NBA 2014-15 Regular Season: Golden State Warriors

DISCLAIMER: This article is more for “entertainment” purposes rather than handicapping purposes. The limits on my kind of bets is too small and if you have the conviction that a specific team is going to exceed expectations in the upcoming NBA season, it’s a lot better to bet consistently on that team in the games throughout the season. Therefore, this article is just the purpose of talking about a “fun bet” and also preview some teams.

Golden State Warriors

The sportsbooks put the Warriors’ season total wins line at the same level of their regular season record last year: 51-31! So, the key question for the Warriors is easy to formulate: will Golden State do better this season than they did last season? In my opinion, this will be a clear yes!

First of all, Golden State really deserved a better record last season than 51-31, as if we use the Pythagorean wins-losses, the Warriors should have had a 54-28 record last season. Under the wing of Mark Jackson, Golden State had an underrated defense, as they were ranked #4 in the league with a 102.6 defensive rate. This is exactly the best thing Mark Jackson did as the Warriors’ coach, while this will be Steve Kerr’s biggest challenge this season. However, I can’t simply ignore that Mark Jackson had at his disposal Andre Iguodala, Andrew Bogut, Harrison Barnes, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green in the roster. With these quality individual defenders available, this helped the team’s defensive system a lot!

If I think the defense will remain pretty much at the same level this season, I believe that Golden State will suffer great improvements on offense. Having in account that Golden State ended last season as the #4 best team in the league in 3pts% with a nice 38%, it’s incredible how the Warriors’ had a “mediocre” offense by being just #12 in the league with 107.5 offensive rates. This was where Mark Jackson did a bad coaching job last season that probably cost his job. I can’t forget the several times that I witnessed Mark Johnson ordering post up plays for Harrison Barnes when he had a small defender on him, ignoring the fact that Barnes is still very raw offensively. The result of that was Barnes losing all his confidence and having a poor sophomore season.

Now with Steve Kerr as the team’s coach, I expect them to have a huge leap on offense! Of course Kerr lacks experience as a coach, but I like his ideas for the team in the upcoming season. The Warriors also signed coach Alvin Gentry to Kerr’s coaching staff and this gives me enough confidence to think that Golden State will definitely have a sharper offense this season. This won’t be a surprise, as Golden State’s frontcourt has Andrew Bogut, David Lee and Andre Iguodala, who are all good passers and therefore, the Warriors’s starting unit has all the conditions to have an excellent ball movement.

Injuries can always be a problem and the truth is that Andrew Bogut missed 15 games last season, while Andre Iguodala and David Lee missed 19 and 13 games respectively. However, the Warriors were still a competitive team even with these injuries. The Warriors added Shaun Livingston to their roster and this will give Steve Kerr more flexibility on the lineups, as Livingston is a plus defender and his size will cause matchup problems to their opponents.

Therefore, I wouldn’t be surprised if Golden State has 55 wins on this upcoming regular season and ends up fighting for home court edge in the first round of the playoffs.

NBA Finals Game 1 Preview

I have a small lean for SAS to win the NBA Finals this season, but at the current prices, (SAS priced about @ -140) simply there isn’t the proper value in my opinion to give SAS more than 58/60% of chances to win the title.

Some interesting thoughts about this matchup:

In the playoffs, MIA has faced CHA, BKN & IND. While these 3 teams have different styles of play (especially BKN when compared to CHA & IND), all of them played at some serious slow pace:

Regular Season Pace Factor Rankings:

CHA #21
BKN #25
IND #20
…
SAS #10

MIA opponent’s game plans were similar through the playoffs – slow down the pace and dominate down low. I have some major doubts that the Spurs will employ the same strategy in the Finals because simply that’s not their style.

Tiago Splitter could possibly be the X factor of this series. In the last year’s finals, when MIA downgraded their lineup to a more “small ball” unit w/ Mike Miller instead of U. Haslem, they didn’t care about Splitter and things have worked pretty well for them. I’m curious to see what Popovich will do if the Heat keeps using the same strategy… He was flexible enough to not start Splitter in games 5 and 6 vs. OKC, so we can expect Pop to be more active in adjustments this season vs. last season, when he was clearly outcoached by Erik Spoelstra in my opinion.

