Why You Should Watch The 2025-26 Atlanta Hawks!

Why You Should Watch The 2025-26 Atlanta Hawks!

[Music] What’s good everybody? Welcome back to the All Things Basketball podcast. I’m your host Vic Lopez as always and on this one I want to talk about the reasons to watch the Atlanta Hawks. A team that has been in the playin for three to four seasons in a row. Pretty much been mediocre, right? Competitive enough to kind of keep you thinking that they may make the playoffs. Not competitive enough to do anything even if they did make the playoffs. And this season that looks like it’s a thing that’s about to change. And it’s not really what you would expect in terms of like a team that you still expect to make the finals, right, and get out of their conference. But this is a video I want to make because I am interested in this team and I do want to give some reasons as to why you should be at least interested in watching this team. So, let’s get right into it. So, first and foremost, for all the Luca draft night talk, right, that constant comparison between the two guys, Trey Young has honestly been a great draft pick. When you consider the consistent production and skills that this guy possesses, look, man, there’s maybe five players at most in that entire draft class that you could argue are better than Trey Young. This guy’s 61 and one of the best passers in the league that you could basically book for 25 and 10 every single night. I get that he’s a league average three-point shooter that shoots a high volume, but he’s also a difficult shot taker and that kind of stuff really takes a toll on his overall efficiency. You know, his handles are great. He has a very high IQ as a playmaker. He’s incredibly crafty. The floater is money. You never really know if it’s a floater or a lob, which is a miniame in itself, right, for an opposing defender. And he’s just so much fun to watch on League Pass. All those things are accurate when you’re describing Trey Young. If you like guard play and you don’t really care about the end result, win or lose, he’s definitely someone that I enjoy watching. Now, this is not to say that this is an incredibly stacked team and it’s championship or bust, but you could make the case that this is the most help on paper that he’s ever had around him. And everywhere you look, the Hawks are listed as one of the bigger offseason winners. This is Trey Young’s prove it season, right? Like, I think that this could be categorized as that, as a no more excuses kind of season. And like I said, it’s not to say that if he doesn’t make the finals that we’re down on him completely, but I do think that he has enough help to say, “Hey, you should not be in the playin.” Or, you know, maybe if you are a playin team, it’s because of just how good some of the other teams above you are, which honestly this season, I could really think of some teams ahead of the Atlanta Hawks that may just completely contradict what I’ve said, right? And maybe that’s the reason they are still in the playin. even with the type of help that they’ve added on this roster. So, let’s get to the Porzingis thing. He’s the most talented and skilled guy that Trey’s ever had at the position. For starting centers, 40 games played or more. KP played like 42 games last season. He finished sixth in points, right, at 19.5. He’s fourth in three-point percentage, sixth in free throw percentage, 10th in blocks. And look, man, this guy spaces the floor in a way that the Hawks haven’t had from a guy at that position. truly elite at that. And the pick and roll game with Trey is a perfect match. If KP’s popping out, Trey now has the same rim pressure from a Jaylen Johnson or an Ono Kongwu who I’m going to talk about in a little bit. That guy diving to the basket with KP pulling out potential rim protectors. KP can also play out of the short roll, which is another big part of this pick and roll duo with Trey Young because he can either just score easily at the free throw line with those pull-ups if a smaller guy is picking him up in that short roll, or he can just put it down and get to the rim, which he’s also good at. He’s also already used to finding guys out of the short roll, making that pass if he finds an open an open teammate, which is what he did a lot on the Celtics, and that’s going to be really helpful considering some of the guys that they’ve added on this roster. Now, if your best player is Trey Young, you need positional versatility. You need spacing and you need defense if you even want a chance at contending, right? And building around Trey Young, Nikquille Alexander Walker is exactly the kind of guy that you’re looking for. He is a true two-way guard. He finished 32nd in deflections. He tallied 170 deflections on the season. He’s a real point of attack defender. knocks down shots with that 38% from three. The most important thing is that he’s a 42.5% catch and shoot three-point shooter, at least this season, which that’s something that you’re definitely going to bank on if you’re on a Trey Young team, right? A guy that definitely holds the ball a lot. So, you know, he has experience playing in big games as well, and he’s still just 26 years old. Also, you know, just a guy that understands how to play well off the ball, being alongside an Anthony Edwards, a Julius Randall, you know, even a Carl Anthony Towns for some time. So, a guy that just you can plug and play, right? Just very nice pickup in the offseason. Dyson Daniels, who was my defensive player of the year, he’s coming off of not only a historically great defensive season, but also the best of his three-year career so far. He took a big leap watching this guy pick up the toughest matchup and just pile up steel after steel deflections all over