The Atlanta Hawks' loss to the Houston Rockets on Monday evening spawned a discussion about blowing leads and the level the Hawks are playing at right now. Even Hawks GM Travis Schlenk admitted the team isn't close to where they want to be.
Schlenk singled out the defense needing to be better and NBA analyst and former coach, Rex Walters, joined Nick Kayal and Hugh Douglas on Wednesday morning and wholeheartedly agreed with him.
"Defensively they weren't great last year, they've actually gotten worse this year. Nate McMillan has to get these guys to buy in on the defensive end," says Walters. "When you buy in on the defensive end then you're playing in transition and not having to play sets."
"Even though NBA teams run great sets it's the most difficult way to score against an NBA defense, so you want to get in transition the most," continues Rex Walters. "How do you do that, get stops, get rebounds, and hopefully turn people over to get out in transition and then really attack. They haven't done a great job of that this year even though they're scoring at a high level."
Right now the Hawks are the fourth best offense in the NBA averaging 111.4 points per game. But they are allowing 109.5 points per game, ranked 23rd in the NBA.
To hear all of Rex Walters' comments, click here.
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