For this first game both teams are rested and almost 100% healthy (Tony Parker’s injury is the only question mark). If you remember, this didn’t happen last season as the Spurs were coming from a sweep 4-0 series against MEM and had 9 DAYS to rest & prepare G1, while the Heat had a brutal physical series vs. IND that went to the distance and therefore, they had just 2 days to prepare the first game of the NBA Finals.

NBA Recap Article 04/08

New York Knicks @ Miami Heat

Pace = 82.5
NYK Off. Rtg. = 110.3
MIA Off. Rtg. = 123.7

As expected, the contest was a super slow paced game w/ Pace Factor = 82.5! Actually, it was the slowest paced contest of the 4 H2H’s games in this season. Chris Andersen was a late scratch for the Heat, so the Knicks would have some edge if they’ve decided to attack more down low using Amare Stoudemire, right? Well, NYK attempted 42 three pointers (almost half of the team total shots were treys!). If not JR Smith’s, IMO we would have won our Under Play with some ease because not only he hit 10 three pointers for 32 total points, but also, his defense was just hilarious with no effort whatsoever.



Los Angeles Lakers @ Los Angeles Clippers

Pace = 101.1
LAL Off. Rtg. = 95.9
LAC Off. Rtg. = 118.7

Unlike MIA vs. NYK, this contest was a run and gun affair but still, it was “slower” than the last H2H’s between these two teams. It looks like LAL came out w/ mindset of “slowing down” things just to not be embarrassed by the Clippers. Eventually, it worked as LAC helped them by committing 7 TO’s in the first quarter. This helps to understand why the Clippers scored “only” 25 points in the first quarter despite shooting 55% FG! Once the Lakers “forgot” that strategy and started to play at their usual pace, the Clippers easily scored 69 points in the next 2 quarters.  We still could have won the “Over” in the 4th garbage quarter but he “needed” Nick Young to do his thing, unfortunately, he got injured late in the 3rd quarter and played only 2 minutes in the 4thQ.



Denver Nuggets @ Houston Rockets

Pace = 103.5
DEN Off. Rtg. = 109.4
HOU Off. Rtg. = 113.8

Despite a slow start in which the Rockets scored only 22 points in the first quarter while shooting just 32.0% FG, HOU completed torched DEN’s bad defense in the second quarter by scoring 47 points: they hit 65% of their shots, didn’t commit a single Turnover and even Omar Asik went 5-6 from the FT Line. The game was primed to be a HOU’s blowout… Then in the second half, HOU’s offense was just too stagnant, selfish play = 6 assists in the entire second half vs. 8 in the second quarter alone! Defensively, they allowed DEN to score 20 points in the paint in the 2ndQ. With 4:35 to go, DEN was up in the scoreboard by 13 points – a 30-points swing in just 20 minutes! From that moment on, HOU’s defense decided to show up again and held DEN to just 3 points (all FT’s) in the final 4:35 of the regulation!



Memphis Grizzlies @ San Antonio Spurs

Pace = 92.3
MEM Off. Rtg. = 99.7
SAS Off. Rtg. = 121.4

With Tayshaun Prince injured and OUT for the game, I thought that MEM’s coach would start Mike Miller @SF like he did in the second half vs. DEN. Miller’s shooting range would help the Grizzlies to spread the floor and punish the obvious SAS’s strategy to pack the paint. Well… Head Coach David Joerger decided to start Tony Allen and the game was over after just 12 minutes of action w/ MEM scoring just 10 points. As expected, SAS packed the paint and held Gasol & ZBO to just 1-7 FG while the Grizzlies didn’t ATTEMPT a single three pointer in the first quarter!  As much as Lionel Hollins was “old school”, I really don’t see any improvement made by Joerger in this season.

