Rathbun: Hawks showing zero glaring weaknesses during historic win streak
FOX Sports South announcer Bob Rathbun discusses the Atlanta Hawks' historic winning streak, Kyle Korver's season and more in this week's column:
They just go to work. I thought Minnesota coach Flip Saunders said something interesting after the game (Hawks won 112-100): "You don't realize how good they are until you have to play them."
That perception around the league probably will not go away until the playoffs, probably. In the NBA, the playoffs validate your regular season. It's a playoff sport -- we know that. They've got something special going, though. This is unprecedented really in the annals of the NBA. There are some similar teams -- Detroit comes to mind of recent vintage -- to win without a so-called superstar.
Still, I keep going back to Friday night and I thought Thunder coach Scott Brooks said something very unique to the media before the game when he was asked that same "superstar" question. He said, "Well, how many All-Stars are they going to have this year?" The consensus amongst the media was three, at least, maybe four if Kyle Korver makes it. And Brooks then said, "Well, there are only 24 All-Stars out of 450 players in the NBA. So if you're an All-Star, you are by definition a star. So you've got four guys on one team that will be All-Stars? Don't tell me they don't have star power, this is an elite team." I thought that was a very interesting answer.
I think a lot of media people fall back on old narratives and they're constantly looking backwards. They're not looking to the present or the future for trends and really what's happening. I listen to what coaches say about teams much more than what the media reaction is.
I go back to Dallas when we were there in late December, and Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said to the media in his pregame talk, "I can see the Hawks coming out of the East." Now when he said that, and I was in the room, you got the usual reaction: the rolling of the eyes and, "Yeah right, more coachspeak." Then when we were in Los Angeles for the Hawks-Clippers game, Doc Rivers said, "I think Atlanta may be the best team in the NBA the way they're playing right now." Same reaction. No one was really taking the time to study what was going on here. This is a very unique blend of people and circumstance and performance that has not been seen in the NBA in a long, long time.
One of the reasons they are so good is that they have so many shooters on the team. Go back to the Detroit Pistons game last Monday. The Hawks were looking to find a hot hand, they simply couldn't get things going, and then here comes Mike Scott off the bench -- he shoots 9 for 15 and scores 20 points in 21 minutes. Coach Mike Budenholzer, after the game, said they look at him like they look at Korver. They expect every shot to go in.
Look at what Thabo Sefolosha has done off the bench. Look at the energy that Kent Bazemore has brought to the second unit. Look at the development of backup point guard Dennis Schroder. There's no drop-off when the Hawks go to the bench. I think that's where Atlanta beats a lot of teams: the middle portions of each half when the second unit is out there.
That's also one aspect of this Hawks coaching staff that doesn't get a lot of attention. They are so good with their positive reinforcement of these guys. They expect them to play well, they hold them to a high standard and the guys want to please their coaches. When you get that kind of buy-in at the professional level, it's huge.
I wouldn't say there's a glaring weakness on this team. I think there are some things in the day-to-day process that they want to clean up. I know Budenholzer wasn't happen with some of the defensive breakdowns and the defending-by-fouling against the Timberwolves -- putting Minnesota on the line a great deal was not part of the plan.
I know they get taken to task sometimes about their rebounding numbers, but Coach Bud gave a very interesting answer to that when asked about not having the traditional rim-protector. He said, "First of all, I think Al Horford and Paul Millsap are excellent rim protectors. But we try to do our work 15 feet from the rim so you don't get there." I thought that was a very interesting answer. When you look at the nights the Hawks gets out-rebounded -- Detroit comes to mind -- go down a little further in the box score and look at the points in the paint. More often than not, the Hawks have more points in the paint than the opponent despite being out-rebounded. There's a lot of ways for them to neutralize a so-called rebounding weakness.
The only thing that's going to slow this offense down is if the val stops or the people stop. If everybody keeps moving and cutting and the ball keeps moving, as good of shooters as they are, the Hawks are not going to have problems at the offensive end. And their calling defensively is that they play such great team defense. When you see five guys moving as one, you know they're well-coached, you know they've bought in and you know they're executing the gameplan.
No question. And to do it at age 33, is remarkable. Who in this league gets better at age 33? The talk around the NBA is that you hit 30 and you're on the downhill slide. This guy has gotten better over the past two years. I think it's testimony to his offseason work, the dedication to his craft as a skilled shooter and everything it takes to get ready to play. The games, of course, are what everybody sees, but nobody sees the hard work. His offseason training is like a Navy SEAL.
I would say this to anybody who has ever played basketball. Just take off. Go down to one end of the court and just run as hard and as a fast as you can to the other side of the floor, stop at the 3-point line on a dime, catch a basketball and shoot an NBA 3-pointer. That will give you some perspective of just how hard it is to shoot it at the incredible speed with which Korver catches and releases a shot.
His footwork is perfect. His launch trajectory is perfect. And he does it all going a 1,000 miles per hour. It's nearly impossible to guard. He's constantly in motion. He's the modern-day John Havlicek in that regard. The Hawks are looking for him in transition, they're looking for him off screens and he's got a skill that very few people in the world have ever mastered.
To me, if Korver puts together a 50-50-90 shooting season, it's like Oscar Robertson averaging a triple-double. It's so unique and so amazing and it would go down as an all-time great performance.
