The Hawks had the ninth-best offensive rating in the regular season, and only got better once Nate McMillan took over as head coach. What should the Knicks be on the lookout for as Game 1 looms tonight?

The last time I wrote about the Knicks I was contemplating trying to blend some philosophy (the field I study) or literature with my writing. The Knicks were bad today, or maybe it was yesterday. Headline from the Post — ’Knicks Stink.’ Maybe it was yesterday. The Knicks sucked, at least I could blend some beauty into the bleak orange and blue of daily life. But — between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act falls the shadow — my life got spun around a bit, and I became too busy to get anything down. The world is mysterious though. A Knicks season destined for ruin has become a source of delight, and here I’ve found myself poring over Hawks game film before New York’s first playoff game since 2013. Below you’ll find a brief (compared to what the Knicks players are required to study) scouting report on the Atlanta Hawks’ offense. 

The Hawks’ offense

While the Hawks are best known for the pick-and-roll (here after ‘PnR’), since Nate McMillian took over, they’ve progressively added complexity to their offense. The PnR remains a staple, but their new offense is more diverse, less predictable, and all the more difficult to handle as a result. Let’s start with some of these more intricate sets, and work our way back to the oldest play in basketball.

Set 1: Horns mirror pin

Horns sets begin with your bigs standing (roughly) at either end of the free throw line. Pin down screens occur when the bigs face the baseline, and set screens for shooters who sprint from the baseline up towards the top of the key. This set involves two pin downs happening simultaneously, and it’s an excellent introduction to the offensive roles that the Hawks’ starting players fill. Trae Young is the primary ball handler, and initiates the majority of actions when he’s on the floor. Clint Capela and John Collins’ primary role is to screen and cut. Typically, Capela screens and dives to the basket, or screens and re-screens, while Collins more frequently screens and pops. Bogdan Bogdanovic and Kevin Huerter are movement shooters, secondary initiators, and secondary screeners. 

This set gives Trae two opportunities to pick out shooters who run off screens, and draws defensive bigs out of the paint. When the initial action springs one of the shooters, the Hawks are happy to take it. But when it fails, it naturally flows into an empty side PnR.

Set 2: Stagger/DHO, stagger, double stagger

The Hawks have used this set to roast the Knicks, and many other teams this season. So, let’s meditate on it a little bit. 

A stagger screen is just two screens set in succession. A DHO, or dribble handoff, is an action where one player dribbles into (or sometimes stands and waits to make) a handoff and sets a screen for the person he’s handing the ball to. A stagger/DHO is a stagger where the second screen is a DHO. Take a look 

Start by paying attention to the roles of each of the strong side players. Collins is the initial screener, and — after screening — he pops to the wing. Capela is the DHO man, and his first option is to roll to the hoop after setting the screen. Huerter’s job is to curl around both screens. His first option is to take the shot if it’s there, but because most teams will defend this by trailing, it is unlikely to be there. His second option is to curl to the hoop with the ball and his defender on his tail. This three-man game puts immense pressure on the defense. For example, take a look at this next play: 

Because Huerter’s man is behind him in trail position and he and Capela are both sprinting towards the hoop, the defense is forced to send help or live with the consequences of a two vs. one at the rim. In this case, the Knicks have Mitch slide over to slow Heurter, and have Julius drop down to bump Capella. But this results in the 4 man (in this case, DeAndre Hunter) being left alone for an open three. 

This would be quite a handful if that was all that was going on in this play. But the Hawks put pressure on the defense from the weak side as well. After Trae passes the ball to the DHO man, he runs to the corner and the man in the corner “lifts” up to the wing. This becomes significant when the initial action fails. If the defense is able to prevent penetration off the initial stagger/DHO, the Hawks flow into a PnR, which — for most defensive schemes in the NBA (including the Knicks’) — makes Trae’s defender the help man. And leaving Trae alone in the corner is rarely going to work out.

Astute Knicks fans will recognize that the Knicks have run a similar set throughout the year. Although, personnel have limited their execution — for example, Elfrid Payton floating down to the corner doesn’t put the same pressure on the defense that Trae Young does. But this is where the Knicks stopped. The Hawks, on the other hand, built in further wrinkles. 

One common way to try to slow down the initial stagger/DHO action would be to bring the wing defender to the nail (the middle of the free throw line) to slow the ball handler down for his man to recover to him. The Hawks have already made this a little bit difficult by having the two weak side players switch positions. But when teams succeed in sending this help, the Hawks have a counter. As soon as the help is shown, the wing player (who the helper is helping off of) cuts behind them to the basket. Check out this brilliance: 

Another way to try to disrupt this action is to prevent it from getting started at all. To this end, some teams have tried to top-lock the Hawks shooter (“top-lock” is a strategy where the defender gets between the shooter and half court). This is super strange looking, as you’re typically trying to stop players from getting to the rim! But against elite shooters who like to sprint off screens towards half-court (think Steph Curry, JJ Redick, etc.), this can be an effective way of disrupting them. The problem is that, against a passer as good as Trae Young, this can result in backdoor layups. 