NBA Random Rants 03/20

• In order to prepare today’s card, I’ve watched the game SAC vs. WAS from this past Tuesday (I had Triple Dime Play w/ OVER) and I just can’t remember seeing so many missed transition chances from both teams. In a certain play, SAC failed to convert a 4 vs. 1 transition play…WAS got the ball and had their own 4 vs. 1 transition chance just to watch Bradley Beal being selfish by trying to dunk on Isaiah Thomas: offensive foul! There were some missed dunks as well…what a sloppy game it was!

• Ricky Rubio had last night his best game I can remember on the NBA vs. DAL w/ 8-12 FG, 6-7 FT for 22 points, 15 assists, 10 rebounds and 4 steals! He was aggressive, he attacked the rim and yes, he converted some nice plays at the rim!

• MIN’s rookie Gorgui Dieng deserves to play more minutes for them…his presence down low was a big factor vs. DAL last night. Once MIN put Cunningham and Hummel on the floor, the Mavericks made their comeback run

• The (recent) inability of the Pacers in getting good deep inside positions is a major problem for their offensive flow. They spend a ton of seconds in just making a mere entry pass to the post, too much dribbling from their guards! Evan Turner is not IND’s solo problem… it is way more than that and coach Vogel must figure out quickly.

NBA Game Preview 03/19: Toronto Raptors @ New Orleans Pelicans

NBA - 609 Toronto Raptors @ 610 New Orleans Pelicans 

This is really a tough matchup for the Raptors tonight…. They played last night @ATL in a game that went to OT and obviously, their key players logged some major minutes: Lowry 41min, DeRozan 45min and Ross 40 min.

More importantly, Jonas Valanciunas got injured and most likely he will miss tonight’s game. I’ve said yesterday that the absence of P. Patterson is troublesome for TOR and now that Valanciunas is also banged up, I expect TOR to have some problems on the frontcourt. To make things even worse, the Raptors will face Anthony Davis tonight! Davis is just dominating offensively right now and TOR simply don’t have any player that could slow him down….Amir Johnson, Chuck Hayes or Hansbrough are all WAY TOO SLOW!

I understand that NO perimeter defense is atrocious but they can be a dangerous unit on the offensive end. TOR has struggled L2 games to prevent dribble penetration from the opp. Guards (Dragic & Bledsoe and last night J. Teague) and this is bad news for them tonight vs. E. Gordon and especially T. Evans.

I expect this contest to be a close battle but ultimately, TOR awful physical spot will be a major factor and that’s why I’m taking the Pelicans in here. 

NOTE: A. Davis is banged up and could miss tonight's game, so the "potential play" was scratched.

NBA Game Preview 12/11: Orlando Magic @ Charlotte Bobcats

Game: 701 Orlando Magic @ 702 Charlotte Bobcats

For the first time this season, the Bobcats scored +100 points in b2b games! It helped the fact that they faced 2 up tempo teams in PHI & GSW so they could generate some extra possessions but still having Off.Rtg of 110.5 and 112.2 is a sign of some improvement on the offensive end. Bismack Biyombo and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist are OUT due to injuries and we are talking about two of their best defensive players. Without MKG, Charlotte will now give some minutes to Tolliver and Ben Gordon and on an offensive standpoint, it will help them to spread better the floor because MKG really can’t shoot from the outside. CHA went 6-12 behind the line against the Warriors and not coincidently, 3 of the made treys were converted from Tolliver and Gordon. The Magic is a good matchup for this Bobcats offense. Kemba Walker will face Jameer Nelson who really won’t have a chance to stop his dribble penetration and when Walker has a good game, the Bobcats are extremely competitive.

Orlando is struggling offensively as of late. In 5 of their last 6 games they couldn’t even reach the 100-pts per possession mark. They just can’t score inside without Nikola Vucevic while their outside shooting is super inconsistent. L5 games they are shooting 33-117 behind the line – an awful 28% mark!

