Atlanta Hawks Breakdown: Hawks Stuck in Isolation

[Erick Blasco]

Despite the return of Joe Johnson, the Atlanta Hawks dropped a listless 89-82 appearance in New Jersey against the Nets on Sunday. The loss illustrated a number of Hawks’ sore spots, especially their isolation-oriented offense and their immature defense.

 

Disregarding transition, extreme early offense, and broken plays, the Hawks had 75 possessions with 40 of those possessions ending with the Hawks making a play (a shot, a pass, a foul drawn) out of an isolation. If post ups are counted as isolations, then the Hawks ran 61 plays where one-on-one basketball was triumphed over team play.

 

The leader of this brigade was Iso Joe Johnson. Against the subpar defense of the Nets, Johnson’s isolations accounted for 14 Hawks plays, with Atlanta shooting 1-10 from the field and registering only nine points in those 14 possessions, a terrible number. Johnson’s post ups were slightly better, accounting for 3-7 shooting, and nine points in eight possessions. A pair of handoff/fades resulted in two empty possessions, while a cut off a Mike Bibby back screen worked for a basket in one possession.

 

Tally it together and the Hawks only registered 20 points in 25 Johnson possessions, an unacceptable number. For sure, Johnson had returned earlier than expected from a relatively serious elbow injury, but his game relies totally on his massaging the ball, quelling off-ball movement, and using his tight handle and good-size to elevate for a shot or drive to the hoop, or he’s using his good vision to find spot up shooters. It should be noted that while Johnson sees the floor relatively well—6 AST, 2 TO—multiple passes were slightly off from their targets preventing Atlanta’s shooters from shooting in rhythm. http://cdn1.sbnation.com/images/blog/star-divide.v5e9d7f1.jpg

 

 

 

Atlanta’s preponderance of isolations doesn’t stop with Iso Joe.

 

Mike Bibby isolated 11 times, leading to 14 points on 6-9 Atlanta shooting. Marvin Williams isolated unsuccessfully four times, leading to nary a single point. Josh Smith isolated six times, for only five points, while Al Horford’s isolations led to no points in two possessions. Jeff Teague didn’t generate any points for his pair of isolations, while Mo Evans hit a jumper the lone time he went one-on-one.

 

Overall, the Hawks scored only 30 points in 40 isolation possessions, a hideous number. When Johnson gets his mojo working, this number will improve, but there’s a fundamental flaw to strict iso-ball.

 

For one, because possessions die in players hands so often, it eliminates weak-side offense. Players stop organically running any action on the weak-side. Why should they if so many possessions will end with one drive and one pass to whichever player is vacated by a help defender. Offenses tend to stagnate and become simplistic.

 

Secondly, against defenses with the talent to match up defensively with the Hawks, and the coaching to know how to funnel Atlanta to help positions, it’s very easy for the Hawks to lay down and die. Since the Hawks don’t play with any continuity, they’re often stuck hoping that somebody heats up, or a defense presents a mismatch. Against the better defenses in the league—last year’s Magic, the 2008-09 Cavs—the Hawks offenses disintegrates in the postseason as they don’t put enough pressure on defenses.

 

http://www.peachtreehoops.com/2010/12/20/1888818/atlanta-hawks-breakdown-hawks-are-stuck-in-isolation