Atlanta Hawks: A New Defensive Mindset

NBA teams are always paying lip service to the focus that they place on the defensive side of the game. First there’s the old adage of defense winning titles (which generates a debate designed for another day), and coaches are constantly asking for greater energy, effort and intelligence on that end of the floor. So with the Atlanta Hawks now seemingly aboard the preseason defensive bandwagon, should we be paying any attention?

In the early exchanges of the Hawks training camp, and through the players and coaching staff’s media day duties, defense seems to be the word at the forefront of everybody’s mind. This isn’t necessarily out of the left-field in terms of NBA sound bites from this time of year, but with the Hawks having been an outstanding and exciting offensive team thanks to their ball movement last season, you would’ve been excused for expecting the focus to be elsewhere.

Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal Constitution has reported that the opening few days of Hawks camp appear to be defensive-heavy in terms of workload, and the comments of head coach Mike Budenholzer back that up. “As a group, we want to have a defensive identity,” the second year coach told Vivlamore. Budenholzer continued:

"“If we want to get to where we want to be, we are going to have to be better defensively.”"

It’s all too easy to be skeptical and brush these type of comments off as another part of the background noise that is preseason, but Atlanta’s movements over the summer back these sentiments up. Before going on indefinite leave for his part in the highly publicized race scandal that has engulfed the franchise, general manager Danny Ferry played his part in signing Thabo Sefolosha and Kent Bazemore.

Sefolosha and Bazemore are two guys who appear to be drawn to competing defensively, and they fill a need at an area which was undoubtedly one of the Hawks’ biggest weaknesses last season. The Hawks had a dynamic and versatile wing pairing of Kyle Korver and DeMarre Carroll starting on the wings last season, but the problem they had was, without one of, or both of those two on the floor, their wing defense looked a shell of itself.

The addition of those two may not give quite the same instant offense of Louis Williams, or the three-point threat of Cartier Martin, but if it’s all about making Atlanta a more consistent, well-rounded and unselfish team, it’s another step in the right direction.

The construction of “Spurs East” — as many have dubbed the Hawks thanks to their personnel’s history with San Antonio — was never going to happen overnight. It involves the commitment of all parties involved to the system, to each other, and to the sets that Budenholzer coaches, often referred to by him as “concepts.”

Last year the Hawks were at best a middling defensive unit. They finished ninth in the league in steals, but aside from that they were generally out of the top 10 on that side of the floor. They were 14th in defensive rating giving up 104.1 points per 100 possessions. They finished 25th in the league in blocks, and also only 18th in defensive rebounds.

One of the areas where the Hawks ranked quite well last year was in terms of transition defense, yet even that is a key focus judging by the words coming out of the locker room. The Hawks gave up 12.6 fastbreak points per 100 possessions last year, the fifth lowest total in the league. That’s pretty good for a team that likes to push the tempo, yet they still want to get better. Vivlamore quotes point guard Jeff Teague as saying:

"“The league is a lot faster defensively all over and we definitely have to step it up.”"

The reality seems to be that the Hawks have retooled well, and injury permitting, they should come back better overall. As mentioned above, Sefolosha and Bazemore should be valuable defensive additions, but Al Horford shouldn’t be forgotten either. Judging by the individual defensive ratings of Hawks players from last year, Horford’s total of 100.7 was the best among players who logged any real quantity of minutes.

With the impact his return could have offensively as well, it seems like a significant number of analysts and basketball fans are sleeping on just how good this Atlanta team can be.

Budenholzer is gearing up for a new lockdown defense, and coupled with the team’s quickfire ball movement and large volume of assists, the Hawks seem like a team that very few players around the league will be looking forward to facing.