Atlanta Hawks:Young, Reddish Will Unlock Each Other’s Games

Once Cam Reddish settles into his role as a secondary initiator and the Atlanta Hawks install sets to feature Trae Young off ball, it will be beneficial to the other scorers on the floor as well. Similar to Steph Curry, Trae Young has a gravitational effect on an opposing team’s defense.

Draft expert and NBA analyst Rashad Phillips of Sport Talk 2319 refers to it a “magnetism”. Great shooters such as Trae Young draw so much attention from the defense, that it opens up opportunities for others.

Many fans weren’t aware, but this was the reason that Kyle Korver and not Al Horford or Jeff Teague, was the Atlanta Hawks player game planned against most during the 60 win season. This was beautifully illustrated by the 2014 Grantland article about Korver’s stealth impact on Atlanta’s offense, written masterfully by Zach Lowe.

The Atlanta Hawks using Trae Young in off the ball sets, will open up similar opportunities for screeners and cutters. They will be able to get the same layups that the Warriors create, from the attention that Steph Curry draws. The example is again provided in a tweet by Chris Oliver.

Trae Young coming off of screens, is not the only way that he will open up opportunities for his teammates, when playing off of the ball. Using Trae as the screener, can also create a devastating effect on the defense.

The reason why is, the defense has to be aware of what Trae Young will do after setting the screen. Defenses will key on him more often than anyone, creating easy dunks and layups for guys like John Collins and De’Andre Hunter. Golden State and Steph Curry once again give us the blueprint, in this tweet by Iso Ball Podcasts.