3 Areas The Hawks Need to Improve on in Offseason

It’s hard to nitpick where the Atlanta Hawks need to improve going into next year. The team just had its best season in Atlanta history, winning the Southeast Division and playing for a Conference Championship. While the Hawks clearly are contenders going into 2015-16, Atlanta should embrace continuous improvement if the team wants to win an NBA Championship next summer. Here are three areas the Hawks can improve in this offseason.

Offensive Rebounding

With the way that GM Danny Ferry and HC Mike Budenholzer built this team, Atlanta was not meant to dominate the glass. The Hawks would prefer to sink high-percentage shots created by methodical ball movement and get back on defense in transition should they miss rather than scrap for offensive rebounds. The majority of rebounds are defensive in modern basketball strategy. Nobody wants to get dunked on in transition.

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But the Atlanta Hawks finished dead last in offensive rebounding in 2015, averaging only 8.7 second chance offensive opportunities per game. A major, major reason Cleveland dominated the Hawks in the ECF is that PF Tristan Thompson clobbered Atlanta on the offensive glass. He might be the best offensive rebounder I’ve seen since Dennis “The Worm” Rodman in Chicago. Putbacks on second-chance opportunities aren’t sexy but can reduce the burden on the defensive end of the floor when the shots aren’t falling. I understand that the undersized Atlanta Hawks are not constructed in a way to clean the offensive glass proficiently. But think about how many more games the team could have won if Atlanta finished out of the bottom quintile in offensive rebounding.

It’s part strategy, part effort but Atlanta needs to find a way to counterbalance an offensive attack that is so reliant on the outside jump shot. Imagine how we would feel if Horford didn’t make that putback against the Wizards in Game 5 in the Conference Semis.

Wing Defense

Though the front office addressed the 2013-14 team’s Achilles’ Heel this past offseason by acquiring Thabo Sefolosha and Kent Bazemore in free agency, perimeter defense was still the team’s weakest link. There was no room for error should any wing defender succumb to injury. The Hawks were not the same defensive team when Thabo was in street clothes on the Atlanta bench. Though DeMarre Carroll and Baze played their hearts out on the perimeter defensively all season, it became obvious that to win an NBA Championship a team must have three premier on-ball wing defenders. Atlanta had three in Bazemore, Carroll, and Sefolosha when healthy. But in an era of the NBA where 3-points are so prevalent, any lead isn’t safe if the arc stays unprotected.

I think Atlanta can improve in defensive strategic planning if it acquires better defense from the two-guard spot. John Jenkins was mostly a spot-up shooter in limited playing time for Bud this year. If Atlanta can’t keep both Carroll and Paul Millsap, maybe the Hawks front office could entice Jimmy Butler to leave the Windy City and play in the ATL? Who knows how much foot speed Kyle Korver will have after season-ending ankle surgery. The best way for the team to improve is to work on its biggest weakness. I still haven’t been convinced that it is not wing defense.

Turnovers

May 9, 2015; Washington, DC, USA; Washington Wizards guard Ramon Sessions (7) knocks the ball from Atlanta Hawks guard Dennis Schroder (17) in the fourth quarter in game three of the second round of the NBA Playoffs. at Verizon Center. The Wizards won 103-101. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Atlanta was middle of the pack in turnovers last season, 16th out of 30 NBA teams. Great teams can get away with turning the ball over a lot. Frank Vogel’s Indiana Pacers and even the Golden State Warriors come to mind. Believe or not, Stephen Curry is known to lose the ball on occasion. To me, turnovers drive me insane. Focus and execution can drastically limit the amount of times the other team can take the ball away from you. Think about all the times DeMarcus Cousins does dumb stuff in Boogie Wonderland that end up costing his Sacramento Kings ball games. Atlanta is too well-coached to have this much of a ball control issue.

It’s like when Atlanta tries to increase the tempo on a fast break, they lose all cognition. It’s all about attacking the offensive end at a Mach-5 pace that the Hawks lose sight of playing heady basketball. Throwing the ball out of bounds, charging at a big man in the post, dribbling the ball of his own foot. The composure in offensive transition needs to become more fluid for Bud’s Hawks. As much as I love to see a backcourt player make a terrific defensive play, I want to see my Hawks capitalize on fast break opportunities more efficiently.

Again, these are not debilitating issues for the Hawks. The team mostly does all the right things to play a winning style of basketball. The fundamentals are strong with this team and polishing up any of these three areas of concern will make this team a major player in the Eastern Conference for the next several seasons. Go Hawks!

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