![]() ![]() With Danilo Gallinari gone, Johnson is slated to be the team’s backup power forward, so he’ll be in the rotation. I’ve yet to mention the Hawks’ last two first-round picks in Jalen Johnson and AJ Griffin. Having at least one of Young and Murray on the floor for all 48 minutes should ensure the offense won’t drop off as dramatically as it has in previous seasons when Young wasn’t in the game. How will coach Nate McMillan scheme the offense when Murray and Young share the floor? Murray is expected to shift to point guard when Young is on the bench, which makes him by far the Hawks’ best backup point guard since Young was drafted in 2018. Only 27 percent of Murray’s field goals were assisted last season, and he has not been a 3-point threat in any of his years in the NBA. The biggest question, though, is how effective Murray can be without the ball constantly in his hands. His running mates last year - De’Andre Hunter, Kevin Huerter and Bogdan Bogdanović - did most of their work spotting up away from the basket. The Hawks didn’t have a consistent rim threat from the perimeter outside of Young last season. The latter is especially important the threat of Murray at the basket should create additional space for everyone else. Having Murray on the floor with Young will give the Hawks a trusted scorer who can make teams pay in the midrange area and at the rim. ![]() While offense was not a concern for the Hawks in the regular season ( they ranked second in the NBA in points scored per 100 possessions), it became a glaring issue in the first round of the playoffs, when the defensive-oriented Heat eliminated Young and made everyone else try to make plays for themselves. Now, with a creator like Murray on the roster, Young has a teammate who can feed him those types of looks. Young is lethal off the ball but hasn’t been provided many opportunities to show it over the past four seasons. We’ve already mentioned it a few times, but Hawks fans should prepare for an adjustment period for Young and Murray because both have almost exclusively played as point guards in their NBA careers. ![]()
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