Bill Simmons Gives His Thoughts On The Hawks: ‘I Wonder If They Have A Real Chance To Become This Year’s Pacers’

The Atlanta Hawks are the talk of the NBA right now. They have won seven of their last eight games, which have included two wins over the Knicks, one being in the NBA Cup Quarterfinal on Wednesday, a road win in Boston, two wins over the Cavaliers, and a win over the Lakers. They face the Milwaukee Bucks tomorrow afternoon in the biggest game of their season and with a win they would clinch a spot in the NBA Cup Finals on Tuesday against either the Oklahoma City Thunder or the Houston Rockets. This is a young team that is playing team basketball right now and they are catching the eye of everyone around the NBA, including a lot of national media.

Bill Simmons has been someone who has liked the Hawks all season and he continued his praise of the team on his lastest podcast episode:

“Atlanta, a team I really liked before the season, you probably remember the over/under pod, House and I went all in on their over. They upset the Knicks last night and it was not really even an upset, I thought they kind of dominated them in the second half and I do really wonder that if that was a playoff series, I would be super scared if I was the Knicks because they don’t really have a way to control Trae Young dribble/dribble penetration, whatever they are calling it these days. Their wings kind of matchup against the Knicks wings, the Atlanta wings, and they have rebounding. It’s just, I think that is a dangerous matchup for them. They are third in pace, which I like and I wonder if they have a real chance to become this year’s Pacers.

The key for them is two things. One is the three point shooting. (Dyson) Daniels is only at 31%, Risacher is 28%, Trae is 31%, which is bad. (De’Andre) Hunter is overachieving, he is at 45%. Can those wings start hitting more threes?”

Simmons also shared his thoughts about what this might mean for Trae Young:

” I think this is it. I think we have hit the let’s figure this out once and for all moment with Trae, almost like a political candidate for an election. He has been dining off of that conference finals appearance thing for a few years now which I think we all know happened because Embiid was super banged up and there were a couple of fluky games and Ben Simmons basically had a basketball mental breakdown and just completely lost it for whatever reason. Trae this year, 21 and 12. 12 assists a game is solid. 38% shooting, 31% from three, which does not stop him from launching 29-footers, free throws are down to six a game. They used to be nine. Turnovers are the highest they have ever been at 4.6. And with all of that said, this is the perfect team for him. He has wings everywhere, he has a bunch of guys to protect him on defense.

Daniels, whoever the other team’s lead guard is, you saw it with the Knicks game with Brunson. Daniels can guard every team’s point guard, small guard, whoever it is. (Donovan) Mitchell, (Darius) Garland, name a guy, you can put Daniels on him. He can guard anyone in the league who is under 6’8. And Jalen Johnson, you know, if you are ranking the wings, Jalen Johnson, Daniels, Anunoby, and Bridges, I think I would take Johnson over the other three guys and Daniels is going to be a first-team All-NBA defense guy. So perfect spot for Trae. He has rebounding, shot-blocking, he has lob guys, he has tall interchangeable shooters all over the place.”

You can listen to whole episode here.

Young has taken a different approach to his game and has become more of a facilitator than a scorer, leading the league in assists while his scoring numbers take a dip and it has benefitted the team in a big way. Atlanta is 14-12 and in 7th place in the Eastern Conference, but only 2.5 games out of third place. Before the game, ESPN analyst and former NBA Champion Kendrick Perkins, who has long been a fan of Young’s, had this to say:

“When you think about guys who have the most 40-point games in Madison Square Garden, it’s Jordan, Kobe, Bernard King, and Trae Young. Here is the thing, Trae Young is the most disrespected star since Carmelo Anthony. Both were one and done phenoms, both took their franchises to the conference finals and still, they were disrespected and the fans were ungrateful for what they had done, for what Carmelo had done and now what Trae Young is doing. What Trae Young is doing right now, even though his shooting splits are down, but his playmaking is at an all-world, MVP level, like Steve Nash and Jason Kidd.”

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