The Atlanta Hawks (12-17) have had a difficult December, losing eight of their last 11 games. Despite the heroic efforts of Trae Young, who is in the midst of an NBA record-tying streak for consecutive games with 30 points and 10 assists, the Hawks have struggled with finishing basketball games on the right side of the scoreboard. Atlanta finds itself on the outside looking in after the first third of the season.
Mike Conti joined The Midday Show on Tuesday morning to discuss where the Hawks stand and whether they might have reached their ceiling, as currently constructed.
Atlanta is scoring 122.7 points per contest, which is good enough for third in the NBA. They've largely been able to score enough to at least stay competitive in any game they play, and that has a lot to do with the way Trae Young is playing right now.
“Trae is really playing, I think, the best basketball of his career," Conti continued. "The problem is this seven-game streak where he's had 30 [points] and 10 [assists], and that ties and NBA record for length of such, the Hawks are only 3-4. So, Trae is playing some of the best basketball of his career and it's not translating into wins.”
Their issue squarely resides on the defensive side of the ball. They are third in the NBA with their offensive output, but they still have a negative point differential because the defense has been the that bad. They're 27th in the NBA and allow 122.9 points per game.
Perhaps the re-insertion of Jalen Johnson will spur some improvement on that end, but it will be critical for them to show improvement in that area if they want to win games down the stretch. If he does provide that spark and the offense remains this effective, the team could still get hot and go on a little run to get back into the playoff picture.
“If [the Hawks] get hot for two or three weeks and snap off like an 8-2 stretch over 10 games, you can get right back in this thing and feel pretty good about where you're going heading into the spring," he finished. "But you know, again, I think a lot of that's just going to be predicated on playing better defense and I don't know what they can really do internally right now to do a whole lot better than what they're doing at this point.”
