The burgeoning Atlanta Hawks are finding their groove on both sides of the floor

To translate this success, the Atlanta Hawks need to leave their comfort zone.

Generally, much of this success has been based on McMillan’s knack for maximizing his players’ core strengths. Mitigating weaknesses is the hardest part of the job and to his credit, it appears like this year’s Atlanta Hawks are doing about as well as possible on that front. And yet there’s still so much for this team to improve upon, which begins with Young.

It’s been a relatively unimpressive start from the 2021-22 All-NBA selection, who is shooting horrendously through 13 games. Regression would suggest that he’s going to start knocking down more of these 3-pointers at some point, but it would seriously benefit the team to find creative ways to get him open using off-ball actions à la Stephen Curry. That way, he can find his rhythm and empower the rest of the team to do the same. When he’s a threat, it creates better looks for everyone else around him.

This team has firmly defined roles for its players up and down the roster. However, there’s room for some more experimentation that harbors development while remaining competitive. Let John Collins get some more post touches with the second unit, or run some high-post actions to let Okongwu flex his creativity. There’s more to be tapped into with this group than the core skills they bring to the table.

One of the more overlooked aspects of this strong start has been the phenomenal production of De’Andre Hunter, who seems to have returned to form in lieu of an injury-riddled season. He’s confident with his jump shot, sneakily talented as a playmaker, fits in everywhere on defense and hustles on every play. Making sure that he’s consistently involved in the game plan on both sides of the floor is going to maximize the potential for this rotation moving forward.

Overall, this Young/Murray experiment is working better than expected with the rotation players around them benefitting in the long run.

Yet they’re far from where they need to be in order to contend for a title, but the window is only just opening for this promising core of up-and-coming talent.