the place. He’s a hustle monster, taking the scoring responsibilities, rebounding, playmaking. I just love watching Tyson Daniels play and you should too. Jaylen Johnson is a guy that has already become a franchise favorite whose game has really compleimemented Trey Young’s. He’s so fun in transition. He’s really athletic, super under control. He’s got good body control when he gets up in that air. He’s got a good ball handle. He really does a little bit of everything. A good versatile defender that just plays hard. He’s actually a better passer than I think he gets credit for. Now, the two main questions with Jaylen Johnson are really the three-point shot and injuries. And by the way, he’s such a good player that even without the perimeter shot being a thing, he’s still super valuable to the team. and it was obvious when he went out. So, I should also say that Zack Reese, who’s this number one overall pick that actually had a good rookie season, but yet nobody outside of Atlanta really talks about because of this consensus that the draft class was weak anyways. So, there’s this unique situation where a number one pick can just focus on improving under the radar because it feels like the world outside of Atlanta doesn’t even care. So, that’s kind of a positive for him. Luke Canard does one thing really well. He’s among the best shooters in the league and that’s about all he can give Atlanta. He can’t really help you with anything else, but for a team that just constantly struggles year in and year out to actually shoot the ball well, the signing makes sense to me. Now, there’s also Kobe Buffkin, who I honestly don’t know much about, but a lot of people seem to like him. Hawks took him 15th in the 2023 draft, so this will be his third official season, but he’s been injured both years, and he’s played a total of 27 games. So, from everything you hear, he’s this skilled combo guard at 6’4 who can’t really shoot it, but he shows you flashes of what he can be. And this could be considered a make or break season for him because if he gets injured again and has to miss significant time, I think he’s in trouble. And at a glance, I actually like Katon Wallace more. And look, that’s Kase Wallace’s brother, right? The guy that plays for OKC. and I see a lot of good things when I whenever I do watch the Hawks play out of Katon Wallace. So, really interesting guy and I hope he gets a role next season. So, we’ll see about that. There’s also Very who I feel like has zero hesitation in his game whenever I watch him play. He’s got this irrational confidence, but he’s obviously skilled. He’s a good passer. He actually has good size at 68. He finished 43% on over 200 three-pointers attempted. So, that’s a really good sample. actually think he’s a sleeper player and a lot of people may not even know about him and if you’re not big on him anyways he only makes around two to three million a year for the next three seasons so for what he provides that’s a really good contract I’ve also really liked on Congu to be honest he puts pressure on the rim he’s trying to be a better shooter and I see the improvements nice complimentary piece for Trey Young’s pick and roll game as just an additional rim pressure kind of athlete he rebounds and with Chris Taps in the picks, his job gets a whole lot easier, right? And that’s assuming KP stays healthy, which is always a big if. Asa Newell is a sleeper rookie to watch out for. Now, I didn’t know much about him pre-draft, but after watching him in summer league, I think he’s turned some heads, and he definitely has my attention. He has really good length. He moves well. 68 with that 611 wingspan. When he’s out there contesting, I just see the insane length, right? He’s a lefty. He looked really good defensively. seemed to just know how to contribute in a multitude of ways. Whether it was cutting on time off the ball, rebounding, putting the ball in the deck to attack the paint. I see him finishing through contact. He showed some really good athleticism. And he even showed that he could shoot the three ball better than what the data shows in college. He shot 43% from three in summer league. Although, you could say that it was that one game where he went four for five from three. I think he recorded like 18 points, 11 rebounds if I’m remembering that correctly. So, that game might have carried those three-point shooting numbers, but he definitely shows me that he’s working on that part of his game. And honestly, even without the three-point shot, this guy looks like a productive role player, right? And he’s going to turn 20 in October, I believe. So, plenty of room to grow from this guy. I was very interested as soon as I saw him play. The final question for this is, is this roster strong enough to get out of the conference? I’d still say no, right? I mean, I’m not going to go on a on a hot take rampage and tell you that this team is good enough to get out of the conference, right? Like, I’m looking right now. Cavs, Knicks, Bucks, Magic, Pistons, even an unlikely healthy 76ers are all teams I would put ahead of these guys. And that being said, this is still going to be a fun team on League Pass or wherever you get your games. So, I would definitely recommend tuning in just for the fact that look, I’ve seen Trey Young be competitive against teams night in and night out in the regular season with much less help than he has this season. So, watching the clear upgraded roster here really makes me interested in tuning into more of these games on League Pass. Thanks for watching this video. This is the All Things Basketball Podcast. I’m your host, Fake Lopez, as always, and I’ll catch you guys on the next one. [Music]

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