Atlanta Hawks enter 2019-20 looking to build on young core

Storyline No. 1: Expectations hot for Ice Trae

After the Rookie of the Year award had all but been conceded to Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks last season, Trae Young put together a fantastic run after the All-Star break to at least make that race somewhat interesting.

Young finished second in the voting after leading Atlanta to a 10-14 record after the break, while improving his numbers dramatically.

In 23 games after the February hiatus, Young put up 24.7 points, 9.2 assists and 4.7 rebounds in 33.1 minutes per game while shooting 44.2 percent overall, hitting 34.8 percent on 7.0 3-point attempts a game and hitting 87.8 percent from the foul line on 6.8 attempts nightly.

That came after pre-break Trae averaged 16.9 points, 7.6 assists and 3.3 boards in 30.0 minutes per game on 40.6 percent shooting overall, 31.2 percent on 5.5 deep balls a night and a 79.8 percent mark at the foul line on 4.4 attempts per game.

Further, his turnovers fell from 3.9 per game before the break to 3.4 afterward — still not ideal, but progress just the same. Before the break, Atlanta was 19-39, a .328 winning percentage, and improved to .417 (10-14) after the festivities in Charlotte.

There is a gaping hole in Young’s game moving forward, however. Defensively, he ranked No. 514 among 514 players — yes, that is dead last — in ESPN’s Defensive Real Plus/Minus metric at minus-4.78.

Only Jamal Crawford (minus-5.37) in 2017-18, J.J. Barea (minus-4.90) in 2015-16 and the quintet of Tim Hardaway Jr. (minus-4.89), Gary Neal (minus-4.92), Dennis Schroder (minus-5.02), Byron Muillens (minus-5.27) and Jimmer Fredette (minus-5.64) in 2013-14 have been worse in the six seasons of data ESPN has on the statistic.

So Young is not Patrick Beverley as a defender. And at 6-foot-2 (at least until the certified measurements are released) he will likely always be something of a liability.

Atlanta played fast last season, an NBA-high 104.56 possessions per game, which left the Hawks 23rd in offensive rating at 107.5 points per 100 possessions and 28th in defensive rating at 113.1. The 119.4 points per game Atlanta surrendered was by far the worst in the NBA, by a margin of 2.5 points behind the No. 29-ranked Washington Wizards (116.9).

The Hawks’ 113.3 points per game ranked 12th in the league.

Young’s 40.5 percent assist rate was the fourth-highest in NBA history by a rookie qualified for the league lead in assists, trailing only Brevin Knight (43.7 percent in 1997-98), Ennis Whatley (43.4 percent in 1983-84) and Jamaal Tinsley (42.8 percent in 2001-02).

But Young’s 17.6 percent turnover rate was the fifth-highest among qualified point guards last season, better than only Tim Frazier (21.1 percent), Ben Simmons (19.3 percent), Kyle Lowry (18.1 percent) and Ricky Rubio (17.8 percent).

Young will always be more volume scorer than efficient shooter, but if he can make strides with fewer turnovers and a bit more accuracy with his shooting, that will help offset the deficiencies that will likely be there his entire career on the defensive end.