Pero Antic: The Atlanta Hawks’ Secret Weapon

Although injuries may have rendered them a very different opponent, when the Indiana Pacers came into Philips Arena last night to face the Atlanta Hawks, they were confronted with some familiar foes. None of the Hawks have caused the Pacers as many nightmares as Pero Antic though.

When the two teams met in the first round of last year’s playoffs, the eighth seeded Hawks pushed the top seeded Pacers to the wire in a seven game series. A massive part of the reason why they were able to do that was the chaos that Antic caused them on the defensive end.

With the Pacers’ big men so uncomfortable with coming away from the paint, Antic’s ability to draw them away from the low post created greater space for his Atlanta teammates. If Antic had shot the ball even reasonably well in the series, instead of his 16.7 percent field goal percentage and 12 percent from long range, there’s little doubt that it would have been the Hawks advancing rather than the Pacers.

Where as a rookie the Macedonian big man was contributing to Atlanta as a part of their system, in his second year Antic is making genuine contributions in his own right.

When Trey Kirby of NBA TV’s The Starters tweeted out Al Horford‘s on/off defensive numbers the other day, it seemed like a cause of surprise for many.

Horford is widely regarded as a defensive stalwart, and there’s no doubt that he has a big impact on that side of the ball, but the fact that the Hawks actually improve defensively without him on the floor makes perfect sense to avid watchers of Atlanta.

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Quite simply, that’s how effective Pero Antic has been on that end of the floor this season. Antic has been right around the top of the Hawks’ leaders in terms of defensive rating throughout the season, currently only allowing 96.2 points per 100 possessions, with only Thabo Sefolosha able to do better than that.

In HawksHoop’s Bo Churney and Buddy Grizzard’s recent piece for ESPN, Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer explained that Antic isn’t like most other players:

"“He’s so unique. He does things, you just go back and watch film and usually it’s brilliant. It’s not necessarily anything that we’ve told him. He’s just a really, really smart, instinctive player, including the defensive end. You go back and watch tape of him and learn a lot.”"

In the month of January, Pero has had those smarts on full display too. Not only has he been his usual defensive force, but the 33-year-old has found his offensive groove too.

In Atlanta’s eight wins so far this month, Antic is averaging 8.6 points and 3.4 rebounds in just under 18 minutes a game. Those points have come on much more efficient shooting than usual too. With Antic averaging 45.7 percent from the field, and 43.3 percent from three-point range to start 2015, it’s harder to stop the Hawks than ever before.

In fact, if Antic and the rest of Atlanta’s role players can continue on that sort of tear, there may be no stopping the Hawks in any way.

Next: Atlanta Hawks: Could Injuries Be A Problem?