Defense

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Atlanta Hawks

Trae Young's game has taken an upward turn this season.

The preposterously lofty standard on offense has not changed, and there are easy numbers to show that he has met or exceeded all of the offensive benchmarks&nbsp;that he posted in previous years.

The Hawks' win in San Antonio serves as a case in point. Trae scored 45 points and gave 14 assists to his teammates. But the lasting memory of that game will always be Trae&nbsp;accelerating and decelerating to draw a win-saving charge&nbsp;with 2.9 seconds left.&nbsp;

"Let's go ahead and change the narrative now," Head Coach Quin Snyder said afterward, "Trae Young taking a charge at the end of a game is a big-time play."

Trae said that he has always had a knack for drawing charges, but doing it at the NBA level takes a lot of refinement. 

"To be honest with you, when I was in 5th or 6th grade, I went to a college camp at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, a little D-II school. I got the Best Defender Award there because I took charges the whole camp. I've always been good at being sneaky and taking charges. It is about timing, and as I've gotten older, obviously, guys are bigger and so you've got to know when and who to take a charge on." 

Trae also hinted that he and teammate Clint Capela may have a friendly rivalry to see who can draw more charges this season. Capela currently leads the Hawks with 7 charges drawn and Trae ranks third on the team with 5 charges drawn.

"It's just something that I know is going to help our team," Trae said. "If I'm more locked in on defense and doing little things here and there, like taking charges, it only helps our team. So I just say that all to say: I just try to do whatever to help my team win." 

The Hawks have generally employed two different tactics on defense when presented with a pick-and-roll play between an opponent's smaller point guard and a taller screen setter. The first is a "show" defense, something they did a lot of early this season (and in this week's road win in Washington). At the point of the screen, both defenders will try to momentarily wall off the point guard so that driving angles are limited and passes have to be longer and slower (allowing the original defender on the rolling screen-setter to work his way back into the paint).

In these situations, the remaining three defenders – one of whom is often Trae – have the job of rotating to cover the other four offensive players as needed. The job takes effort, communication, anticipation to limit layups and open threes, but there are also opportunities to disrupt passes, something Trae has done well. Through games played Jan. 4, Trae is tied for 8th in the NBA with 1.5 steals per game.&nbsp;

Trae noted that the "show" defense made life a little easier when he is one&nbsp;of the two defenders on the ball but also a bigger challenge when he was one of the three playing away from it.

"Going over screens, obviously, I know I got a big helping, so I'm able to get back in front a little easier. But being the help guy, I mean, if I'm the low man, I've got to help a little higher, and if it's Giannis (Antetokounmpo) rolling or if it's Brook Lopez rolling, I've got to ... you know what I'm saying?" he said, trailing off on the thought of trying to absorb a charge on a pair of Milwaukee Bucks who out-height him by roughly a foot and outweigh him by approximately 100 lbs."I've got to be there to help," he said, "and I'm ok with doing it, but it's just pros and cons to everything."

The other pick-and-roll defense that the Hawks have used to defend pick-and-rolls is a "drop" defense. On these plays, the defender guarding the ballhander will chase up away from the basket and over the screen in order to prevent open jump shots, while a bigger defender like Capela or Onyeka Okongwu tries to simultaneously disrupt the driving lanes of both offensive players.

It is in these situations where Trae has been tough to screen. When opponents have tried to set the pick on him, he has often been able to use his quickness to dodge it entirely, which in turn, often results in the opponent setting an illegal moving screen to ensure that there is contact to make the play work.

In those moments, Trae has done the unsavory, unglamorous work of absorbing (as opposed to avoiding) the moving pick to draw the offensive foul. In fact, per Basketball Reference, Trae has drawn a team-leading 16 offensive fouls from opponents this season. (De'Andre Hunter ranks second with 14, and Garrison Mathews sits third with 12.)

Of course, defense consists of a lot more than charges taken and offensive fouls drawn. You have to&nbsp;guard the ball and stay in front,&nbsp;take away driving lanes,&nbsp;handle switches, and make timely rotations. From an early point of the season, Snyder reiterated that Trae was doing these sorts of things that support the overall team defense.&nbsp;

Once again, Trae's offensive resumé is unparalleled. With 11.3 assists per game, he is on pace to obliterate a franchise single-season record that he himself set last season. In any given game,&nbsp;he is capable&nbsp;of finishing the game with two handfuls worth of passes that, for a middle-of-the-road NBA player, might be the best pass they've ever thrown in their career.&nbsp;

His 30-foot three-pointers both set up the team's pick-and-roll game while also spacing the floor for his teammates (and contributing to his 28.2 points per game). His proficiency in the high pick-and-roll is the engine that fuels the Hawks offense.&nbsp;

Trae's virtuoso offense combined with his contributions on defense should put him in February's All-Star Game. There really should not be any doubt about that at all.