POTENTIAL PLAYS: CHARLOTTE -6 (without Vucevic) or OVER (with Vucevic)

NBA Preview 11/29: San Antonio Spurs @ Orlando Magic

NBA - 503 San Antonio Spurs @ 504 Orlando Magic

San Antonio was so used to face lowly teams (besides Memphis, but even in that case Marc Gasol got injured mid-game) that they struggled in adjusting to face a top team like Oklahoma City, especially regarding game intensity. If Tim Duncan was struggling in being efficient against bad teams, he was completely crushed by Serge Ibaka. San Antonio uses to create a bunch of easy shots down low, but they managed to shoot just 16-32 (50%) FG at the rim against the Thunder, while they struggled on their outside shooting. On the other side, Orlando defeated Philadelphia at home on a game where both Nikola Vucevic and Glen Davis crushed the Sixers' interior defense in the first half with 8-8 FG and 5-7 FG! With Spencer Hawes out, Orlando took advantage of that to pound the Sixers down low with 52 points in the paint, while Vucevic and Davis had a combined of 40 points, 19-28 FG, 21 rebounds and even six assists! Philadelphia had a nice edge on pick and rolls and on mid-range shooting, but they weren't aggressive with their starters shooting just 4-4 FT! 

The Spurs will now come from facing a tough Thunder defense with active hands and Serge Ibaka protecting the rim into facing an Orlando defense, with a poor perimeter defense. So, this is a perfect bounce back for the Spurs! Orlando's pick and roll defense has been terrible by being just #25 in the league on pick and roll ball handler defense with 0.81 PPP allowed. After struggling against Russell Westbrook, Tony Parker will have a dream matchup tonight! Jameer Nelson is a game time decision for the Magic tonight and while Orlando started the season defending well the opposing treys, they allowed 58-149 (39%) 3pts over their last six games! I expect the Spurs to bounce back on this area as well tonight.

Orlando likes to play at a fast paced tempo, with a jump shooting style, even though with Glen Davis and Nikola Vucevic together on the frontcourt they have a stronger presence down low. Orlando shoots a lot of mid-range jumpers with some success and this is something that the Spurs' defense want their opponents to do, so Orlando has a nice matchup in here. The Magic started and ended the game well against Philadelphia, but when the Sixers were able to run their second unit out, Orlando had no answer. One of San Antonio's strengths is their ability to throw different lineups on the court at different moments of the game. Orlando is a limited in how to adjust to new situations because their key players are on court for 35 minutes per game or more every single time. Therefore, I expect San Antonio to have a clear bounce back game on offense tonight by crushing Orlando's defense. On the other hand, the Magic's offense should be also able to make some production on offense in here. Therefore, I expect a Spurs blowout tonight on a high scoring contest.

NOTE: both potential plays were scratched!

NBA Game Preview 11/10 - San Antonio Spurs @ New York Knicks

NBA Game Preview - San Antonio Spurs @ New York Knicks

The Knicks had finally a good offensive game on their last game when they decided to use their small lineup once again. They had a season-high 25 assists and a season-low 12 turnovers for a great 25/12 A/TO ratio! The Knicks gained ability to stretch the floor and they had a lot of pick and pop plays with Andrea Bargnani that Charlotte couldn't defend, allowing Bargnani to shoot 11-25 FG! As always, the Knicks' offense was perimeter-oriented, but they had a proper floor spacing this time. It was very easy for the Knicks to defend Charlotte's offense, with the Bobcats having another poor 4-16 3pts on another subpar outside shooting game for them. As Charlotte has an one-dimensional offense, they had to attack the rim, but the Knicks' defense packed the paint waiting for them, heck even Andrea Bargnani had 5 blocked shots!

