North Druid Hills- The Atlanta Hawks were back in the lab today, with a focus on shooting, organization and cutting down turnovers after falling 88-97 versus the Orlando Magic on Thursday’s preseason game.
“73 percent of our shots at the end of preseason were at the rim and threes, we’re at 80 percent right now,” said Head Coach Llyod Pierce. “That’s an amazing number, but the [other] amazing number is the 28 turnovers a game.”
The Hawks low shooting percentage of 33 percent, according to Pierce directly correlated to the teams combined 27 turnovers, most of which were unforced errors.
“We have to address it and we have to clean it up,” he said. “We had guys catching travels, which has nothing to do with chemistry or organization, just not being ready to play and bad fundamentals.”
Although the Hawks go 0-2 in their Preseason start, rookies like Bruno Fernando and newcomer, Jabari Parker are showing promise, giving Pierce confidence in the offensive abilities of a vesatile squad, though.
“You can’t shoot threes if you can’t get to the rim, you can’t to the rim if you don’t have shooters,” said Pierce. “We do have shooters and we do have rollers, players like John, Jabari Parker, Bruno, and Alex Len. We’ve got shooters across the board, we just have to find the balance and make the simple play.”
2nd Year Point Guard, Trae Young, led the Hawks in scoring with 18 points, but followed it up with 8 of his own turnovers. Pierce and Young both agreed that “Nashing” the ball would be an important factor in keeping Young involved on the floor and leading the team to victory.
“Last year I did a really good job of keeping my dribble alive,” said Young “I just got to get back to doing what I know how to do. I’ll be alright.”
As the Hawks prepare for their match-up against the Miami Heat on Monday, Oct.14 in Miami, the team hopes to continue getting acquainted with their new pieces and styles of play.
“We have a lot of talent and we are super young, you can tell by the way we play,” said Young. “It makes my job a lot easier knowing that there are other people who can handle the ball and take off some of that defensive pressure.”