You can vote Trae Young to the 2024 All-Star Game by visiting Hawks.com/AllStar.

trae-young-contributes-on-both-sides-of-the-ball

Trae Young is Making an Impact on Both Sides of the Ball

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Author: Kevin L. Chouniard (@KLChouinard)

The Hawks have been, for lack of a better phrase, ballhawking this season.

Even in a season where the losses have outnumbered the wins, Coach Lloyd Pierce perked up when he heard that the Hawks had recovered more loose balls than any other NBA team (10.9 per game through games played December 9).

When assured that the statistic was correct, Pierce motioned to his players out on the practice floor.

"I can't tell those guys that," he quipped. "I want more."

Pierce said that the loose balls recovered were a measure of the amount of energy his team is exerting. 

"That's a good stat to use because it talks about effort," he said. "We talk about effort, and we try and reward effort plays. Some things – like what Dewayne did in the Golden State game defensively – can't be measured. Deflections, positioning, things of that nature, those are some things that can be measured."

The Hawks have risen to the top of the leaderboard in some other similar categories. They rank fourth in steals per game (9.2) and third in deflections per game (15.6). 

"For where we are, those are the things we are looking for," Pierce said.

Two players are leading the surge for the Hawks: DeAndre' Bembry and Kent Bazemore. Bazemore ranks 8th in the NBA with 42 steals and Bembry sits in 25th place with 35 steals. 

For the Hawks, a team still feeling out its way in terms of offense, those defensive efforts provide a huge boost. They often get easier offense on the possessions that follow live-ball turnovers like steals. Take Wednesday's game against the Washington Wizards, for example. The Hawks set a season-high for points in a quarter with 45 points in the third quarter.  It was Atlanta’s first 45-point third quarter since 2004. 

Guess what else happened in that quarter? Bazemore picked off three steals and Bembry took home two of his own. 

Bazemore set the tempo for Hawks' defense in the second half when it showed signs of going listless. Here on this play, Bazemore smothered a potential dribble handoff between two Wizards. When the ballhandler had to carry his dribble further than he originally anticipated, he ended up bouncing the ball off his foot and into the welcoming arms of Bazemore. 

Bazemore also helped set up a Bembry steal at the end of the quarter when he took a deliberate foul at the end of the third quarter when the Hawks one to give. On the ensuing inbounds pass, Bembry swooped in, gathered the ball and dunked it home in the blink of an eye.

In addition to steals, Bazemore and Bembry rank near the top of some other categories. With 2.4 loose balls recovered per 36 minutes, Bazemore ranks 2nd in the NBA. Bembry isn't far behind in 4th place with 2.2. Bembry ranks 3rd in the NBA with 4.2 deflections per 36 minutes; Bazemore sits in 9th place with 3.6 deflections per 36 minutes. 

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Bazemore says that he uses more than one indicator in deciding when and how to go for the ball. 

"It's just feel," he said. "If the ball is there and you're in a good position, you kind of just sneak up on them. If a guy knows you're going try to reach, then he'll be a little bit more protective. You just kind of lull them to sleep. A lot of guys dribble with a rhythm. If the ball is down, you take a poke at it. If they try to change directions, you can stab it on the crossover. There are so many ways you can do it."

For Bembry, it's often a matter of keeping his eyes in two places at once: on the passer and on the target. 

"I'm watching the guy with the ball, watching his eyes," Bembry said. "A lot of people show and look at what they're about to do. Just having your head up and being aware plays a huge factor in getting steals – just having your head on a swivel and seeing the ball, seeing your man."

Bazemore added that he copied his techniques from a number of players that he observed over the years.

"Avery Bradley, Thabo (Sefolosha) when he was here, Andre Iguodala, Gary Payton," he said. "(I learned) just watching those guys, watching how they use their chest to get in a guy's space and use their length to pick around at the ball."

As the season chugs along, the Hawks will certainly want their young players to do the same. If they copy Bazemore and Bembry and zero in on the ball at the right times, they'll be able to force even more turnovers with their swarming defense.

Defense

Trae Young is Making an Impact on Both Sides of the Ball

Bazemore and Bembry: A Defensive State of Mind