J.R. Smith will make his season debut today and with him, the Knicks have another crazy shooter but who will still be much better than Tim "Shoot" Hardaway Jr! The Knicks will then create some problems to San Antonio that will have Tim Duncan and Tiago Splitter on the frontcourt. I believe that sooner or later Gregg Popovich will be forced to use a small lineup on his own as well. San Antonio keeps winning games, but always with some problems. Their key has been their excellent defense and they only struggled defensively at Portland. No wonder they lost that game. However, the Spurs has been struggling a bit on 3pts defense and they are indeed #30 on spot up defense and also #24 on pick and roll roll man plays! These two kind of plays are a huge part of the Knicks' offense so the Knicks offense might have an edge in here! On the other side, the Knicks' defense won't be dealing with the lowly Bobcats again. San Antonio has in Tony Parker a PG who will penetrate into the basket and force the Knicks to collapse into the paint, something that will give space to San Antonio's shooters that are much better than Charlotte's shooters! The Spurs are coming from three subpar games on this area with 4-16, 6-16 and 5-19 3pts, but I expect some improvement on this area tonight.

I have a small lean on Over in here, but the line doesn't allow me to put the trigger in here. I'll be passing on this game.

NBA Game Preview's 11/06

Game Preview: Los Angeles Clippers @ Orlando Magic

Orlando is coming from three consecutive offensive games, where they had offensive rates of 107, 119.5 and 110.7. Their only subpar game so far this season was at Indiana, the league's best defense. The way Orlando has been good on offense is a bit weird, after all they are just #26 on assists per FG made! The key for their success has been their very good outside shooting with a combined of 37-85 (43.5%) 3pts. They have also been very competent on pick and rolls and spot ups, a sign of good shooting. This is actually a good sign for them for tonight's game against a Clippers defense that has been disappointing. I believe that's natural, as they are so good on offense that they relax on defense. Thanks to that, the Clippers are allowing 42.4% 3pts and against a backourt defense where Chris Paul is the only good defender, Orlando should score some points tonight.

Regarding the Clippers offense, the 27, 27, 26 and 33 assists on their first four games show how good their offensive flow has been so far on this season. Chris Paul has been crushing his individual opponents this season and Jameer Nelson won't be the exception. Orlando is undersized on the frontcourt and so, the Clippers will outrebound them in here. But looking at the Los Angeles -> Orlando trip that the Clippers had to make on Monday, added with the fact that Orlando is quite confident right now, I believe that LAC -7 is indeed the fair line in here.

Game Preview: Chicago Bulls @ Indiana Pacers

Indiana is coming from their best game of the season last night, where they defeated Detroit on the road by playing three great quarters and a horrible second quarter. On the frontcourt battle, there was no clear winner. Indiana shot 18-25 FG at the rim versus 18-28 FG from Detroit, but the worst for the Pacers was their poor 12.1% offensive rebound rate, in comparison with 24.1% from Detroit! Indiana won the game on the backcourt, as they shot 9-21 (43%) 3pts, while Detroit shot a poor 5-25 (20%) 3pts. Paul George was in superstar mode again with 12-18 FG, unlike Brandon Jennings who shot a poor 6-20 FG! With George Hill still out and C.J. Watson in the starting lineup, the Pacers' second unit continues to receive close to no trust from their trust and so, Indiana's starters minus George all at least played 34 minutes each! Indiana's offensive flow is also improving and they dished 26 assists yesterday, after 17, 19 and 24 assists in the previous games.

For tonight's game, the big difference is that Paul George will have more problems on offense against Luol Deng and Jimmy Butler than he had against John Smith and Kyle Singler. Chicago's offense can have some decent moments when Derrick Rose doesn't start to complicate things, something that has been happening a lot on this early season. It will be important for Indiana to have George Hill back if he plays, especially to defend Derrick Rose. Joakim Noah will also need to be physically at 100% to oppose Roy Hibbert near the rim. Chicago's offense has been able to score near the basket this season with 50, 46 and 56 points, but that won't be easy at all to do against Indiana, so Chicago will also need to shoot well from the outside tonight if they want to win this game. I believe the current line of IND -3 looks good to me right now. The totals line also seem spot on!

