Hawks Excited For Trae Young’s ‘Adaptation Process’ Playing More Off-Ball

The Atlanta Hawks are trying to do things differently around Trae Young after reshaping their roster to match the preferred style of play of Quin Snyder. Snyder wants Young to get rid of the ball early and often to have more unpredictability with their offense. The Hawks don’t have a second primary bal handler on the level of Dejounte Murray, but they do have a number of players who can make reads in open space.

“I think this is an exciting time for Trae in the arc of his career,” Synder said. “Any time a team or a player has success at doing something well, you hit a point where you’re forced to adapt and you need help with that adaptation process.”

“Something the Hawks haven’t utilized before is Trae’s gravity,” new teammate Larry Nance Jr. said. “Him being on the court means 1.5 guys need to know where he is at all times defensively. On the ball, that’s fantastic. But what I think we’re starting to explore some more is using his gravity for others to make plays. We’re excited to start using decoy Trae Young a little bit.”

During the early part of Young’s career, the Hawks employed a heliocentric system with him spamming the spread pick-and-roll. Snyder doesn’t want the Hawks to abandon those actions, but instead have variety and not have the other players glued to specific spots.

“When I am off the ball, guys are worried about me and they’re connected to me and on my body,” Young said. “So it allows teammates to have a lot of space to go and create for themselves and others too.”

“We’re not always waiting for Trae to create for everyone, but to learn to create for each other,” Bogdan Bogdanović said. “So he’s going to continue to do what he does the best. But, we need to come together and increase that level of creation as a team.”

According to Synergy Sports, the Hawks’ 9.9 shots per game from cuts tops the league, which is a significant jump after ranking 13th in 2023-24.