This MUST Change...

This absolutely must change for the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks dropped their last two games, both against the Houston Rockets because of some poor three-point shooting, and they've got to be able to find the range from deep. Otherwise, they could be in for a long night. Welcome back to Hawks Digest. My name is Michael Kabrinski, and as we dive into today's video, we're going to be breaking down a few players and why they've been struggling from three-point range and how it's really affecting the Hawks' offense, really even just beyond themselves. and obviously you know the Atlanta Hawks they had just finished a home and home series against the Houston Rockets where Houston took both team took both games and on Saturday night and last night which by the way Chris and Walter both had recaps of the last two games so after you're done with this video make sure if you want to go ahead and dive deep into the specifics of those games make sure to check those video guys videos after this one but look the Hawks in these last two games i thought on saturday they really played pretty well they won the possession battle they they out rebounded the rockets out out they scored more points in the paint um they got more turnover they forced more turnovers they won a lot of categories but they really lost the three-point battle badly and as far as efficiency goes and that's partly why they lost on saturday i thought they played pretty well otherwise on monday they struggled from three-point range again but there were a lot of fouls in that game i don't think the hawks played great defense played disciplined defense they're using their hands a lot instead of moving their feet and so I think those were the really two main contributions to why they lost that game plus the defense inside wasn't as great but for this video I mainly want to focus on the three-point shooting and three four guys that are really impactful in that area for this Hawks offense to be successful but before we get to that I've got to tell you about today's video sponsor and that is going to be our friends over at Kalshi and on Kalshi you're trading directly against other users it's not the house like other traditional sports books you're buying yes or no contracts on the outcome of different events across 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going to get 55 dollars added to your account instantly when you trade that first 25 dollars so definitely a great time to get in on Calshi and once again thank you to for sponsoring today's video but without further ado let's get into some of these stats here and the first guy i want to talk about in this video is none other than Jalen Johnson because Jalen Johnson's had a pretty good start to the season i mean as far as i think his defense has improved we've seen him getting downhill much better he's getting to the free throw line a lot which is a great sign for this Hawks team because they don't really have a lot of high volume free free throws he took another 12 free throws in last night's contest so it that's been a great sign from Jalen Johnson early on in this season but one thing where Jalen really really has struggled on so far this season is that three point percentage now he is shooting just 15.8 percent from three that is definitely not good and you can see the percent you can see the the percentile right there that ranks in just the 17th percent just the 17th percentile uh in the league so the other numbers for Jalen you you can see here top eight percent top one percent rebounding top one percent assist um the minutes the steals the blocks the plus minus all of that is really good defensive rebounding he's been amazing all of that is really good the only thing that he's really struggling with is that three point shot at 15.8 percent and it's bringing down his true shooting percentage to be just 53 percent on the season so obviously a big big effect there and for Jalen Johnson the the thing here is I think he's improved in a lot of areas so far if he can just get that three ball to fall which we know he can look we saw last season Jalen Johnson had a Jalen Johnson that's pretty good three point percentage upwards in a 35 36 percent area but if he if he gets that back up there uh i think you can see him take off even more and at 4.8 attempts per game it's not like he doesn't have the confidence to take them they're just not going in so hopefully for jalen that change that changes and that'll open up his game attacking the basket even more uh so i do think jalen johnson here once he figures out that three-point shot it's going to be a huge huge thing and similarly another guy who's struggling from the three-point shot is uh is Jalen's best friend on the team, and that is on Onyeka Okongwu. And Okongwu this season, it's been a slow start for him, especially offensively. And, you know, defensively, he had trouble with Alperen Sengun. Other than that, in the two games prior, I thought he was pretty good defensively. But Okongwu, offensively, his numbers have been really down. He's not taking as many shots. His usage has decreased. And I think that's because you're seeing Dyson Daniels screen a lot and kind of operate as like a quote-unquote center while Okongwu had such a great shooting season last last season um and but if you look at here now Onyeka Okongwu's had a lot a lot of troubles shooting and look you can see the other numbers uh here right now but 49.9 percent true shooting is really poor and that's largely based off the fact that you see in the top row right here Onyeka Okongwu is shooting 