Miami Heat NBA Team Season Preview 2013-14

MIAMI HEAT

Season Review 2012/13:

Advanced Stats
	Numbers	Rank
Pace	90.7	23
Offense	112.3	2
Defense	103.7	9
Rebound	47.5	28

4 Factors
Offense	Numbers	Rank	Defense	Numbers	Rank
eFG%	55.2	1	eFG%	48.7	9
TO%	13.7	13	TO%	14.8	4
Reb%	22.2	26	Reb%	27.0	23
FT%	22.4	6	FT%	20.0	13

Monthly Performance
	Record	OffRtg	DefRtg
November	11-3	114.6	107.8
December	10-5	113.1	106.0
January	8-5	113.7	102.8
February	12-1	121.4	107.1
March	17-1	114.5	101.1
April	8-1	113.0	104.0

The Heat had a fantastic season that ended with a back to back NBA championship. Even though Miami played extremely well throughout the season, they still needed a huge effort to beat the Spurs in one of the best NBA finals ever.

After having finally won a championship on the lockout season, Lebron James and the Heat didn’t have a big incentive to impress on the regular season, as after all their “real season” would only start in April. However, Miami set an extra gear in February and ended up having the second best winning streak in league history, while ending the season with a franchise best of 66-16 record and clearly the best record in the league.

Miami was by far the best shooting team in the league with an impressive mark of 55.2% eFG% and everything started with LeBron James playing the whole season in a different planet from everybody else. Defensively, Miami’s aggressive approach on the opposing ball handlers was notorious, with the Heat ending the season by being the #4 ranked best team on creating turnovers that would usually end on phenomenal transition plays. Due to the fact that they played constantly with undersized lineups with Chris Bosh at the Center position and LeBron James at Power Forward, the Heat weren’t naturally a good rebounding team during the season. The fact that they were just #26 on offensive rebounding is perfectly normal for a team that shot 56% eFG%! On the other hand, their defensive rebounding issues were clear against imponent frontcourt units. This is why Miami lost two games in the regular season against Indiana, one game against Memphis and had two losses against Chicago.

Even though they had a normal lazy approach against some lowly teams, the truth is that Miami had a 36-4 record against losing teams and an even more impressive 15-1 record in back to back games that are normally tough physical spots.

During their historical 27-games winning streak, Miami just toyed with their opponents by setting an extra gear only when it was needed. They were down by one point with four minutes to go at home against Portland, but they outscored the Blazers 16-2 in those four minutes. Then, they were down by 27 points in the third quarter in Cleveland, just to outscore the Cavs by 30 points in the last 19 minutes of the game!

Miami added Chris Andersen to the roster and Birdman was indeed a key player in several moments of the season. He was especially a huge upgrade on offense in comparison to Joel Anthony, who disappeared on the team’s depth chart as soon as Andersen joined the Heat.

Not even when Miami decided to rest their top players at the end of the regular season, they stopped winning. A team with a starting lineup formed by Chris Bosh, Udonis Haslem, Rashard Lewis, Mike Miller and Norris Cole was good enough to win in San Antonio against the Spurs’ best team. In fact, the Heat won their last eight regular season games, while resting their key players a lot.

In the playoffs, Miami quickly dumped Milwaukee in four games, while resting Dwyane Wade in the last game of the series. Then, in the following round against Chicago, the Heat had much more problems of course, as they had already struggled against powerful frontcourts in the regular season, but after losing the Game 1 of the series at home, they won the four following games and went into the Conference final.

In the Eastern final against Indiana, Miami was unable to win back to back games, with the series being decided only on Game 7. Miami struggled on offense against the best perimeter defense in the league, while also having issue on rebounding against the powerful Pacers frontcourt. Indiana won the boards battle on the first six games of the series, with the Heat being outrebounded by 99-147 in the three games of the series where they played on the road! Roy Hibbert was a beast down low, but Miami’s aggressive defense in pressuring the ball handler managed to create 18, 21 and 21 turnovers in the last three games of the series. With Miami finally winning the boards battle against Indiana on the decisive Game 7, they were able to blowout the Pacers in that decisive game to win the Conference title.  

