The Hawks’ regular season finally arrives Wednesday night, when the team tips off its first full season under the guidance of coach Quin Snyder.
The team has implemented a new system, and they’ll look to improve upon last season’s 41-41 regular-season record.
Here are five keys to the coming season:
Young and Murray’s offcourt chemistry
The Hawks believe that Trae Young and Dejounte Murray can make their partnership work. The team extended Murray’s contract in the offseason, furthering its commitment to building the roster around the skills that he and Young possess.
Murray and Young also have confidence in their partnership and believe that their court chemistry can translate into the games.
The Hawks are a much stronger team with either of the two guards on the floor, as they help to facilitate steady ball movement. Together, the two help to put pressure on defenses and keep them off-balance with their threats as scorers.
Snyder has cautioned patience with the two guards as they continue to navigate their growing on-court relationship. But the Hawks will want things to click to give the team a chance at a good start this season.
For Young, that means playing the right way.
“I mean, there’s a lot of things,” Young said. “I mean, obviously you want to win every game. But if you’re playing the right way, and sometimes shots don’t go in or certain balls don’t go in some nights, it’s going to be like that you play (82) games. So it’s hard to judge just based off winning and losing. But I mean, I want to win every game, and so to get off to a hot start is very important. But if we’re playing the right way and we’re playing how I think we will, we’ll be in every game and give ourselves a chance to win.”
Young players have to step up
The Hawks have been one of the younger teams in the NBA and still have plenty of young veterans making up the roster. But after a run to the Eastern Conference finals three years ago, the expectations remain high that the Hawks roster can return.
The team has several young players who have shown promise over the past couple of seasons, and the expectation is that they will play bigger roles in the team’s rotation this season.
The Hawks have exercised Jalen Johnson’s fourth-year option and AJ Griffin’s third-year option, so they are committed to having them in the fold long term.
But the team will need the two, along with players such as Saddiq Bey and Onyeka Okongwu to take steps forward in their development and make even bigger contributions.
Both Bey and Johnson are expected to play the bulk of the team’s open minutes at power forward. Both players offer the Hawks different things to whatever lineup the team adds them to. So, the Hawks have plenty of options on how best to use them.
Collective defense
The Hawks lost one of their stronger defenders during the offseason when they dealt John Collins in July. So, the team has looked to improve its defense internally with the team focusing on it throughout camp.
Last season, the Hawks had a No. 22 defensive rating (115.4). That number ended being a bit of an average from the Hawks season before the All-Star break (114.2) and its defensive play after the All-Star break (118.2).
The Hawks had the 10th-highest opponent 3-point percentage, allowed the fifth-most fast-break points and the second-most points in the paint.
With the team looking to play faster under the guidance of Snyder, the Hawks will have to rely on the getting stops and getting out in transition to wreak the most havoc on the offensive end.
As a team, the players know they won’t have trouble generating looks. In order to be a winning team though, they know they have to step up on defense.
Remaining as healthy as possible
The Hawks took advantage of a healthy offseason to try to get themselves in the right condition to withstand 48 minutes of basketball. Now they’ll look to maintain that conditioning for an 82-game season.
Injuries to some key players have slowed the Hawks in the past, but the team has had minimal injuries in training camp and throughout the exhibition season. The team sat De’Andre Hunter for three of their five exhibition games with a minor bone bruise on his right knee. But Hunter returned for the final two games.
So, the team will look to take advantage of the current status of its roster to get out to a good start.
In-Season Tournament
The NBA introduced the In-Season Tournament in July to add a little more excitement to the middle of the season. Typically, hype to the season dies around the middle of November and through December as the teams make it to the halfway point.
Now, the league has designated tournament nights as teams look to increase the competitiveness.
The Hawks want to embrace that extra competition, and they’ll have to back up their words that they have built good habits by consistently performing each game.
