Following their first-round exit from the 2022 Playoffs, Trae Young and Co looked set for the 22-23 season after acquiring Dejounte Murray from the San Antonio Spurs.
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The two-way guards, who were probably the best at that in the league last season, should have completed this Hawks team which had a weak defense last year.
Although they are the #4 team on offensive rating in the league, they don’t rank in the top 10 on the defense. Which showed clearly in their first 7 games.
But what’s even more glaring is while they lack the effort to create mistakes off their opponents, they make a lot of them themselves. The team’s leader, “Ice Trae” himself, might have some serious problem with turning the ball over.
NBA Twitter roasts Trae Young, calls his game against Raptors a Criple-Double game
While he’s averaging just over 3 turnovers per game in the games, Young has had two games in which his turnovers were much more than his already high career number, which is north of 4 per game.
The six-turnover game against the Magic could have cost them the match, but thankfully it didn’t, and also made him cautious about his issue.
He didn’t commit more than two in any of his 4 following games having committed 9 in the first two matches alone. But as they faced the Toronto Raptors last night, the 2x All-Star did it again.
Young turned the ball over 10 times for his 10 assists and 14-point game which cost the Hawks the game, as they lost it 109-139. NBA Twitter roasted the point guard left for his mistakes.
— StatMuse (@statmuse) November 1, 2022
— blackstar (@sunnynoir_) November 1, 2022
— joe (@aimbotjoe) November 1, 2022
It’s not just Young, the concern of carelessness is spread across Atlanta
A team follows its leader, and the Hawks as a team are averaging 88 turnovers in 7 games thus far.
It clearly shows their problem of taking care of the basketball, which could be a grave weakness. A weakness that can be easily exploited in the playoffs if not taken care of immediately.
Whether they get it resolved with the same approach or they get Murray, who averaged well over 21p-8r-9a last season with just 2.6 TO per game, to care of the ball more.
That will be a massive call for both the team and Trae, but it has to be done if they aim to contend for the title.