The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cunningham
them in the standings. That’s a lot to ask from the Hawks when injuries are thinning a roster that wasn’t deep to begin with. The list is a lot longer than Young and starting forward Jalen Johnson.
Saddiq Bey’s gritty play had helped keep the Hawks afloat. Then he sustained a torn ACL last Sunday. Jalen Johnson’s emergence as a front-line forward has been the one unconditional bright spot for the Hawks, but he’s been out for a week with an ankle injury. The one potential silver lining of injuries to the veterans hasn’t materialized because young players also are hurt.
Rookie guard Kobe Bulfkin, a first-round draft pick, is out with a toe injury. He’s played only 74 minutes in non-garbage time (per Cleaning the Glass). Rookies Seth Lundy (back) and Mouhamed Gueye (arm) are out, too. They’ve played zero meaningful minutes for the Hawks.
The Hawks have done as much as can be expected without Young and the other rotation players. They are 5-5 without him after Friday night’s 124-122 loss at Utah.
The defense has improved. The Hawks ranked 27th in defensive efficiency before Young was injured. They ranked sixth defensively over the nine games without Young before Friday.
That’s a big difference. But context reveals it’s not a true representation of how good the Hawks are on defense without Young, and not just because of the small sample size.
Nearly every opponent they faced during that stretch struggles to score against any team.
Five of the games were against teams ranked among the bottom 10 in offensive efficiency. Three opponents were missing key scorers: Paolo Banchero (Magic), Donavan Mitchell (Cavaliers) and Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle (Knicks).
The Hawks are better on defense without Young, even if not by as much as that ninegame stretch suggests. He has the worst defensive rating among Hawks regulars (difference in points per possession allowed on court versus off ). The Hawks haven’t been so bad on defense with Young on the court since his rookie season. I think roster construction explains some of that regression, but Young must own his part.
However, Young’s defensive limitations must always be viewed in balance with his unique offensive talents. See how the Hawks have labored to score since he’s been out. The Nets, a below-average defensive team, held the Hawks to a total of 199 points in backto-back victories. The Hawks couldn’t score efficiently against the Magic and Trail Blazers, two bottom-tier defensive teams.
Dejounte Murray has done what he can to pick up the offensive slack with Young out. He’s averaged 25.9 points and 8.1 assists as the lead guard. But Murray’s hunt-and-shoot midrange game works better when he’s the second option. His score-first instincts aren’t as conducive to winning when the offense flows through him more frequently.
Young’s specialty is scoring at a high rate while also getting his teammates high-quality shots. That’s why the Hawks are a better team with Young leading a modest group of teammates than they are with
Murray doing the same. The Hawks became an elite offensive team once they put competent veterans who can shoot around Young.
That’s why I still believe the Hawks should trade Murray and get back big wings and forwards who can form a better defensive nucleus with Young. That’s easier to do than dealing Young and trying to find another player with his offensive gifts.
In the meantime, the Hawks will try to win enough games with Young out so that there will be meaningful games to play when he returns. Young helped the Hawks win at Miami in a play-in game last year. Then he stole Game 5 at Boston in the first round before the Hawks lost in six.
Making the play-in again will be tough. The Hawks finish their West trip with three star-studded playoff contenders: Clippers, Lakers and the Suns. After the trip, the Hawks will play championship contenders in five of their final 13 games: versus the Celtics (twice), versus the Bucks, at the Nuggets and at the Timberwolves.
The Hawks weren’t meeting modest expectations when Young was available. Oddsmakers set over/under win total for the season at 42.5 games. The Hawks were on pace for a 35-47 record before Young’s injury. Healthy or not, the Hawks have been barely worthy of a play-in spot.
Maybe the Hawks hang on to earn a play-in bid and then Young carries them to the postseason again. The reward likely would be a first-round series against the Celtics, who are even better than last season. Another beatdown from Boston is the best-case scenario for the Hawks in this lost season.
Corey Frazier bet his future on a Zoom shared-screen picture in 2021.
It wasn’t a visual of something already operating, though, it was a building model for Overtime Elite’s basketball league that hadn’t been built yet. A St. Louis native, Frazier didn’t know where it would be built in Atlanta, nor what it would pan out to be.
But Frazier still bit, he saw the startup’s vision and was sold. Hired as an assistant coach and lead skill developer, he viewed it as an opportunity to pour into the next generation.
Now in its third year, OTE has become one of the hot topics in youth basketball. Filled with talent and facilities to develop players at a high-level, it’s become a path for players to make it to the collegiate level and beyond.
“It’s not high school, it’s not college, it’s not professional basketball, but it’s all three of those at the same time,” Cold Hearts coach David Leitao said. “It’s far beyond anything that a teenager, an 18-, 17-, 16-year-old could get anywhere else in America.”
Leitao said OTE, located in Atlantic Station, faced many doubters when it started because of its model. Athletes signed professional deals and gave up their college eligibility for an unproven path.
That changed in year two, though, when receiving money for a player’s name, image and likeness became part of college athletics after a Supreme
Court ruling. The change allowed OTE players to pursue NIL opportunities and preserve their college eligibility.
And with OTE Arena’s completion a week before the inaugural season, the company’s business pitch leveled up.
“The biggest separation and why kids come here is the ability to be in the gym 24/7,” said Frazier, the coach of the RWE team. “A lot of times, when you go to a local high school or different prep schools … they don’t have the availability.”
The 103,000-square-foot, threelevel facility oozes the ingredients of an NBA atmosphere, offering an NBAlength court with courtside seats and LED lights stacked on the ceiling.
The arena also features two NBAlength practice courts, a weight room, private chefs and technology to monitor sleep patterns, free throws and more.
Daily schedules include team workouts in the mornings, classes for players still in high school and individual workouts afterward.
“It’s the best high school facility trainingwise, playing gamewise that I’ve ever seen,” said Damien Wilkins, general manager and head of basketball for OTE. “We have a group of people here who deeply care about our young men that we bring in here, and they’re with them every day all day demanding excellence on every floor of this building.”
Wilkins played 13 seasons in the NBA, following in the footsteps of his father, Gerald, and uncle, Dominique. He emphasizes to the players to do the work and stay consistent.
This held true following OTE’s second season, when Amen and Ausar Thompson were drafted fourth and fifth in the 2023 NBA draft.
Leitao, who coached the twins, described it as the league’s “aha moment,” putting the basketball world on notice and demonstrating OTE’s validity. He said the twins didn’t come to Atlanta as lottery picks but worked toward that echelon.
“Our cheat code is that we beat time. What you learn here you’d probably learn as a college freshman,” Leitao said. “Our name that week, being talked about so much, I think it drew the casual fan, the basketball so-called experts … and then it allowed them to keep their eyes on us.”