On the Finals against San Antonio, the whole series was a rollercoaster of emotions and adjustments made by both coaches. If Gregg Popovich is rightfully called an elite coach, then Erik Spoelstra needs to be recognized as elite as well for what he has done over the last two seasons with Miami.

Offseason Report:

With a team that won the last two NBA championships and that reached the Finals in the last three seasons, Pat Riley didn’t have a lot to do on the offseason. He just needed to make sure that the main core of the team would remain together.

For cap salary reasons, Mike Miller was amnestied, while Pat Riley convinced Ray Allen to play one more season after being the team’s hero in the decisive Game 6 in the Finals.

But Riley’s main goal for this off-season was to find a big man that could help the team’s interior play and Greg Oden was picked for that job, even though he has several health concerns around him. As a gamble without any risk for the team, Michael Beasley was also added to the roster on an unguaranteed contract.

Atlanta Hawks NBA Team Season Preview 2013-14

ATLANTA HAWKS

Season Review 2012/13:

Advanced Stats
	Numbers	Rank
Pace	92.6	12
Offense	104.8	18
Defense	104.4	10
Rebound	48.1	26

4 Factors
Offense	Numbers	Rank	Defense	Numbers	Rank
eFG%	51.7	6	eFG%	49.6	15
TO%	14.2	25	TO%	14.2	10
Reb%	22.2	27	Reb%	26.4	13
FT%	17.4	28	FT%	18.1	4

Monthly Performance
	Record	OffRtg	DefRtg
November	9-5	105.0	101.4
December	10-5	108.7	107.0
January	7-9	105.3	106.6
February	7-4	112.3	107.4
March	8-10	105.0	106.4
April	3-5	107.8	109.6

On their first season without Joe Johnson and with no major signing, the Hawks had a fairly positive season. They started the season very well by winning 20 of their first 30 games, but then they just couldn't keep the same level and when their sixth man Louis Williams suffered a season-ending injury, the Hawks became one of the easier matchups that a top team could get in the playoffs.

Head Coach Larry Drew consistently alternated the starting lineups given the matchups that they were facing that day. When he wanted to play with a “big lineup”, Drew would insert Zaza Pachulia at the Center position, sending Al Horford into the PF position. When the opponent wasn't a very physical one, then Horford would be the team’s starting Center, while Josh Smith would play at the PF position. But when Zaza got injured in March and missed the rest of the season, the Hawks stopped being able to be so versatile on their lineups. This was especially a problem in the first round of the playoffs, when they faced the very physical Indiana Pacers.

After being led on offense by “ISO Joe” for so many seasons, Atlanta changed its offensive structure thanks to their coach. The team shared the ball pretty well and they were the second best team in the league in assists per game. However, their lack of aggressiveness was quite evident, as they were one of the worst teams in the league on offensive rebounding (#27) and FT rate (#28). When Atlanta’s jump shots weren’t going in, the team would immediately struggle, as they couldn’t score via second chance points or from the line.

Defensively, Atlanta struggled on defending rebounding when they were using their small lineup, but given their roster, the fact that the Hawks managed to be the #10 defense in the league shows a great job from Coach Drew.

In the playoffs, after losing the first two games on the road against the Pacers by 27 and 15 points, Atlanta bounced back and won the next two home games also by double digit points. But eventually their jump shooting style cost them deeply, as they scored just 83 and 73 points on the last two games of the series, while shooting a combined of 6-33 3pts!

Offseason Report:

The Hawks suffered huge changes on the offseason, with Danny Ferry being the team’s GM. Even though Larry Drew did a good job with the team, Ferry decided to release him and hire someone who he trusted from the days where they worked together in San Antonio: Mike Budenholzer.

Josh Smith left for the Pistons, but that was quickly compensated with the signing via free agency of Paul Millsap, on a two-year $19 million deal, a very team friendly deal.

Atlanta re-signed Jeff Teague and Kyle Korver to new contracts. Danny Ferry also signed Elton Brand, DeMarre Carroll and Gustavo Ayon on free agency.