense: 10th in the NBA
Post-up defense: 5th in the NBA
Spot-up defense: 12th in the NBA
Cuts defense: 8th in the NBA

It’s quite obvious that the Hawks prefer to move the ball in order to find open shots for most of the players. Moreover, as we said Millsap and Horford are very important for their game for two main reasons: one, they are bigs who can run the floor and make transition buckets and two, they run the pick-and-roll nicely and shoot their mid-range game is effective.

We can also see that Atlanta is one of the best defensive teams in the league and they defend most of the plays very effectively. They manage to keep their opponents under 44 percent percent from the field. On the other hand, the Hawks are one of the worst rebounding teams in the NBA, especially on the offensive glass. They don’t go to the free throw line often (30th in the league) and are not so effective near the basket.

Next: Boston Celtics: End of Season Report Card

The Boston Celtics have to play at the top of their game and try to exploit Atlanta’s weaknesses if they want to move past the first round. It’s definitely going to be an exciting and long series so Brad Stevens needs to have all his players ready to come in and give 100 percent. Perhaps it’s hard to predict the outcome of this series, but we can say for sure that it is going to be a must-watch playoff battle.