17.6 percent from 3. now that's on 4.3 attempts per game which is almost a whole attempt less than his season last year and i think as i mentioned before a lot of that is just because Dyson Daniels is taking kind of that role away from him whereas Onyeka was a better shooter than Dyson but even then so you know that three-point shot Onyeka was one of the best three-point shooting big men in the entire NBA last season you're talking about up there with Karl Anthony Towns guys like Miles Turner Onyeka was actually better than Miles Turner from three last season Cap i think obviously takes that as title as the best big man shooter in the league from three but Onyeka was right there and it's been a really slow start for him if he's not hitting threes offensively and you've got Dyson Daniels being a screener a lot and being the role man that's why you see such muted production i think offensively here for McConnell so that three-point shot is going to be huge for him to figure it out and i think he will i'm gonna trust the same i'm gonna if we go back to just the stats right here i'm gonna go back to the sample size of Onyeka Kangu what he gave the Hawks last season if it pulls up there it is i look when he shot 5.2 attempts per game made 1.9 threes per game and shot 37.6 from three over 74 games i'm going to trust that sample size over more than than just the first four games of this season so I don't think his shot is just broke he's just got to find the range and and another guy that has to find the range as well is his backup and that is Jock Landale and I think Landale has had some solid games so far this season even without hitting threes he did struggle defensively like Onyeka Okonwu did against Alperen Sengun but for Landale if you look at his three-point percentage it's also really really rough I'm going going here to his main stats too he's taking 2.8 threes per game now he's shooting it at just 9.1 percent from three 9.1 percent that ranks in the 11th percentile in the NBA and one of the main one of the main areas that Jock Landale it gives a team is just that ability to stretch the floor that ability to shoot threes and who knows maybe that broken nose that he suffered in the first game against the magic isn't is hindering that shot a little bit you you often see players kind of adjusting to that so we'll see about that but for Landale he's been I think there's been some there's been some promising ways in which he's passed the ball there was one game where he had a high turnover game at which it wasn't his best performance but there's been some four five assist games for Landale so far he's he's had some good offensive moments getting great looks from three like he did in the preseason but just hasn't been able to knock them down and again similar to Okongwu I'm going to trust that Jock Landale is going to find that shot because the sample size for the first four games is not as big as him being a backup center that has been able to shoot the three ball for multiple multiple seasons now so I don't think we should be too worried about this but overall in a sense of the three-point volume for Atlanta just the entirety of the team you can't have so many guys struggling at one point because you're just gonna the offensive production is gonna dip and that's I think what we saw against Houston and the really the only the one guy who's been pretty consistent besides last night for the entirety of the season so far four games over these uh for from beyond the arc has been Nickeil Alexander-Walker and you know he's had a great start to the season obviously last night was not his best but you look at the percentage there 38.2 from three 18.8 points 3.8 assists I do think he has improved his playmaking since he started this season he's been throwing some great pocket passes that I've seen to Landale to Onyeka Okongwu to Jalen Johnson on the roll so that's been an encouraging sign from Nickeil Alexander-Walker and if we go more in depth here into his three-point shooting eight and a half attempts 3.3 makes again 38.2 percent so there's not much to complain there for Nickeil Alexander-Walker as far as his three-point offense you just want him really to stay out of foul trouble because for Nikhil this is now two out of four games where he's been in big big foul trouble the first game of the season and last night and last night it really threw off his rhythm he missed two free throws at the line too which is crazy he's only shooting but 76 percent from the from the free throw line this year which is really weird but yeah for Nickeil uh it's been a good three-point start to the season and hopefully some of his teammates Jalen Johnson Onyeka Okongwu Jock Landale it'd be nice for Dyson Daniels to hit a couple as well but we know he's less of a caliber of shooter compared to Jock Jalen and Onyeka but really those three guys along with Nickeil the Hawks have got to find the range got to get that three-point shot going because it is such an important part of Quinn Snyder's offense but with that we'll go ahead we're going to add and close out this video definitely leave your thoughts in the comments below are you guys worried about the three guys that i mentioned in this video Jalen Onyeka Jock are you guys worried about the three-point shots and how and how do you think that the hawks can adjust if they continue to struggle from three would love to hear your guys thoughts on that in the comments below but before you head out make sure to drop comment like and subscribe on the video we appreciate all you guys support at Hawks Digest and we'll see you in the next one peace