Finally, the Hawks sometimes enter the stagger/DHO in different ways. Here, they start by running an off-ball stagger, where the shooter becomes the handoff man for a stagger/DHO. 

To this point, we’ve meditated on the Hawks’ use of the stagger/DHO. Let’s next take a look at their use of the stagger in another context. A major principle of the Hawks’ offense is to look for easy buckets early. To this end, they have built in multiple early offense/semi-transition looks. A natural one to discuss is the on-ball stagger. Typically, the Hawks will set this for Trae early in the shot clock. And if it fails, they’ll transition to other actions (typically PnR). Since the Hawks rush into these actions, I’ll follow suit and rush to the film and leave more in depth analysis to ya’ll.

Set 3: High post split-cut

The Golden State Warriors popularized the split-cut during their dynastic run, and, following in the footsteps of that historic pace-and-space offense, the Hawks have adopted a version of this action. Usually split-cuts are used when a big man has the ball in the post. A common problem such bigs face — one Julius Randle has endured this year — is that the defender guarding the wing closest to the big will help off their man to show help or even double the big. In order to combat this, the split-cut puts the closest wing in a screening action to keep their man distracted. Essentially, two perimeter players (call them ‘A’ and ‘B’)  run towards each other as if to screen for each other. Then, depending on how the defense reacts, they have (at least) four options: (1) A slips the screen and cuts to the hoop and B pops; (2) B slips the screen and cuts to the hoop and A pops; (3) B screens for A, who uses B as a flare screen; (4) A screens for B, who uses A as a pin-down. In other words, it’s a complicated action,  and it’s all based upon feel. But when done right, it’s incredibly difficult to guard.

The Hawks have taken this action and simplified it. Since none of their bigs are particularly adept at posting up, they feed them the ball nearly at the 3-point line, and run a split-cut involving Young adjacent to them. But, from what I’ve seen, they primarily use one read out of the action. Trae Young uses the screen, and the other player then cuts to the hoop. Still, this simplified version can be effective, and often flows into their more traditional PnR, iso, or stagger/DHO sets. Here’s some film of the series:

Set 4: The PnR 

Of course, the first thing most people think of when they think of the Hawks’ offense this season is the PnR. And for good reason. According to NBA.com’s platype data, they’ve finished more possessions with a PnR ball handler or roll man taking a shot than any other team. And Trae spreads the ball around out of that action as well as almost anyone. So let’s dig into it a bit.

Rather than spending too much time on the basics of the PnR, I’d like to focus on a few nuances that make this Hawks attack particularly potent. 

Start with the screeners. First, it’s worth pointing out that the primary screener is Capela — a dude who helped devastate the league alongside James Harden in Houston. Many of the tricks and tools he honed there have translated seamlessly into this new attack. Two particularly devastating  techniques are screen reversals and flipping the screen. “Flipping the screen” occurs when a screener pretends like they’re going to set a screen one direction but at the last second flips their hips and sets it a different direction. Here’s an example. 

Flipping the screen is particularly effective because point-of-attack defenders often pre-move to either prevent the ball handler from getting over the screen (as in ICE coverage), or to prepare to more effectively get over the screen themselves. When the screen is flipped after they’ve pre-moved — as it was on Paul in the clip above — this can throw even the best defenders off-balance.

“Screen reversals” take place when the screener sets a screen one direction, and immediately turns his body to set a screen for the ball handler coming back the other way. Here’s an example of Capela using this technique while screening for Bogdanovic:

Here’s a selection of plays where the Hawks have used these two techniques:

The final technique I’d like to draw your attention to is the screen slip. The Hawks slip screens about as (and maybe even more!) frequently as they set them. Often these happen so quickly, however, that the defender’s prep for the screen puts him in trail position behind Trae (like a proper screen would), and allows the roll man to get a head start getting down hill towards the basket. This results in the whole action happening faster than a traditional PnR, and increases the pressure on the big to make the right decision quickly regarding whether to pick up the ball handler or stay with the diving big.

A tendency to watch for

Through the regular season, the Hawks tended to run the same sets multiple times in a row. This isn’t unique to the Hawks (perhaps you’ll recall Thibs going to the empty strong side PnR over and over and over and over again), but they did seem to do this more frequently than other teams. It will be interesting to see whether they retain this strategy, or whether this was a way of internalizing sets (some learned midseason) so that they can seamlessly toggle through them in the playoffs. 

Wrapping up: Hawks Floppy, Hawks Hammer, Hawks Spain

This Hawks’ offense is really a thing of beauty, and it’s no small surprise that they ended up with the ninth-best offensive rating. But let’s not forget that they’ll be matching up with the team with the fourth-best defensive rating this season. A team that just so happens to be pretty dang big and strong, that has thrived on grinding opponents to a halt. To that end, the eminent Benjy dropped a piece that analyzes some strategies the Knicks might utilize to clamp down on the Hawks attack. 

And I, my dear friends, will leave you with some clips of a few other Hawks sets that you might encounter, as well as a video with Stacy Patton examining some of them a little closer. Be well, and may the best Knicks win. 

Hawks Floppy

Hawks Hammer

Hawks Spain

Video breakdown